Future Digital Society

Equitable and Just Digital Society: Developing Interdisciplinary Skills and Knowledge

Welcome to Future Digital Society (ECTS 3) - a postgraduate-level course, part of an unfolding CIVIS postgraduate micro-programme focused on the social challenges of digital and technological transformations.

While taking this course, you will develop critical knowledge and practical skills to consider how computing is affecting contemporary society, and how the development and use of digital technologies intersect with social, economic, and ethical issues in societies.

The course challenges students to summarize and critically discuss different roles that digital technology plays in society and imagine future implications of emerging technologies using speculative design methods, with a particular focus on design fiction.

You will be taught by Anton Poikolainen Rosén, who coordinates the course, along with a number of international guest speakers from other CIVIS universities.

This is a highly interactive course where active participation is expected. At present, we offer no option for auditing the course.

You may enroll in this individual course or, over time, complete the whole micro-programme as additional courses are launched during the following academic years.

• Critical design, 
• Speculative design, 
• Future studies, 
• Design ethics

Upon successful completion of this course, the students will have reliably demonstrated the ability to summarize and critically discuss different roles computing plays in society as well as to envision future implications of emerging technologies with the help of speculative design methods.

In line with the objectives of the broader micro-programme, the aims of the course include enabling students to become ‘interactional experts’ - people who can work in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary ways to address the challenges of ensuring that digital tools and services are developed in equitable and just ways for the communities they aim to support. This includes developing students' understanding of the technical capabilities and limitations of digital technology while also having the skills and knowledge to take human behaviour, social interactions, and social and cultural contexts into account. 

By the end of this course, the students will be able to:

• select and discuss research literature on the social and societal consequences of emerging technologies

• discuss possible consequences of new technologies in society

• discuss literature on speculative design methods and apply key concepts related to speculative design methods to current examples of emerging technologies

The course introduces students to the question of how computing affects contemporary society (and vice versa), and how the development and use of digital technology raises social, economic and ethical issues in society.

The course challenges students to summarize and critically discuss different roles that digital technology plays in society and to imagine future implications of emerging technologies using speculative design methods, with a particular focus on design fiction.

The two-hour online sessions will take place on:

• Tuesday 2026-09-01 13:00-15:00 CET

• Wednesday 2026-09-02 15:00-17:00 CET

• Tuesday 2026-09-08 13:00-15:00 CET

• Thursday 2026-09-10 13:00-15:00 CET

• Tuesday 2026-09-15 13:00-15:00 CET

• Thursday 2026-09-17 13:00-15:00 CET

• Tuesday2026-09-22 13:00-15:00 CET

• Thursday 2026-09-24 13:00-15:00 CET

• Tuesday 2026-09-29 13:00-15:00 CET

• Friday 2026-10-02 13:00-15:00 CET

• Wednesday 2026-10-07 13:00-15:00 CET

• Friday 2026-10-09 13:00-15:00 CET

1. The course is examined through assignments. All assignments must be completed and submitted on time according to the schedule for the current course. A missing or incomplete assignment can be submitted or completed in connection with a make-up session. Alternatively, the student is referred to the next course session to submit the assignments.
2. The course is graded according to a two-step grading scale:
   U = Fail
   G = Pass
3. For students who have a certificate from Stockholm University with a recommendation for special educational support, the examiner may decide to adapt the teaching, give an adapted exam or have the student take the exam in an alternative way.
4. The course's grading criteria are announced at the start of the course.
5. To receive a final grade for the entire course, a grade of G is required for all assignments.

Bachelor's degree of at least 180 credits (or equivalent)

English 6/B2: Upper intermediate (or equivalent)

Anton Poikolainen Rosén is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University, Sweden, and studies design for regenerative futures in urban farming and waste management. He is co-editor of the book More-than-Human Design in Practice. 

Portfolio: www.poiros.com.