GENERAL
| SCHOOL | School of Economics and Political Science |
|---|
| DEPARTMENT | Sociology |
|---|
| Level of Study | Undergraduate |
|---|
| COURSE CODE | 431028 |
|---|
| COURSE TITLE | Digital Work (YE) |
|---|
| Independent Teaching Activities |
Weekly Teaching Hours |
CREDIT UNITS |
| Lectures - Exercises |
3 |
6 |
| TOTAL |
3 |
6 |
| Course Type | Special Background |
|---|
| Prerequisite Courses | No |
|---|
| Teaching and Examination Language | Greek with teaching proficiency in English |
|---|
| THE COURSE IS OFFERED TO ERASMUS STUDENTS | Yes |
|---|
| Course Webpage (URL) | https://eclass.uoa.gr/courses/SOC134/ |
|---|
(2) LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to:
- They are reorganizing the basic 20th-century work organization models.
- They recognize the ways in which specific technologies affect the organization of the production process and, conversely, how the demands of production are inscribed in specific techno-scientific choices.
- They understand the critical importance that Digital Transformation has for the economy.
- Critically reconstruct the theories of «immaterial,» «unpaid,» and «affective» labor.
- Overcome technophobic biases against new forms of labor automation and understand the true nature of Artificial Intelligence.
- Study the characteristics of the emerging subject of digital labor.
- Reflect on the new forms of power, surveillance, and accountability associated with the algorithmization of labor.
- Understand and clearly describe the new forms of exploitation of the living
work and the class stratifications they cause.
• Examine whether traditional theories of value correspond to the new forms
work organization in hybrid environments.
General Capabilities
- Search, analysis and synthesis of data and information
- Adaptation to new situations
- Decision making
- Teamwork
- Working in an international environment
- Working in an interdisciplinary environment
- Generation of new research ideas
- Demonstration of social, professional, and ethical responsibility in issues concerning the organization of work
- Demonstration of social, professional, and ethical responsibility and sensitivity to gender issues
- Exercise of criticism and self-criticism
- Recognition of the social responsibility of social and economic sciences
- Recognition of the non-neutrality of technology
(3) COURSE CONTENT
The course deals with new forms of work in the digital space and the changes brought about in labor by the development of digital technologies. Following international research and literature, as well as monitoring developments in the workplace, we will explore the nascent field of digital labor, organizing the course's conceptual map around three main axes.
The first pillar concerns the changes in work brought about by machine learning technologies for the development of artificial intelligence and the introduction of robotics into production.
The second axis concerns the new ways of producing value enabled by the digital condition, the economic function of surveillance capitalism, as well as the creative forms that our activities on the internet can take.
The third axis concerns the transformation of dependent labor in the digital condition. What new forms of work are emerging on platforms? What changes in the work experience and conditions are brought about by algorithmization and digital intermediation?;
The individual thematic units of the course are as follows:
- Labor and machines in capitalism: value production; absolute and relative surplus value; Taylorism, Fordism, post-Fordism
- Digital Transformation: Turing Machines, World Wide Web, Machine Learning.
- «Intangible work
- Unpaid labor on the World Wide Web
- Platform work (Uber-TaskRabbit-Deliveroo)
- Artificial intelligence, automation and the end of work 3.0 (falling rate of profit)
- The digital labor behind Artificial Intelligence: new labor objects
- Algorithmatization of the work process: Microworking, microtasking
- Heteromation the highest stage of automation
- Gender and digital labor
- Pandemic and Telework: The realization of a technological imaginary
(4) TEACHING & LEARNING METHODS – EVALUATION
| DELIVERY METHOD | Face-to-face. Development of topics in the classroom and discussion. Lectures by scientists, engineers, and business executives specializing in the individual topics of the course. Simulation of social research scenarios. |
|---|
| Information and Communication Technologies | Use of Audiovisual Media in Teaching
View related movies and streaming from online platforms
Use of students' mobile phones for on-site research and retrieval of specialized information from the World Wide Web.
Use of the e-class platform to communicate with students and to post supplementary materials.
|
|---|
| Activity |
Semester Workload |
| Lectures |
24 |
| Social research simulations |
15 |
| Study of Required Reading |
41 |
| Study of supplementary material and preparation of assignments |
40 |
| Preparing for an Evaluation |
30 |
| Course Summary |
150 |
Student Evaluation
| Process Description Evaluation | The evaluation process is conducted in the Greek language through a written examination covering the entire syllabus and takes the form of essay-type questions.
During the examination, the use of books and notes is permitted. Collaboration among students is also encouraged for the collective processing of the questions.
The answer to the questions is considered complete when it is factually accurate, satisfactorily justified, and clearly formulated.
|
|---|
(5) RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Suggested Bibliography
- Tolios, G. (2021). Digital Age. Athens: Topos
- Caffentzis, G. (2007). Crystals and Analytical Engines: Historical and Conceptual Preliminaries to a New Theory of Machines, Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, 7(1), 24-45.
- Fuchs, C. (2020). Reconsidering Marx in the Age of Digital Capitalism, translated by D. Zochos, edited by D. Tzarellas. Athens: Diavlos
- Fuchs, C. (2021). Social Media, translation and editing by Petros Petridis. Thessaloniki: Ropi
- Huws, U. (2019). Labour in Contemporary Capitalism What Next?. London: Palgrave Macmillan
- Irani, L. (2015). The cultural work of microwork. New Media & Society, 17(5), 720-739.
- Lazzarato, M. (1996). Immaterial labour. In Virno P. and Hardt M. (eds.), Radical Thought in Italy: A potential politics, 133-147. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Moore, P. V., Upchurch, M., Whittaker, X. (2018). Humans and Machines at Work. Monitoring, Surveillance and Automation in Contemporary Capitalism. London: Palgrave Macmillan
- Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform Capitalism, translated by Giorgos Marias, Alexandros Minotakis. Athens: Topos.
- Terranova, T. (2000). Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy. Social Text, 18(2), 33-58.
