ConflictIT is an interdisciplinary research project dedicated to investigating technologies, collaboration, and politics as these emerge in tech start-up companies located within the geographical region of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. What makes this case particularly interesting is the unique collaborative setup, with IT developers located in two offices that are only 13 miles apart, however, the two offices are separated by a 800-kilometres wall and several checkpoints. These restrictions are added on top of the regimes of differentiated ID cards, all of which constrains the mobility of the IT developers and directly impact their work as they need to spend time and effort in order to work around the limiting political conditions.
Pernille Bjørn (ITU), Nina Boulus-Rødje (KU), and Ahmad Ghazawneh (ITU) have received external funding to support the establishment of a network with internationally acclaimed researchers in the area. These funds will support various activities, including organising workshops in Denmark, Israel and Palestine, as well as collecting empirical data during 2015.
Contact: Pernille Bjørn, Head of Technologies in Practice