Abstract
Efforts to produce social change are often connected to the aim of creating the good life. Against the background of the current ecological crisis and climate change as well as exploitive globalization processes, I argue in this article that the good life is currently connected to sustainability, which not only implies ecological aspects but also economic and social ones. In this article, the research question looks at how both companies and users of media technologies can contribute to social change in general and sustainability in particular through media innovation. To answer this question, the results of a qualitative study are discussed in which the Fairphone was analyzed as a case study for media innovation. The Fairphone is a smartphone which is supposed to be produced under fair working conditions using sustainable resources. Putting the focus on the Fairphone, innovative production and appropriation processes that materialize in fair media technology are taken into account. The article contributes to research in the field of media innovation (in technology, production and appropriation) in general and media innovation with respect to social change, the good life and sustainability in particular.
Highlights
Research analyzing media innovations deals with alterations in media technologies and formats as well as practices and organizations
Against the background of the current ecological crisis and climate change as well as exploitive globalization processes, I argue that the question of the good life, which had already been asked in ancient times, is currently connected to sustainability, which again implies ecological aspects and economic and social ones
STUDY The research question posed in this article is: How can companies and users of media technologies contribute to social change and the good life in general and sustainability in particular through media innovation? To answer this research question, the Fairphone was used as a case study
Summary
Research analyzing media innovations deals with alterations in media technologies and formats as well as practices and organizations. Whatever is new with regard to media content, production and appropriation can become an object of media innovation research. With this focus on newness, transformations in the processes of media production (that is the production of media technologies and content) as well as appropriation are acknowledged. How media innovations contribute to social change and the good life in general and sustainability in particular is not sufficiently researched. The production and appropriation of this technology aims at social change in general and sustainability in par-
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