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Overview

Monopolistic digital platforms are transforming the nature of markets and production with significant implications for how and where we work, what we consume, and how we define and practice politics. Data is now the new gold with these platforms acquiring vast amounts of it to sell and to use it to shape human behaviour resulting in what is described as surveillance capitalism. At the heart of the use of these digital technologies is the struggle for power and dominance, conveyed through the concept of digital democracy. How is the use of these digital technologies impacting the spaces of politics in the public sphere? How has social media facilitated the rise of populism, in particular right-wing populism, and with it, fake news and misinformation? What are the possibilities of creating vibrant democratic technologies and cultures? This course will provide some analytical tools to find answers to these questions.

Outline

Unit 1: Introduction—The Rise of Informational Capitalism

Unit 2: Capitalist Restructuring of Production—Platform Capitalism and the Internet of Things

Unit 3: Blockchain Technology, Cryptocurrencies, and the Theory of Money

Unit 4: Theories and Practices of Surveillance

Unit 5: Countersurveillance—Countering Power From Below

Unit 6: Social Media, Democracy, and the Public Sphere

Unit 7: Digital Technologies and Political Engagement—From Cyber-Optimism to Cyber-Pessimism

Unit 8: Social Media and the Rise of Populism

Unit 9: Social Media and Social Movement Activism

Unit 10: The Future of the Internet—Free? Governed? Controlled?

Learning outcomes

After completing POLI 480, students should be able to

1. critically assess how the information technology revolution has

• reshaped power and economic production on a global scale,
• facilitated globalization in the form of a new informational economy,
• made possible greater corporate and state control over our lives,
• facilitated resistance to neoliberal globalization from networked civil society organizations and social movements,
• made possible the creation of alternative identities,
• created new political spaces and possibilities of political participation, both domestically and beyond the borders of the nation state, and
• influenced democratic processes, political institutions, administration, and civil society in both positive and negative ways.

2. compare political aspects of the networked society from a variety of perspectives,
3. analyze structures, institutions, and communication technologies to examine the political components of the “digital age,” and
4. evaluate the digital strategies of the advocates and resistors of our networked world through literature survey and independent research.

Evaluation

To receive credit for POLI 480, you must complete and submit all the assignments, you must achieve a grade of at least 50 percent on each assignment and obtain a course composite grade of at least D (50 percent). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Materials

This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.

All course materials for POLI 480 are available online through the course website, including a Course Information, Study Guide units, and required readings.

Challenge for credit

Overview

The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.

Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

Evaluation

To receive credit for the POLI 480 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent) on the online examination.

Important links

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