IS41210 Platform Governance

Academic Year 2023/2024

The module is concerned with identifying and analysing digital platforms and the governance and policy issues they involve. In particular, while the early internet was a more or less anarchic space where users, companies, and public sector institutions were all operating in the same space, the shift towards platforms has carved this space between a set of increasingly powerful platforms owned by multinational corporations. Moreover, new entrants to the digital sphere often emulate the platform structure of these powerful actors. The internet, in its current form, is therefore ‘platformised’. What does this mean for the digital economy? For politics? For our social and cultural life? How can we approach the regulation of platforms? How much control should platforms themselves have? Is self regulation sustainable? The module approaches this question by looking at the various articulations of platforms and social, political and economic life, considering platforms as powerful socio-technical actors whose operations have far reaching implications for society.