DigiRL 5.0 Seminar: Socio-Technical Power Dynamics in Smart Rural Logistics

On August 7, a DigiRL 5.0 Seminar was organized at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, featuring visiting researcher Alper Bora Koçak from Istinye University, Türkiye.

Alper Bora Koçak holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering and an MBA and is currently pursuing his PhD in Management Engineering at Istanbul Technical University. His research bridges organizational behaviour and industrial engineering, with particular interests in organizational power, leadership, socio-technical systems, strategic foresight, sustainability, and supply chain and logistics systems.

During the seminar, Alper presented his ongoing research on socio-technical power dynamics in smart rural logistics. The study examines how digitalization may redistribute power among actors in rural logistics systems through control over data, digital platforms, infrastructure, and decision-making. It aims to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the implications of these changes for rural actors’ agency, inclusion, sustainability, and resilience.