Lehrveranstaltung Arbeitswelt, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Seminar)

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?

Digitale Plattformen sind heute kaum noch aus unseren Städten wegzudenken. Google Maps leitet die Menschen durch die Stadt und modifiziert dabei ihre Geographie, Amazon verändert den Konsum und die Liefervans verstopfen die Straßen. Räume und Praxen des Datings verändern sich über Tinder und Grindr. Airbnb bietet das Ferienappartement, Uber die Taxifahrt, Lieferando das Mittagessen, Helpling die saubere Wohnung….

Das Geschäftsmodell der meisten Plattformen zielt darauf, sich in Smartphone und Alltag der Nutzer*innen einzuflechten und zu unverzichtbaren Infrastrukturen des alltäglichen Lebens zu werden. Die urbanen Interventionen der zumeist von Wagnis-Kapital finanzierten Plattformen zeichnen sich durch große Dynamik aber auch Krisenhaftigkeit aus. Städte wie Berlin sind dabei das primäre Aktionsfeld dieser digitalen Plattformen und werden so zu einem Laboratorium gesellschaftlicher Veränderung.

Das Seminar untersucht theoretisch und empirisch wie digitale Plattformen Ökonomie und Arbeit, Reproduktion und Alltag, aber auch gelebte Räumlichkeit und materielle Architektur der Stadt verändern. Es erschließt die deutschsprachige und internationale Debatte und diskutiert verschiedene Forschungsansätze, die Studierende in Kleingruppen im Rahmen von Mini-Forschungen auch ausprobieren.

Digitale Plattformen sind heute kaum noch aus unseren Städten wegzudenken. Google Maps leitet die Menschen durch die Stadt und modifiziert dabei ihre Geographie, Amazon verändert den Konsum und die Liefervans verstopfen die Straßen. Räume und Praxen des Datings verändern sich über Tinder und Grindr. Airbnb bietet das Ferienappartement, Uber die Taxifahrt, Lieferando das Mittagessen, Helpling die saubere Wohnung….

Das Geschäftsmodell der meisten Plattformen zielt darauf, sich in Smartphone und Alltag der Nutzer*innen einzuflechten und zu unverzichtbaren Infrastrukturen des alltäglichen Lebens zu werden. Die urbanen Interventionen der zumeist von Wagnis-Kapital finanzierten Plattformen zeichnen sich durch große Dynamik aber auch Krisenhaftigkeit aus. Städte wie Berlin sind dabei das primäre Aktionsfeld dieser digitalen Plattformen und werden so zu einem Laboratorium gesellschaftlicher Veränderung.

Das Seminar untersucht theoretisch und empirisch wie digitale Plattformen Ökonomie und Arbeit, Reproduktion und Alltag, aber auch gelebte Räumlichkeit und materielle Architektur der Stadt verändern. Es erschließt die deutschsprachige und internationale Debatte und diskutiert verschiedene Forschungsansätze, die Studierende in Kleingruppen im Rahmen von Mini-Forschungen auch ausprobieren.