Behaviour & Information Technology

Smart systems and the governance of sociotechnical transformation

Smart systems are becoming increasingly central to contemporary information technology. Across homes, workplaces, healthcare settings, educational environments, mobility systems, public services and platform-mediated environments, they are no longer merely digital tools that support pre-existing human activities. They increasingly function as sociotechnical arrangements that sense, classify, predict, coordinate, recommend and intervene in everyday practices, reshaping relations between humans, machines, organisations and institutions (Hildebrandt, 2020; Tsvetkova et al., 2024). For the purposes of this call, smart systems are understood as digitally enabled sociotechnical systems that integrate sensing, data processing, algorithmic decision-making and automated or semi-automated actions to coordinate, mediate and shape human activities across social and organisational contexts. Such systems include, but are not limited to, AI-enabled platforms, intelligent service systems, smart health technologies, smart homes, digital workplaces, automated mobility systems, learning technologies, public-sector digital systems and hybrid human-AI systems.

Contemporary digital transformation is therefore not only a technical process of innovation, automation or optimisation. It also involves the reorganisation of relations between people, institutions, infrastructures, data, expertise and everyday routines. Work on everyday practices and social change is relevant here because it shows how technologies, meanings, materials, competences and future expectations become entangled in the transformation of social life (Shove et al., 2012; Sahakian et al., 2023). A key challenge is to understand how smart systems become socially consequential through design, use, institutional embedding, organisational routines, user negotiation, datafication and everyday practice. Interfaces, platforms, data architectures, algorithmic classifications, dashboards, monitoring systems and automated feedback mechanisms may all participate in shaping conduct, allocating responsibility, structuring choices and stabilising norms (Baptista et al., 2020; Bednar & Welch, 2020; Borrás & Edler, 2020; Gritsenko & Wood, 2022). The central concern is not only how smart systems are governed, but also how smart systems themselves become part of the governance of sociotechnical transformation. This includes questions of behaviour, interaction, coordination, authority, accountability, trust, resistance, inclusion, exclusion and power. Hybrid intelligence, human-centred AI and human-AI collaboration are especially relevant where they help explain how human and machine intelligence are combined, coordinated, contested or governed in organisational, institutional or everyday contexts (Dellermann et al., 2019; Søraa, 2023).

This special issue invites contributions that examine smart systems not only as technical innovations, but also as systems of behaviour, interaction, coordination, authority and governance. Its broader aim is to advance human-centred, behavioural, organisational and sociotechnical understandings of smart systems and their role in contemporary digital transformation.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Smart systems in homes, workplaces, healthcare, education, mobility, public services and platform-mediated environments
• Human-centred AI, hybrid intelligence and human-AI collaboration in organisational and everyday settings
• Conceptual, methodological and design-oriented approaches to studying governance in smart systems
• Algorithmic decision-making, coordination, compliance and accountability
• User adaptation, negotiation, resistance, appropriation and trust in relation to smart technologies
• AI ethics, information privacy, surveillance, transparency and asymmetrical power in digital systems
• Smart and digital health, care technologies and digitally mediated wellbeing
• Digital work, algorithmic management, robotic management and the reconfiguration of organisational routines
• Datafication, monitoring, prediction and automated feedback as modes of governance
• Inclusion, exclusion, vulnerability and inequality in smart sociotechnical environments
• Smart cities, digital government and platform-based public services
• Comparative, cross-cultural or interdisciplinary studies of smart systems and sociotechnical transformation

References

Baptista, J., Stein, M. K., Klein, S., Watson-Manheim, M. B., & Lee, J. (2020). Digital work and organisational transformation: Emergent Digital/Human work configurations in modern organisations. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 29(2), 101618.

Bednar, P. M., & Welch, C. (2020). Socio-technical perspectives on smart working: Creating meaningful and sustainable systems. Information Systems Frontiers, 22(2), 281-298.

Borrás, S., & Edler, J. (2020). The roles of the state in the governance of socio-technical systems’ transformation. Research policy, 49(5), 103971.

Dellermann, D., Ebel, P., Söllner, M., & Leimeister, J. M. (2019). Hybrid intelligence. Business & information systems engineering, 61(5), 637-643.

Gritsenko, D., & Wood, M. (2022). Algorithmic governance: A modes of governance approach. Regulation & Governance, 16(1), 45-62.

Hildebrandt, M. (2020). Smart technologies. Internet Policy Review, 9(4), 1-16.

Sahakian, M., Moynat, O., Senn, W., & Moreau, V. (2023). How social practices inform the future as method: Describing personas in an energy transition while engaging with teleoaffectivities. Futures, 148, 103133.

Shove, E., Pantzar, M., & Watson, M. (2012). The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday Life and How It Changes. SAGE.

Søraa, R. (2023). AI for diversity. CRC Press.

Tsvetkova, M., Yasseri, T., Pescetelli, N., & Werner, T. (2024). A new sociology of humans and machines. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(10), 1864-1876.