Orchestration of Digital Sustainability in Grocery Retail (ORCA)
About the project
The project explores the role and impact of digitalisation on sustainability initiatives within the Swedish grocery sector. By integrating knowledge from Information Systems and Business Studies, the project addresses challenges and opportunities related to the design of digital infrastructure to reduce climate impact, in relation to the governance and management of sustainability practices in organisations.
Studies within the project
Farida Wally conducts research on the journey of groceries from soil to shelf, analyzing and critically examining the evolving concept of "sustainability" within the Swedish grocery retail sector. Find out more about Farida and her study.
Wibke Du Rietz conducts research on how sustainability data is shaped and utilised within the grocery retail sector. Find out more about Wibke and her study.
Farida Wally
From soil to shelf: the journey of the humble strawberry
From a business studies perspective, we examine the journey of groceries from soil to shelf as an organisational and infrastructural process shaped by sustainability discourses and digital transformation.
Focusing on the Swedish grocery sector, we explore how the concept of "sustainability" is interpreted, implemented, and governed throughout the value chain—and how digitalisation influences these processes. The aim is to understand how digital technologies are reshaping sustainability practices—not only in terms of measurement and communication, but also in how they are enacted within and across organisations.
About me
As a doctoral student and junior researcher, I often picture myself carrying a giant magnifying glass, looking closely at discourses that shape how we understand the world. Guided by curiosity, I ask many questions, and try to follow them where they lead. Research for me is an extension of that curiosity and it gives it structure. I sometimes find answers, though perhaps never an absolute truth - but that's just social science, really.
My academic background includes a master's degree in business administration - namely in entrepreneurship, sustainability and social change at Linnéuniversitetet in Sweden. Prior to that, I had graduated with a bachelor's degree in Management Sciences with specialisation in Marketing back in my home country, Egypt.
With that said, I am a social scientist in business studies and my research interests are how people use language to construct and convey meaning, and analysing the discourses that shape organisational practices through linguistic exchanges, and shifting power dynamics. Currently, I am still chasing answers for the ORCA project, but I expect that within four years, I may finally have something resembling one.
Supervisors
- Mathias Cöster, Associate Professor at the Department of Business Studies
- Matilda Dahl, Associate Professor at the Department of Business Studies
Wibke Du Rietz
What We Talk About When We Talk About a Carrot
ORCA is an interdisciplinary project within GRASS (Graduate School for Sustainability Studies), involving both Information Systems and Business Studies. The research in Information Systems focuses on how digital practices and infrastructures related to sustainability data are exchanged, shaped, maintained, and implemented respectively within the Swedish daily grocery retail industry.
By mapping relevant sustainability discourses and analysing organisational and digital-infrastructural processes, the project aims to provide as comprehensive an overview as possible of how public demands and discourses are—and ought to be—translated into digital and business infrastructures.
About Me
Several attempts have been made to live a life outside academia, but none were ultimately successful for long. So here I am again—this time as a PhD student at the Department of Informatics and Media on Campus Gotland. My background includes an M.A. in Educational Science (with minors in Psychology and Sociology) from the Universities of Marburg and Oldenburg (Germany), and a B.Soc.Sc. in Software Engineering (Information Systems) from Uppsala University (Campus Gotland).
I identify as a social scientist and am attempting to unravel the mysteries of technology—infusing a pinch of meta-theory and philosophy of science into the study of artifacts and systems. We’ll see how that goes…
Supervisors
- Pär Ågerfalk, Professor at the Department of Informatics and Media
- Owen Eriksson, Professor at the Department of Informatics and Media