2021 | Marion Fourcade
On the Political Economy of Digitality
The Lucerne Master Class takes place from April 26th to 30th 2021 with Prof. Dr. Marion Fourcade (University of California, Berkeley). It is the sixth Lucerne Master Class running on the general topic "The Culture of Markets". While the Lucerne Master Class is open only to the young researchers previously selected as participants on a competitive basis, the general public is invited to Marion Fourcade's public talk on Tuesday, April 27th (6.15 p.m., room tba, main building of University of Lucerne).
The call is closed.
Please note that at any time changes might have to be introduced to the Lucerne Master Class due to measures related to the Covid-19 health crisis. In addition, please monitor restrictions posed on entering and leaving Switzerland in response to Covid-19.
On the Political Economy of Digitality
The deployment of algorithms –computer code paired with massive datasets– has reshaped the basic rules of social life: how people communicate, exchange and associate; how they relate to each other, themselves and the world around them, down to the most ordinary and intimate aspects; how institutions, both public and private, think about and pursue their social mission and economic purpose; and how they sort and slot populations and individuals accordingly.
This Lucerne Master Class will analyze the political economy of digital capitalism, paying attention to continuities and ruptures with antecedent forms of capital accumulation. It will revisit classical questions of social scientific theory –including the search for economic profit, the production of social formations and inequalities, and the nature of politics and government– in light of specific implementations of digital technologies across a range of domains and geographical settings.
Marion Fourcade | University of California, Berkeley
Marion Fourcade is a Professor of Sociology and Director of Social Science Matrix at UC Berkeley. She grew up and studied in France, received her Ph.D. from Harvard University (2000), and taught at New York University and Princeton University before joining the Berkeley sociology department in 2003. Fourcade is also an Associate Fellow of the Max Planck-Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies. A comparative sociologist by training and taste, she is interested in variations in economic and political knowledge and practice across nations. Her first book, Economists and Societies (2009), explored the distinctive character of the discipline and profession of economics in three countries. A second, forthcoming book, The Ordinal Society (with Kieran Healy), will investigate new forms of social stratification and morality in the digital economy.
The sixth Lucerne Master Class takes place from 26 April to 30 April 2021 at the Hotel des Alpes in Lucerne. The public talk by Marion Fourcade (scheduled for April 27, 6.15 p.m.) will take place at the Main Builiding of the University of Lucerne (Frohburgstrasse 3 in Lucerne).