[Air-L] Feb 2022: International Winter School: Taming the iMonster: Regulating digital platforms

[Katja Mayer]

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the Research Platform Governance of 
Digital Practices <https://digigov.univie.ac.at/> (University of Vienna) 
will host an *interdisciplinary and international winter school*:

*/Taming the iMonster: Regulating digital platforms/*

Digital platforms, understood as the technical and social infrastructure 
for the collection, storage, curation, analysis, distribution or 
commercialisation of digital data, are frequently compared to a 
Leviathan 
<https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-04363-6_2>: A 
“monster” that people submit their natural freedoms to in order to 
receive something back that they consider essential. In the case of the 
platform-Leviathan, it is not physical security and the protection of 
their property that people receive in return, but the possibility to 
communicate across time and space, to connect different groups to buy 
and sell goods in a faster and more convenient manner, or to look for 
rides, jobs, houses, partners. Especially during and after Covid-19, 
submitting to the iMonster has been a necessary condition for many 
people to be able to do the things they need to do to hold a job or two 
and run their families. How do we best regulate digital platforms? This 
is the question that this interdisciplinary Winter School will focus on.

*When: *

14 – 25 February 2021 | Mon-Fr 3-6pm Central European Time

*Where:*

online (Zoom)

*Speakers include:*

José van Dijck <https://www.uu.nl/staff/jftmvandijck>, 
/t.b.c./ (Universiteit Utrecht)

Jonathan Gray <https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/dr-jonathan-gray> (King’s 
College London & Public Data Lab)

Alex Hanna <https://alex-hanna.com/> (Google)

Jürgen Pfeffer 
<https://www.sites.hfp.tum.de/css/team/prof-dr-juergen-pfeffer/> (Technical 
University Munich)

Jean-Christophe Plantin 
<https://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/people/academic-staff/jean-christophe-plantin> (LSE)

*Participants:*

mainly early-stage researchers (PhD students and post-docs), but open to 
colleagues from all disciplines with an interest in the topic

*/Participation is free, but places are limited./*

If you would like to participate, please send a short outline of your 
motivation to participate, and a brief summary of the project(s) you are 
working on (1 page max.), to natalia.kancelova at univie.ac.at 
<mailto:natalia.kancelova at univie.ac.at> by *15 November 2021* at the latest.

The members and affiliates of the Research Platform Governance of 
Digital Practices <https://digigov.univie.ac.at/team/> look forward to 
hearing from you!

*/For more info visit: 
https://digigov.univie.ac.at/teaching/winter-school/ 
<https://digigov.univie.ac.at/teaching/winter-school/>/*