Datafied Societies

The main objective of this course is to provide students the fundamental skills for critically reflecting on the 'datafied' society, a new social order based on the systematic extraction, aggregation and manipulation of data about people. Datafication - which is understood as a process that is gradually affecting both market-oriented services (i.e. Airbnb, Uber etc.) and public services (such as education and health) - rests on two interrelated key factors: platforms and algorithms. Digital platforms are programmable architectures designed to shape the way we live and how social, political, cultural and economic life is organized. Platforms operate through algorithms which automatically classify extracted data ordering the social world, and are able to learn from data making predictions. The process of datafication is however negotiated and resisted by users in their everyday life. In particular, the course will discuss the ambivalent nature of contemporary digital activism, proving that media imaginaries and technological myths can be used either to repress and hide authoritarianism or to reinvent democracy.

By the end of the course students should have acquired the following skills: ability to critically discuss the concept of (commercial) platform and algorithm; knowledge of a multi-layered perspective on platformization including the micro-level of single platforms, the meso-level of the platform ecosystem and the macro-level of platform geopolitics; familiarity with a situated epistemology of algorithms moving beyond the popular conception of the latter as a black box;
awareness of the algorithmic shaping of subsystems such as journalism, urban transport, health care and education; comprehension of hybrid media activism including ability to discuss the fallacies of 'communicative reductionism' (i.e. spatial dualism, one-medium bias, presentism, technological visibility, alternativeness); acquaintance with appropriation processes of digital media by movements and parties in the Italian, Mexican and Spanish contexts. The final exam aims to verify the expected learning outcomes in relation to: knowledge and understanding of the main concepts developed in the debate on the Datafied society, critical presentation of case studies and empirical results related to the topics discussed during the course.