DIGHUM lectures: Digital Power

Speaker: Annabelle Gawer, University of Surrey, UK
Moderator: Hannes Werthner, TU Wien, Austria

In this talk, Professor Annabelle Gawer will discuss digital power. In particular, she will discuss the main implications of the rise of digital platforms and ecosystems on competition, innovation, and power. She develops the argument that digital platform firms and their ecosystems are the emblematic organizational form of the digital age, because they tap into the new ways in which value can be created and captured thanks to pervasive connectivity, the availability of processing power, and globalized digital innovation. The paradox of digital platforms in their current organizational form is that while distributed patterns of value creation characterize the circumstances that allowed them to emerge, the business models they have adopted have led to a centralised modality of value capture.

This has given rise to salient instances of digital platform firms’ abuse of economic power over their ecosystem members and to widespread concerns on digital platforms firms’ abuse of power on other dimensions, including privacy and labour relations. Platforms have therefore become the private governors of vast ecosystems that span over multiple sectors. But the influence of platforms are not limited to economic power. They also exert influence on other spheres of social life, as for example the power to influence opinions, to shape what’s considered important, and to mobilise individuals and collectives. In that way, digital platforms and their ecosystems have also become new institutions of the digital age, in that they shape values, beliefs, and instantiate a distinct institutional logic.

About the Series

A roughly bi-weekly seminar offers presentations and panels from worldwide thought leaders. It is typically held on Tuesday afternoons at 17:00 CET.

The bidt and the TU Wien are cooperation partners for the DIGHUM lecture series.

Digital Humanism deals with the complex relationship between man and machine. It acknowledges the potential of Informatics and IT. At the same time, it points to related apparent threats such as privacy violations, ethical concerns with AI, automation, loss of jobs, and the ongoing monopolisation on the Web.

For this reason, a new initiative — DIGHUM lectures — started with regular online events to discuss the different aspects of Digital Humanism.

We will have one or more speakers on a specific topic followed by a discussion, or panel discussions, depending on the topic and speakers. The exact dates will be announced at least two weeks before.

Participate via Zoom

Zoom | meeting: 9638 9928 143, password: 0dzqxqiy

Participate VIA YouTube

Talk will be live-streamed and recorded via YouTube Archive and Resources of Lecture Series Abstracts, Recordings, and Slides from Previous Talks