• Be familiar with theories regarding the constitution of platforms, technology, power and markets.
• Demonstrate knowledge about the dynamics between technology and the markets for democracy, products and labor.
• Analyze cases and situations of rapid technological change and their implications to participating actors within technology, business, public policy, civil society, academia and media.
• Assess policy interventions on tech platforms in local, national and international contexts.

In recent years, tech platforms emerge as some of the most powerful institutions on the planet impacting the markets for commerce, democracy, and labor.

• Amazon and Netflix outcompete incumbent businesses and change the landscape of commerce and culture;

• Facebook and Google challenge democracy and media; and 

• Uber accelerates the gig economy and the way people work conflicting traditional interests of labor unions.

Meanwhile, policymakers in Brussels, Beijing, Washington D.C. and other capitals struggle to keep pace with formulating and designing policies that keep pace with technological innovation.

This course will challenge your practical and intellectual senses. Practically, the course will equip you to understand the way tech platforms changes how we trade, make political decisions and work. And intellectually, you will be part of a course not afraid of asking the big questions starting with "why" and "how" without definite answers.

Online - and without payment - you will able to access almost all of the course syllabus from the CBS Library website. 

The syllabus draws on literature of management, political science, economics, sociology and technology that will sharpen your academic and theoretical competence. Real-life cases will challenge you to put your knowledge at play in practice.

The course is organized around four blocks:

INTRO & THE BASICS: THE MULTI-SIDES PLATFORMS

• Culpepper, P. & Thelen, K. (2020): Are We All Amazon Primed? Consumers and the Politics of Platform Power. Comparative Political Studies, 53(2), 288–318.

• Osterwalder, A.; Pigneur, Y. (2010): Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Chapter “Multi-Sided Platforms”, p. 78-87.

PRODUCTS & SERVICES: E-COMMERCE, FINTECH & ENTERTAINMENT 

• Fernandes, D. (2020). Politics at the Mall: The Moral Foundations of Boycotts. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 39(4), 494–513.

• Suárez (2016): Poor people׳s money: The politics of mobile money in Mexico and Kenya. Telecommunications Policy, 40(10-11), 945–955.

WORK: GIG WORKERS & THE FUTURE OF WORK 

• Bridgstock, R.; Tytler, R.; White, P. (2020): Do creative skills future-proof your job? Creativity and the future of work in an age of exponential technological advancement, The Future of Creative Work, 2020-09-15, Chapter 15, p.245-258.

• Barzilay, A.R.; Ben-David, A. (2017): “Platform inequality: Gender in the gig economy”, in Seton Hall Law Review, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 393– 431.

DEMOCRACY & ETHICS: PARTICIPATION & TRANSPARENCY 

• Weiss-Blatt, N. (2021), "Big Tech – Big Scandals", The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 37-72.

• Feenberg, A. (2014). Democratic Rationalization: Technology, Power, and Freedom. In R. Scharff & V. Dusek (Eds.), Philosophy of technology: the technological condition : an anthology (pp. 706-719). Malden,  MA: Blackwell Publishing. Originally published 1992.