B3584 - STORIA E POLITICHE DEL DIGITALE

Learning outcomes

The course aims to critically analyze the origin of digital platforms and their political role in contemporary society. As new infrastructures of everyday life, platforms are the latest changes that brought circulation and logistics to the central core of capitalism. During the course, we will deal with some particularly relevant changes that occurred in the last years, which concern the impact that platforms have had on work, subjects, urban spaces, and, above all, we will analyze their political role, a crucial aspect to reach the dimension of change they have produced. A concluding part will focus precisely on the attempts of local or European institutions to legislate within this new and rapidly expanding world

Course contents

Course Syllabus:

From the "Logistics revolution" to the "Platform Revolution";

What are digital platforms?;

Capitalism 4.0;

Different types of platforms;

Platforms and infrastructure: similarities and differences;

The Political Role played by digital platforms;

Platform, Sharing or Gig? Ambiguities and Ambivalences in the Digitisation of the Economy;

Work in the time of platforms: between playbour and gamification;

Riders, hosts, drivers, cleaners: new jobs and new subjects;

Platforms between governance and governmentality;

Internet between platforms, data and surveillance;

Platforms and the Urban;

De-Westernize Platform: a global look at platforms;

Attempts at legislation 1: Urban and national cases;

Attempts at legislation 2: DSA and DMA.

Readings/Bibliography

For oral exam:

• S. Zuboff, Capitalismo della sorveglianza, Luiss University Press, 2019.
• N. Srnicek, Capitalismo digitale: Google, Facebook, Amazon e la nuova economia del web, Luiss University Press; 2017.
  

Further possible reading:

• Bratton, Benjamin H. The Stack. On Software and Sovereignty. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2015.

• N. Cuppini, M. Frapporti, S. Mezzadra, M. Pirone, "Il capitalismo nel tempo delle piattaforme. Infrastrutture digitali, nuovi spazi e soggettività algoritmiche", in Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica, 2(2021), pp. 103-124.

• Into the Black Box (a cura di) (2021), Capitalismo 4.0. Genealogia della rivoluzione digitale, Meltemi, Milano.

• Mezzadra Sandro e Neilson Brett (2021), Operazioni del Capitale, Manifestolibri, Roma.

• Pieranni Simone (2020), Red Mirror. Il nostro futuro si scrive in Cina, Laterza, Roma-Bari.

• Van Dijck, Jesé, Poell, Thomas, e de Waal, Martijn. The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World. Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press, 2018

Teaching methods

Lectures and Seminars

Assessment methods

Oral Exam.

Students attending classwork could write a "Final Paper" (4000 words)

Teaching tools

Readings may be complemented with other sources, such as videos and images. Guest lecturers may be invited.

Office hours

See the website of Mattia Frapporti