Dr Astri Moksnes Barbala

SyMeCo project: “Responsible Temporalities: Digital Transformation in the Public Sector”

Supervisor: Prof Kieran Conboy

Host University: University of Galway (UoG)

Secondment Host: SINTEF

Email: astri.barbala@universityofgalway.ie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/astri-barbala-b37135264/

Dr Astri Moksnes Barbala is a SyMeCo postdoctoral fellow with Lero@UoG and is undertaking her fellowship under the supervision of Prof Kieran Conboy.

Astri received her PhD in Sociology in 2022. She has a background in journalism and holds Master’s degrees in Gender & Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths University and Media Studies from NTNU. Her research interests focus on how digitalisation reshapes organisational dynamics and interpersonal relationships, emphasising the interplay between technological and human users. Astri has published on topics such as political activism on social media platforms, the use of GenAI in the public sector, software product management (SPM), and data-driven digital transformation

Astri’s SyMeCo research project, titled “Responsible Temporalities: Digital Transformation in the Public Sector”, explores how IT departments in public sector organisations, such as the police, can balance the urgent need for digitalising services with the responsibility to consider the societal implications of the solutions they develop. It examines specifically how time and temporality affect digitalisation initiatives, and through interviews and observations, the project aims to uncover how temporal structures shape work practices and organisational strategies.

Project impact – Astri’s project aims to create both academic and practical impacts. Academically, it advances Information Systems (IS) research by providing new insights into the role of time and temporality in public sector digital transformation. By integrating sociological perspectives on time with IS theories, it contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship. Practically, the research offers public sector organisations actionable insights to help them balance the demands of rapid digitalisation with responsible governance.

Interdisciplinarity – the project is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on sociological theories of time and practice to explore how temporal structures shape digital transformation processes. While grounded in Information Systems (IS) research, it operates at the intersection of IS, sociology, and organisation studies. This interdisciplinary approach provides a more nuanced understanding of how public sector organisations balance the demands of rapid digitalization with the need for responsible governance.