Digital Capitalism

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Technological shifts, digital transformations, and advances in information technologies are reconfiguring many aspects of our lived reality. This course examines what characterizes this new era of digital capitalism and what the ongoing changes mean for our modern society. It explores the promises and challenges associated with fast-paced digital transformations and the kind of reconfigurations they engender at the level of the individual, the state, and the market. For example, how did we become dependent on a small number of powerful social media platforms? How did big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Uber wield considerable power? What regulatory challenges come with these socio-economic and technological shifts? What happens when global streaming services like Netflix defy the territorial control of nation states? How did popular social media platforms like TikTok become at the center of geopolitical tensions between global economic players? Does the advent of the digital reshape power or does it merely perpetuate global dependencies? And what are the geopolitical implications of technological supremacy and data colonialism? The course offers students the opportunity to engage with and reflect on key debates surrounding digital transformations through a combination of readings, YouTube resources, class activities, and interactive discussion.