Combining Digital, Post-pandemic Recovery, and Environmental Benefits: Examples at the Macro, Meso, and Micro at Tackling Digital and Environmental Poverty

This chapter considers some practices in which digital, social, and environmental aspects intersect to shape a particular habitus. These practices can have both positive and negative implications for addressing digital-environmental poverty at different levels (micro, meso, and macro). As we explore these topics, we initially focus on (digital) nudging, a concept rooted in behavioral economics to indicate any aspect of the “choice architecture” that subtly influences people’s choices without eliminating alternative options (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). Research within the field of Green Information Systems has suggested that digital nudging can partially motivate users to adopt eco-friendly behaviors. In doing so, this chapter reviews the effects produced by different strategies of nudging in motivating digital pro-environmental behaviors. However, it also highlights that even though some positive effects of nudging have been identified by the literature, environmental choices in the long term still highly depend on personal orientations and social influences.