AANA18127U Economies of Tech (BOA)

With the new forms of technology have come new ways of valuing people, things, practices, and ideas. From data-driven credit-ratings impacting people’s chance of a mortgage, to platforms monetizing attention in our digital dealings, the intersection of technology and economy plays a large role for people across the world. Popular documentaries and books point to the way economies in/of technologies have also become matters of public concern. The initial optimism and hype of tech and ‘free’ data has given way to a skepticism to the ways that new forms of digital technology and data seem instead to increase the wealth and power of a select few, on the one hand, and increasing surveillance and control for many, on the other. With these new technologies we must take into account powerful new actors such as tech-corporations, platforms, algorithms, and big data that shape the playing ground for our future society.

Within this nexus, anthropologists and social scientists from adjacent disciplines have the potential to contribute to both academic and public debates regarding economies of technology by engaging both critically and productively with the way that technology is shaping society and making specific assertions about what is “of value”. This course aims to equip students with knowledge, skills, and competencies to engage with the current developments in tech by building on classical as well as current theoretical perspectives from fields including economic and digital anthropology, sociology, and science and technology studies (STS).

The course begins with a historical perspective on the development of current economic and tech-structures, asking what is actually new. It then examines types of tech economies and forms of valuation, considering topics such as the power of platforms, the producers of tech such as software engineers and users, prediction algorithms, digital money and markets, and surveillance capitalism. Activities in the course include group discussions, exercises, debates, and group presentations based on a reading of students’ choice. Students will develop their own argument about the changing economies of tech during the course using an empirical case. Students will have the opportunity to submit a topic proposal (max 4 pages) for peer feedback and to present their case for feedback at a workshop, before writing the final essay.