Sailing towards digitalization when it doesn't make cents? analysing the Faroe Islands' new digital governance trajectory

Talgildu Føroyar is a project-based temporary organization, funded from 2015
through 2020, tasked with spearheading the Faroe Islands’ digital governance movement. As
a small, subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ), the government of the Faroe Islands with its
population of 50,000 believes that digitalization will lead to decreased government costs, a
reduction in bureaucracy, a more efficient government, and empowered citizens. The
objective of this paper is twofold: firstly, to provide an accurate narrative of how the
digitalization of the Faroe Islands has unfolded and, secondly, to explore the different beliefs
and motivations held by stakeholders that have driven the digitalization of the Faroe Islands.
The research is inductive in nature and was conducted following a descriptive case studybased methodology drawing primarily from 23 semi-structured interviews conducted over a
three-week field visit to the Faroe Islands and supported by secondary evidence sources such
as government policy documents and internal government reports. The paper outlines the
primary barriers facing digitalization in the Faroe Islands, and finds that while digitalization is
unlikely to be cost effective, it does have the potential to provide other tangible benefits such
as a revitalized ICT sector.