Allgemeine Informationen
| Veranstaltungsname | Seminar: The politics of digitisation |
| Untertitel | Politische Theorie (SOW-0042) |
| Semester | WS 2022/23 |
| Aktuelle Anzahl der Teilnehmenden | 16 |
| erwartete Teilnehmendenanzahl | 30 |
| Heimat-Einrichtung | Politikwissenschaft mit Schwerpunkt Klimapolitik |
| Veranstaltungstyp | Seminar in der Kategorie Lehre |
| Erster Termin | Montag, 17.10.2022 15:45 - 17:15, Ort: 2104 Geb. D (40 Pl.) [PhilSoz] |
| Art/Form | The politics of digitisation |
| Teilnehmende |
This course introduces the global politics of digitization and artificial intelligence (AI). The first part of this course introduces AI and in particular machine learning. Artificial intelligence designates amongst others processes of machine learning that allow the automation of recognition, surveillance, sorting and decision-making of objects and subjects. We discuss the promise and the risks associated with the rise of AI. From the perspective of science and technology studies, we characterize the new ways of knowing enabled by AI, compare them to traditional science and ask if this is the end of traditional science. From the perspective of feminist and postcolonial studies, we investigate bias in AI knowledge that results from extrapolating past and present trends. How can bias in machine learning be discovered and what can be done to minimize it? The second part of the course takes an economic perspective and turns towards new business models and investigates those from Neo-Marxist perspectives. Most new business models are based on data as resource and product. Their main economic activity is “data extractivism” (Morozov and Bria 2018), creating user profiles that allow for targeted advertising. The platform economy is built around matching supply with demand, cashing in on the service of making the match, without owning any assets. From the perspective of Neo-Gramscianism, we explore Zuboff’s (2019) thesis that the nature of capitalism has been transformed into something best understood as “surveillance capitalism”. Is a new class of digital capitalists ruling the world? We explore how China, the U.S. and Russia are engaged in an “arms race” in the field of AI, each seeking absolute gains on the path to superpower. The final block addresses the need for more political regulation to keep the risks of digitization and AI in check. We investigate the EU’s privacy protection regulation (the European General Data Protection Regulation) and anti-trust regulation to curb monopolies and ask how effective they have been in reclaiming rights of privacy and democratic self-determination. We also investigate the emergence of international norms and institutions that regulate AI or seek to establish universal “ethics for AI”, like the 2021 update of the Coordinated Plan on AI of the European Commission and the EU Member States. From the perspective of postcolonial theory, such attempts can be criticized as EU-centric and neo-colonial. From these theoretical perspectives, there is a need to include a broader spectrum of actors and insights especially from the global South in order to inform future global regulation. |
| Voraussetzungen | A good knowledge of (political science) English is required to master the course reading, to participate in classroom discussions and to pass the oral (!) exam. Having said that, the course is a place that offers you the opportunity to improve your English! |
| Lernorganisation | This course is taught in in the classroom. There is a required reading with guiding questions listed for each session. We begin each session with a short presentation on the week’s topic, prepared by students. The main part of the session will be dedicated to a guided discussion in small groups followed by a plenary. The course teacher will make sure all important aspects of the week’s topic are covered and give additional input where needed. All course materials will be uploaded on Digicampus (mandatory reading, presentation slides, instructions for exam papers). |
| Leistungsnachweis |
A) Studienleistungen (Required course tasks, not marked but you need to "pass"): All students need to complete the required reading in advance of each weekly session and should answer the 3-5 “guiding questions” on one page (citing the text) and upload that on Digicampus. All students need to pick a date for a presentation. For these selected dates, students are expected to prepare a 15-minute-presentation on the topic chosen drawing on a presentation software like Powerpoint. Moreover, students are asked to develop a task for small-group work (to last 15-25 minutes). This could be a discussion, role game, a case study to discuss based on a suitable newspaper article, that will deepen the understanding of the issue under discussion. B) Prüfungsart: (mode of examination): oral exam (marked) in English language of 20-25 minutes on a day between 15-17th February 2023 |
| Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt / hat Präsenz-Bestandteile | Ja |
| Hauptunterrichtssprache | englisch |
| Literaturhinweise | The list of required readings is provided on the first course session. |
| ECTS-Punkte | 9 |
