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Centre for Technological Futures

Here we build on a rich tradition of studying the relationship between technological futures, management practices and societal phenomena.

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About this Centre

We are one of the largest Centres of our kind in the UK, home to a community of internationally recognised academics, from across our University. We have expertise in researching the opportunities, challenges and ‘wicked’ problems created by new and emerging technologies.

Our research helps organisations and policy makers to re-imagine, re-define, understand and respond to developments in new technologies and information systems as well as the associated societal and institutional upheaval. We work in areas which pose some of the biggest questions for our age - from how to address social and environmental degradation to how to understand the impact of artificial intelligence and automation on our lives.

The sheer magnitude of the social, economic and environmental challenges posed by the various possible technological futures demands in turn the development of new research agendas and policy tools. For us, and for our vibrant doctoral community, these are exactly the kinds of problems we are expert at addressing from various perspectives and levels of analysis.

The research questions we tackle are highly complex, defy disciplinary and geographical boundaries and involve diverse stakeholders. We therefore work with colleagues from different research traditions, subject-areas, universities and countries. We work inclusively, bringing people together to encourage bold, creative thinking, which leads to shared understandings and sows the seeds for policy creation and action. It means we attend to questions about ‘futures in the making’.

Our research attracts funding from a range of public and private sources including ESRC, H2020 and the Lever Hulme Trust.

Our Mission

We research at the intersection of information systems, management, futures, science and technology, and organisational studies. Our work is interdisciplinary, carried out across the world and in many sectors including the public and private. Amongst other things, we focus on: managing technology and innovation in organisations; technology and work; digital societies; and technology and markets.

Research Themes

The Centre for Technological Futures is a leading intellectual home of interdisciplinary research in four interrelated areas. We answer questions posed by clients in the private, public and third sectors.

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Managing Technology and Innovation in Organisations

We research the strategic management of information technologies and associated innovations in organisations. Topics include enterprise modelling, project management, technology based entrepreneurship and the IT workforce. We research the strategic management of information technologies and associated innovations in organisations. Topics include enterprise modelling, project management, technology based entrepreneurship and the IT workforce.

Technology and Work

Technology and work are irrevocably intertwined. Our research investigates different ways in which digital technologies transform and shape work and workplaces. Topics include the intersection of technology and stress and wellbeing, knowledge management, ethics, education, and how professional service firms organise and carry out surveillance and performance rating. Our research focuses on both the bright and dark side of how technology shapes work and vice versa.

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Mobile

Digital Societies

The Digital Societies research agenda focuses on the troubled relations which contemporary societies enjoy with their technologies. From the effects of technological change on the lives of vulnerable groups, to social development, disaster relief and planning, AI and robotics, waste disposal and sustainability.

Technology and Markets

This research theme looks at how markets and inter-organisational governance structures are shaped by the technologies organisations use to transact and interact with each other. Topics include regulation of products such as drones, fin-tech based business models, supply chain governance in block chain based transactions, and technology based coordination in different types of operational settings.

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Research Projects

Responsible AI for Labour Market Development

BIAS is an interdisciplinary project to understand and tackle the role of AI algorithms in shaping ethnic and gender inequalities in the labour market, which is now increasingly digitized. The project seeks to understand and minimise gender and ethnic biases in the AI-driven labour market processes of job advertising, hiring and professional networking

Visit BIAS Project
IT user

PhD Programmes

We're home to a vibrant doctoral community where our PhD students are encourage to take advantage of the School's research strengths to develop core skills. We welcome PhD applicants with a good first degree or Master's in areas such as information systems/information sciences, management, philosophy, computer science or the social sciences - industrial experience is also an advantage. For more information, please contact Teresa Aldren.

Latest Updates

Discover our upcoming events. For past events, please visit our Events Archive.

Publications

People

Centre Director

Joao Baptista

Professor Joao Baptista

Professor of Information Systems, Professor, Chair in Information Systems

Centre for Technological Futures , Information Systems, Security Lancaster, Security Lancaster (Systems Security)

D37, D - Floor, Charles Carter Building

Centre Administrator

Teresa Aldren

Teresa Aldren

Research Enhancement and Centres Administrator

Centre for Consumption Insights, Centre for Family Business, Centre for Financial Econometrics, Asset Markets and Macroeconomic Policy, Centre for Health Futures, Centre for Marketing Analytics & Forecasting, Centre for Productivity & Efficiency, Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education, Centre for Technological Futures , Centre for Transport & Logistics (CENTRAL)

+44 (0)7540 302028 B204, B - Floor, Management School

Centre Members

Plamen Angelov

Centre for Technological Futures , Cyber Security Research Centre (Data), Digital Health Group, DSI - Foundations, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Advanced Manufacturing, LIRA - Biomedical, LIRA - Environmental Modelling, LIRA - Extreme Environments, LIRA - Fundamentals, LIRA - Security and Defence, LIRA - Smart Cities and Mobility, LIRA - Society and Human Behaviour, Network and Systems, SCC (Data Science), Security Lancaster, Security Lancaster (Academic Centre of Excellence), Security Lancaster (Secure Machine Learning and Intelligence), Security Lancaster (Systems Security)

Joao Baptista

Professor Joao Baptista

Professor of Information Systems, Professor, Chair in Information Systems

Centre for Technological Futures , Information Systems, Security Lancaster, Security Lancaster (Systems Security)

D37, D - Floor, Charles Carter Building
Brian Bloomfield

Professor Brian Bloomfield

Emeritus Professor

Centre for Science Studies, Centre for Technological Futures , Technology, Systems and Organisation

B23, B - Floor, Charles Carter Building
Pavel Bogolyubov

Dr Pavel Bogolyubov FRSA

Senior Teaching Fellow

Centre for Technological Futures

Martin Brigham

Dr Martin Brigham

Senior Lecturer

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre, Technology, Systems and Organisation

Helen Bruce

Dr Helen Bruce

Senior Lecturer in Marketing

Centre for Consumption Insights, Centre for Technological Futures

WP D008, D - Floor, Management School
Monika Buscher

Professor Monika Buscher

Professor Emertia

CeMoRe - Centre for Mobilities Research, Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities, Centre for Science Studies, Energy and Society, Evaluation, Imagination Lancaster, Institute for Social Futures Fellow, Mobilities.Lab, Security Lancaster, Security Lancaster (Policy, Law and Ethics), Security Lancaster (Sociology)

Elisavet Christou

Dr Elisavet Christou

Lecturer in Management and Organisation Studies

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

+44 (0)7402 653133 WP E049, E - Floor, Management School
Hameed Chughtai

Dr Hameed Chughtai

Senior Lecturer

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

WP E020, E - Floor, Management School
Bogdan Costea

Professor Bogdan Costea

Head of Department, Professor of Management and Society

Centre for Technological Futures , Management and Society, People, Work and Organisation

Darren Dalcher

Professor Darren Dalcher

Professor in Strategic Project Management

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

D37, D - Floor, Charles Carter Building
Karen Dale

Professor Karen Dale

Professor in Organisation Studies

Centre for Technological Futures , Management and Society

WP E036, E - Floor, Management School
Mark Dawson

Dr Mark Dawson

Director of Digital Education (Senior Teaching Fellow)

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

Joe Deville

Professor Joe Deville

Lecturer, Professor of Science and Technology Studies

CeMoRe - Centre for Mobilities Research, Centre for Technological Futures , DSI - Society, Security Lancaster, Security Lancaster (Sociology)

B009, B - Floor, Bowland North
Phil Devine

Phil Devine

Digital Education Facilitator (Senior Teaching Associate)

Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education, Centre for Technological Futures

C035, C - Floor, Management School
Sylvia D'souza

Dr Sylvia D'souza

International Lecturer in Business Management

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

Ziad Elsahn

Dr Ziad Elsahn

Senior Lecturer in Strategy

Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education, Centre for Technological Futures

WP C062, C - Floor, Management School
James Faulconbridge

CeMoRe - Centre for Mobilities Research, Centre for Technological Futures , DEMAND - Dynamics of Energy, Mobility and Demand, People, Work and Organisation

E - Floor, Management School
Amjad Fayoumi

Dr Amjad Fayoumi

Senior Lecturer in Information Systems

Centre for Health Futures, Centre for Technological Futures , Health Systems, Information Systems, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Advanced Manufacturing, LIRA - Smart Cities and Mobility, Security Lancaster, Security Lancaster (Systems Security), Simulation and Stochastic Modelling

Marta Ferri

Marta Ferri

PhD student

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

James Freund

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

Alan Gilchrist

Dr Alan Gilchrist

Senior Lecturer in Marketing

Centre for Technological Futures , Networks, Knowledge and Strategy

Colin Hill

Colin Hill

PhD student

Centre for Technological Futures , Materials Science Institute PhD Student, MSF PhDs Cohort 2 (2019/20)

Lucas Introna

Professor Lucas Introna

Distinguished Professor of Organisation, Technology, and Ethics

Centre for Technological Futures , DSI - Society, Management and Society, Technology, Systems and Organisation

WP E042, E - Floor, Management School
Emrah Ali Karakilic

Dr Emrah Ali Karakilic

Lecturer in Management and Organisation Studies

Centre for Technological Futures

David Knights

Professor David Knights

Emeritus Professor

Centre for Technological Futures , Management and Society

Yvonne Latham

Dr Yvonne Latham

Senior Lecturer

Centre for Technological Futures , Technology, Systems and Organisation

Rebecca Liu

Dr Rebecca Liu

Senior Lecturer

Centre for Consumption Insights, Centre for Health Futures, Centre for Technological Futures , DSI - Society, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Environmental Modelling, LIRA - Fundamentals, LIRA - Society and Human Behaviour, Pentland Centre

Niki Panteli

Professor Niki Panteli

Professor of Digital Business

Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education, Centre for Technological Futures , Health Systems, Information Systems

Shayan Rashidi

Shayan Rashidi

PhD student, Associate Lecturer

Centre for Family Business, Centre for Technological Futures

C066, C - Floor, Management School
Hassan Raza

Hassan Raza

Lecturer in Security and Protection Science

Centre for Technological Futures , Information Systems

Ghadafi Razak

Dr Ghadafi Razak

Visiting Researcher

Centre for Consumption Insights, Pentland Centre

Jekaterina Rindt

Dr Jekaterina Rindt

Lecturer in Marketing

Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education, Centre for Technological Futures , Energy Lancaster, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Smart Cities and Mobility, Pentland Centre

WP D062, D - Floor, Management School
Uzair Shah

Dr Uzair Shah

Senior Lecturer

Centre for Technological Futures

Alison Stowell

Dr Alison Stowell

Senior Lecturer

Centre for Consumption Insights, Centre for Technological Futures , MSF Supervisors 2019/20, Pentland Centre

WP E021, E - Floor, Management School
Theodore Vurdubakis

Centre for Science Studies, Centre for Technological Futures , MSF Supervisors 2019/20

WP E041, E - Floor, Management School
Peter Watt

Dr Peter Watt

Lecturer in Organisation, Work and Technology

Sarah Wiggins

Sarah Wiggins

PhD student

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

Richard Williams

Dr Richard Williams

Senior Lecturer

Centre for Health Futures, Centre for Technological Futures , DSI - Health, Health Systems, Lancaster Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems Centre, LIRA - Society and Human Behaviour, Simulation and Stochastic Modelling, STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training, Technology, Systems and Organisation

+44 (0)1524 592214 D10, D - Floor, Charles Carter Building
Shiyan Zhang

Dr Shiyan Zhang

Lecturer in Information Systems

Centre for Technological Futures , Information Systems

Ruilin Zhu

Dr Ruilin Zhu

Lecturer in Information Systems

Centre for Technological Futures , Information Systems

Randall Zindler

Dr Randall Zindler

Senior Teaching Fellow

Centre for Technological Futures

+41 (0)78 796 47 77 C074, C - Floor, Management School

PhD Students

Wael Assaf

Wael Assaf

PhD student

Centre for Technological Futures , Information Systems

Marta Ferri

Marta Ferri

PhD student

Centre for Technological Futures , Pentland Centre

Colin Hill

Colin Hill

PhD student

Centre for Technological Futures , Materials Science Institute PhD Student, MSF PhDs Cohort 2 (2019/20)

Visiting Scholars

Bastian Jørgensen, PhD Student, IT-University of Copenhagen

Bastian is a PhD student from the IT-University of Copenhagen in Denmark. His research interest is in the development of government IT projects, with its reoccurring hopes and failures. He is conducting a fieldwork in the Danish Tax Administration, where an increased investment in IT departments and employees together with agile methodologies are imagined to bring about a so called data-driven tax administration. He has been following the development of two IT projects: One the development of a machine learning algorithm to catch tax fraudsters, and two the development of a data sharing platform, from which the tax administration wants to share its data with other public and private organisations. His research is inspired by actor network theory, and he is interested in how organisational relations are being configured and reimagined through new IT methodologies and projects. Bastian will be the Centre for Technological Futures for part o 2018. He is located at the department of Organisation, Work and Technology. 

Dr Christian Maier, University of Bamberg

Christian is an assistant professor (University of Bamberg). In his research, he studies topics such as IS usage, technostress and IT personnel. Among others, he has shown that--next to IS use in organizations--also the use of private IS (e.g. Facebook) is stressful and, finally, let individuals discontinue the use of the IT, even though switching from use to non-use stresses the individual. In current research projects, he studies how personality traits influence technostress and how further aspects within the environment of an individual causes perceptions of technostress. In those research projects, he collects subjective and objective data and follows different methodological approaches, such as mixed-methods, quantitative or qualitative studies. Findings from these projects are published in several journals, including EJIS, JSIS, ISJ or JIT.

Jana Mattern, PhD Student Jan-March 2019, WWU Munster

Jana Mattern is a visiting Ph.D student from Muenster University, Germany. She works in topics related to organizational psychology and personality psychology. In her research, she focuses on the challenges and opportunities of the digital workplace and the impacts on the individual. Currently, she is researching the influence of detachment strategies on the ability to cope with the constant connectivity that is created by the increased use of Information and communication technologies. She follows a multimethod approach with qualitative data, quantitative analyses and the use of physiological measures (e.g. heart rate variability). Her department’s webpage is https://www.wi.uni-muenster.de/department/wi

Professor Raoni Rajão, Federal Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Raoni Rajão is currently Head of the Department for Deforestation and fire control policies at the Brazilian Ministry of Environment. He is also a tenured professor in environmental management and social studies of science & technology in the Department of Production Engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil and Visiting Professor in the Centre for Technological Futures at Lancaster University. His research interests cross postcolonial studies, environmental politics and science studies with a particular focus on climate and forest policies in Brazil. He has collaborated with different agencies of the United Nations, the World Bank and the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) and has advised the State Government of Minas Gerais and the Brazilian Federal Government in the creation of environmental policy. His research has featured in journals such as Social Studies of Science, Science Technology and Human Values, Theory, Culture & Society, Science (AAAS), Nature Climate Change and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

Professor Monideepa Tarafdar, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Professor Monideepa Tarafdar is the Charles J. Dockendorff Professor of Information Systems at the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.  Her prior appointments were as Professor of Information Systems and Co-Director of the Centre for Technological Futures at Lancaster University Management School (Management Science Department: 2013-2020), and at the University of Toledo USA. She is a Leverhulme Research Fellow. She is Senior Editor at Information Systems Research and Information Systems Journal, and on the Editorial Review Boards at Journal of MIS, Journal of AIS and Journal of Strategic Information Systems. Her areas of research are - unintended consequences of use of IT and social media (stress/addiction etc), human-algorithm collaboration, responsible artificial intelligence design and management, technology-enabled business innovation, healthcare IT/digital health, and IT  in supply chain management. Her research has been covered - in the BBC, Guardian, Boston Globe, MIT Technology Review, The Medium, Hindustan Times, Tsinghua News and others.