The internet is the central nervous system of contemporary capitalism: connecting world cities, remote villages, and everything in between into a global network. This course is designed for an exploration of how connectivity impacts economic development, economic relationships, and economic inequalities. It will draw on resources from Geography, Development Studies, Sociology, Economics, Internet Studies, Media Studies and Anthropology in order to examine the theoretical and conceptual frameworks used to understand inequalities within digital capitalism. It will encourage students to reflect on what the digital has done, is doing, and will do to global capitalism and all of those who live within it.
This course critically examines how digital platforms, global production networks, and algorithmic management systems shape labour conditions, remuneration, and market access in a connected society. Students will explore contemporary issues such as data colonialism and the extraction of unpaid digital labour as well as the roles of maintenance work, last-mile labour, and planetary labour markets in the global digital economy.
Employing a range of theoretical frameworks—including dependency theory, modernism, and platform capitalism—the course challenges traditional narratives and encourages students to interrogate and reimagine the ways in which digital transformation can either exacerbate or mitigate social and economic inequalities. Through participatory and action‐oriented research methods, participants will acquire the analytical and practical skills required to design inclusive, evidence‐based interventions that empower workers and citizens beyond the confines of the corporate sector.
This course will expose students to some of the key debates that link digital transformations to economic, social, and political inequalities. Students will be familiarised with a variety of theoretical movements in development studies and internet studies: exploring thinking that frames the internet as a leveller that can bridge divides vs. exploring the internet as an infrastructure that amplifies existing inequalities.
The course ultimately aims to encourage students to ask questions about digital technologies and power: who do they empower?; who do they disempower?; Can we imagine a capitalism without the digital? Can we imagine the digital without capitalism?
This course will expose students to some of the key debates that link digital transformations to economic, social, and political inequalities. Students will be familiarised with a variety of theoretical movements in development studies and internet studies: exploring thinking that frames the internet as a leveller that can bridge divides vs. exploring the internet as an infrastructure that amplifies existing inequalities. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
Professor of Internet Geography
Mark Graham is an economic geographer. His research focuses on digital labour, the gig economy, and digital inequalities. He is the author, most recently, of Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI
Associate Professor Digital South Asian Studies
Janaki's research examines the politics of digital exclusion in India. She uses ethnographic and archival research to examine how gender, caste and class have shaped the use of information and information technologies in varied contexts.