Prof Dorothea Kleine is Co-Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development at the University of Sheffield, where she leads the Digital Technologies, Data and Innovation (DDI) group. She is a Professor of Human Geography. Her research investigates sustainable human development, global justice, and the role of digital technologies in making progress towards these aims. She has published widely on the potential and the ethical challenges of the use of ICTs in sustainable development in both the global South and North, focusing in particular on the perspective, agency and creativity of the more marginalised. Prof Kleine is well-known for her theoretical work, proposing the choice framework to apply the capabilities approach to digital development, as laid out in ‘Technologies of Choice?’ (MIT Press). She argues for a sustainable and people-centred approach.
Prof Kleine combines policy-level work with ongoing empirical research, including participatory action research. She has conducted research in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Recent projects have included www.gedia-network.org – Gender-Justice in Digital innovation in Africa, which centers women as changemakers in digital futures. Prof Kleine has conducted collaborative research with and/or advised ILO, UNCTAD, UNICEF, UNEP, EuropeAid, DFID, GIZ, IDRC, private sector organisations and NGOs.
Before joining Sheffield University, Dorothea Kleine has worked at Royal Holloway, University of London, the University of Cambridge, Bonn University as well as being a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Educated at the University of Munich (LMU and TUM) and the University of Oxford, she holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Just in time for the Bits & Bäume 2022, she will publish the brand new report "DIGITAL RESET. REDIRECTING TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE DEEP SUSTAINABILITY TRANSFORMATION" together with 15 other international experts. This report is the outcome of a two-year science-policy dialogue (https://digitalization-for-sustainability.com/) and presents a comprehensive analysis of opportunities, risks, governance options and specific policies how to make digitalization work for social and environmental sustainability.