Our guests will discuss theoretical perspectives and empirical research on the tensions that arise from the political agency within and of platform societies.
Join our international symposium Political Agency within and of Platform Societies. Power and Resistance in the Digital Age.
Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 May 2023, 10.00-17.00 (UK Time)
Senate House - University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU, Room 104 and online.
Please register on Eventbrite to join in person (limited places available) or online on MS Teams.
Our guests will discuss theoretical perspectives and empirical research on the tensions that arise from the political agency within and of platform societies. Digital platforms reshape social relations across multiple dimensions, defining new routes to explore the possibilities of exploitation and liberation in capital/labour, human/nature, and gender relations. The starting point for our symposium is that two tensions shape political contestation in platform societies: The first is the contestation over data commodification versus the promotion of digital commons. The second tension arises between digitalisation as a tool for authoritarian surveillance or as a means for democratic empowerment.
We will host an Early Career Researchers Workshop and four panels (synthetic programme attached). Each panel will begin with keynote speeches by globally acknowledged scholars and practitioners, including:
Dr Elinor Carmi, City University of London
Shehani Fernando, award-winning immersive creator
Gabriele Masci, Open Impact
Dr Declan McDowell-Naylor, Information Commissioner’s Office
Professor Phoebe Moore, University of Essex
Dr Nikki Soo, TikTok
Dr Emiliano Treré, Cardiff University
Dr Alex Williams, University of East Anglia
You can find a detailed programme with abstract for all talks here. We look forward to seeing you at our event!
The symposium is hosted by the New Political Communication Unit and the Gender Institute at Royal Holloway University of London. For further information, email Dr Marco Guglielmo, Prof. Ben O’Loughlin, or Dr Pauline Heinrichs. More info here. The ECR workshop part of the symposium is funded by Royal Holloway’s School of Law and Social Sciences. For any further information, email Scott Downham.
