Arbeitswelt, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Seminar): Materialities of the Digital: Labour, Infrastructure, Ecology Materialities of the Digital: Labour, Infrastructure, Ecology

Today, not only phones and computers, but also cars, refrigerators, and street lights are digitally connected. Digital technologies have become ubiquitous, and in this process, their infrastructural, social, and ecological conditions and materialities tend to fade into the background. The seminar addresses these issues from a sociological perspective.

The internet is not simply “in the cloud”, but also exists in large-scale data centres and continent-spanning undersea cables. It is not only based on the algorithms of Silicon Valley tech companies, but also relies on global and deeply material infrastructures and geographies of labour and extraction. Increasingly, this materiality of the digital is becoming a crucial ecological issue.

In the seminar, we analyse the material infrastructures of the digital world such as submarine cables, data centres, and the production of devices like computers and smartphones. What resources, what logistics, what forms of labour are required? What supply chains and geopolitical constellations are emerging? Software, websites, and apps also need to be developed, produced, and maintained. From highly paid programming to outsourced content moderation for social media to gig work used to train AI system – which forms and geographies of labour underlie our digital infrastructures?

Today, not only phones and computers, but also cars, refrigerators, and street lights are digitally connected. Digital technologies have become ubiquitous, and in this process, their infrastructural, social, and ecological conditions and materialities tend to fade into the background. The seminar addresses these issues from a sociological perspective.

The internet is not simply “in the cloud”, but also exists in large-scale data centres and continent-spanning undersea cables. It is not only based on the algorithms of Silicon Valley tech companies, but also relies on global and deeply material infrastructures and geographies of labour and extraction. Increasingly, this materiality of the digital is becoming a crucial ecological issue.

In the seminar, we analyse the material infrastructures of the digital world such as submarine cables, data centres, and the production of devices like computers and smartphones. What resources, what logistics, what forms of labour are required? What supply chains and geopolitical constellations are emerging? Software, websites, and apps also need to be developed, produced, and maintained. From highly paid programming to outsourced content moderation for social media to gig work used to train AI system – which forms and geographies of labour underlie our digital infrastructures?

Today, not only phones and computers, but also cars, refrigerators, and street lights are digitally connected. Digital technologies have become ubiquitous, and in this process, their infrastructural, social, and ecological conditions and materialities tend to fade into the background. The seminar addresses these issues from a sociological perspective.

The internet is not simply “in the cloud”, but also exists in large-scale data centres and continent-spanning undersea cables. It is not only based on the algorithms of Silicon Valley tech companies, but also relies on global and deeply material infrastructures and geographies of labour and extraction. Increasingly, this materiality of the digital is becoming a crucial ecological issue.

In the seminar, we analyse the material infrastructures of the digital world such as submarine cables, data centres, and the production of devices like computers and smartphones. What resources, what logistics, what forms of labour are required? What supply chains and geopolitical constellations are emerging? Software, websites, and apps also need to be developed, produced, and maintained. From highly paid programming to outsourced content moderation for social media to gig work used to train AI system – which forms and geographies of labour underlie our digital infrastructures?

Today, not only phones and computers, but also cars, refrigerators, and street lights are digitally connected. Digital technologies have become ubiquitous, and in this process, their infrastructural, social, and ecological conditions and materialities tend to fade into the background. The seminar addresses these issues from a sociological perspective.

The internet is not simply “in the cloud”, but also exists in large-scale data centres and continent-spanning undersea cables. It is not only based on the algorithms of Silicon Valley tech companies, but also relies on global and deeply material infrastructures and geographies of labour and extraction. Increasingly, this materiality of the digital is becoming a crucial ecological issue.

In the seminar, we analyse the material infrastructures of the digital world such as submarine cables, data centres, and the production of devices like computers and smartphones. What resources, what logistics, what forms of labour are required? What supply chains and geopolitical constellations are emerging? Software, websites, and apps also need to be developed, produced, and maintained. From highly paid programming to outsourced content moderation for social media to gig work used to train AI system – which forms and geographies of labour underlie our digital infrastructures?

Today, not only phones and computers, but also cars, refrigerators, and street lights are digitally connected. Digital technologies have become ubiquitous, and in this process, their infrastructural, social, and ecological conditions and materialities tend to fade into the background. The seminar addresses these issues from a sociological perspective.

The internet is not simply “in the cloud”, but also exists in large-scale data centres and continent-spanning undersea cables. It is not only based on the algorithms of Silicon Valley tech companies, but also relies on global and deeply material infrastructures and geographies of labour and extraction. Increasingly, this materiality of the digital is becoming a crucial ecological issue.

In the seminar, we analyse the material infrastructures of the digital world such as submarine cables, data centres, and the production of devices like computers and smartphones. What resources, what logistics, what forms of labour are required? What supply chains and geopolitical constellations are emerging? Software, websites, and apps also need to be developed, produced, and maintained. From highly paid programming to outsourced content moderation for social media to gig work used to train AI system – which forms and geographies of labour underlie our digital infrastructures?