2MS323 Politika digitálního kapitalismu v Evropě - anglicky (2025/2026 ZS)

LECTURER

Daniel Šitera (daniel.sitera@vse.cz)

Office Hours: Check my InSIS profile and register via email

 

AIMS OF THE COURSE

This course discusses the phenomenon of digital capitalism from a perspective of the European Union. It explores the EU efforts to build a regulatory framework which would make the digitalization fit for the European sovereignty, social market economy, and democratic standards. The course departs from explaining the contemporary global and European contexts which lead the EU towards (highly contentious and ambivalent) political efforts to regulate digital economy. It arrives at discussing the emergent European model of digital capitalism and its future position in global political economy.

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES AND COMPETENCES:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

·      be able to understand the key concepts regarding the digitalization process, as well as the pivotal issues it creates for European political actors in terms of democratic and economic governance or regulation.

·      be able to critically interpret the political conflict over regaining the control of and power in the digital economy, not only between the EU and large technology corporations but also among the EU institutions and governments.

·      be able to analyse the EU regulatory process with respect to the digital economy more generally and the key areas of its interest, such as the data governance or artificial intelligence, more particularly.

·      be able to assess the future trajectories and potential pitfalls of the EU digital capitalist model both inside Europe and globally.

 

 

DUTIES

Attendance

·      Class Activity (10%): Students are expected to keep up with the required readings to participate in class discussions. Two absences are allowed, regular attendance is expected.

Mid-Term and Final Test

·      Mid-Term Test (20%): The mid-term test takes place as an in-class written exam during Class 7. It includes short answer questions and covers knowledge and readings from Classes 2-6.

·      Final Test (20%): The final written exam will cover material from Classes 2-12. It will take place during the Class 13.

 

Term Project

·      Presentation (20%): Presentations should be 15-20 minutes long and cover one of the EU regulations chosen for the class (see Coursework Structure). Topics and dates must be selected in an online document, which will be sent to the student email accounts on 19 September 2024 at 12:00 (and also stored in Moodle). Groups of two or three students must be formed. PowerPoint use is required, and presentation materials must be submitted to InSIS within 24 hours of the presentation. Prepare 1-2 questions for class discussion afterward.

·      Term Paper (30%): The term paper should be on the same topic as the presentation. It should be between 1500-1700 words (excluding bibliography) for a group of two, or 900-1000 words (excluding bibliography) if written individually. It can take the form of either an op-ed commentary (see Zuboff as a required reading for Class 2) or a policy paper (see Bendiek and Stürzer as a required readings for Class 3). The term paper must reference at least 2 required readings from the syllabus and include other external sources. The term paper must be submitted via the InSIS system by 3 December 2024.

 

 

COURSEWORK STRUCTURE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

READINGS

 

1)   INTRODUCTION

Optional Readings

· “Introduction” in Bradford, Anu (2023): Digital Empires: Global Battle to Regulate Technology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 7-34 (of the pdf document attached).

 

2)      DIGITAL CAPITALISM

Required Readings

·      Shoshana Zuboff (2020): You Are Now Remotely Controlled, The New York Times, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opinion/sunday/surveillance-capitalism.html

·      Nick Srnicek (2017): Platform Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press, Chapter 2: Platform Capitalism, pp. 27-55.

 

Listen to all short 15-minute lectures

·      Shoshana Zuboff (2021): In a nutshell: Surveillance Capitalism and Democracy, Berlin: Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, available at:

·      Nick Couldry (2021): On Data colonialism; Berlin: Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tcK-XIMQqE&t=416s

 

3)      EUROPE, BRUSSELS EFFECT, AND THE MODELS OF DIGITAL CAPITALISM

Presentation: Brussels Effect

Required Readings

• “Introduction” and “The European Rights-Driven Regulatory Model” in Bradford, Anu (2023): Digital Empires: Global Battle to Regulate Technology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 7-34 and 123-169 (of the pdf document attached).

· Annegret Bendiek and Isabella Stürzer (2022): Advancing European Internal and External Digital Sovereignty: The Brussels Effect and the EU-US Trade and Technology Council, SWP Comment, available at: https://www.swp-berlin.org/publications/products/comments/2022C20_EuropeanDigitalSovereignty.pdf

 

4)      EUROPEAN GEPOLITICS, CLOUDS, AND CHIPS ACT

Presentation: Chips Act

Required Readings

·      Linda Monsees and Daniel Lambach (2022) Digital Sovereignty, Geopolitical Imaginaries, and the Reproduction of European Identity, European Security, 31:3, 377-394, available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09662839.2022.2101883

·       

·      European Parliamentary Research Service (2021): Strengthening the EU's Chip Sector, available at:

 

5)      BIG TECH, DEMOCRACY, AND THE EU

Presentation: Digital Markets Act

Required Readings

·      Max Bank, Felix Duffy, Verena Leyendecker and Margarida Silva (2021): THE LOBBY NETWORK: BIG TECH‘S WEB OF INFLUENCE IN THE EU, Brussels and Cologne: Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, available at: https://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/The%20lobby%20network%20-%20Big%20Tech%27s%20web%20of%20influence%20in%20the%20EU.pdf

·      European Parliamentary Research Service (2021): Digital Markets Act, available at:

 

6)      MAKING PLATFORMS ACCOUNTABLE AND THE DIGITAL SERVICES ACT

Guest lecture: Kryštof Kučmáš (Czech Telecommunication Office)

Presentation: Digital Services Act

Required Readings

·      European Commission (2023): The Digital Services Act: Landmark EU legislation moderating online platforms, available at:

·      Propp, Kenneth (2025): Talking past each other: Why the US-EU dispute over ‘free speech’ is set to escalate, Atlantic Council, 15 August, available at: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/us-eu-dispute-over-free-speech-is-set-to-escalate/

 

7)      MIDTERM TEST

·      The midterm test will target readings for the first 6 classes.

 

8)   INNOVATION WEEK

·      No classes

 

9)   THE PROBLEM OF DISINFORMATION AND THE CODE OF PRACTICE

Presentation: Code of Practice on Disinformation

Required Readings

·      Veronika Datzer abd Luigi Lonardo, L. (2022) Genesis and evolution of EU anti disinformation policy: entrepreneurship and political opportunism in the regulation of digital technology, Journal of European Integration 45:5, 751–766.

·      European Parliamentary Research Service (2021): Disinformation and democracy, available at:

 

10)    ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE AI ACT

Presentation: AI Act

Required Readings

·      Csernatoni, Raluca (2024): Charting the Geopolitics and European Governance of Artificial Intelligence, Carnegie Europe, available at: https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/03/charting-the-geopolitics-and-european-governance-of-artificial-intelligence?lang=en&center=europe

·      European Parliamentary Research Service (2021): Artificial Intelligence Act, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYJqit9MhgY

 

11)  DATA, PRIVACY, AND THE GDPR

Presentation: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Required Readings

·      Brett Aho and Roberta Duffield (2020): Beyond Surveillance Capitalism: Privacy, Regulation and Big Data in Europe and China, Economy and Society 49:2, 187-212, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03085147.2019.1690275

·      European Parliamentary Research Service (2020): Understanding EU Data Protection Policy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaT2LRR5ZxM

 

12) GIG ECONOMY AND THE PLATFORM WORK DIRECTIVE

Presentation: Platform Work Directive

Required Readings

·      Jan Drahokoupil, Marta Kahancová, and Tibor T. Meszmann (2023): Falling through the Cracks: Gig economy and platform work in Central and Eastern Europe In: Immanuel Ness (ed.) The Routledge handbook of the gig economy, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 309-324.

·      European Parliamentary Research Service (2022): Improving the Working Conditions of Platform Workers, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pK6I7qH0FA

 

13) REVISION

·      Final Test: 9:15-10:15

·      Final Discussion: 10:15-10:45