Theorising Digital Society - Semester I12 ECTS

The first section of the Theorising Digital Society unit lays a strong theoretical foundation and provides essential critical tools that will support students throughout the programme. It introduces the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of digital transformation through five interlinked workshops. Each session addresses a critical aspect of the digital society, enabling students to explore the historical roots, current dynamics, and future trajectories of digital technologies. Through a combination of theoretical readings, multimedia resources, and applied exercises, the course fosters critical engagement with digital infrastructures, ideologies, and power relations.

Course Content

• Workshop 1: A Genealogy of the Information Society

This session investigates the historical narratives and ideological constructions surrounding the so-called “digital revolution”. Students will examine key moments in the development of the information society, critically assessing claims of rupture and continuity in digital transformation.

• Workshop 2: Personal and Collective Agency in the Digital Society

Focusing on user participation, platform dynamics, and activism, this session explores how individuals and groups exercise agency within digital environments. Students analyze media strategies used by social movements and reflect on the limits and potentials of digital resistance.

• Workshop 3:  Datification and Surveillance Capitalism

This session delves into how data has become a central resource in the digital economy. Students examine the mechanisms of data extraction and monetization, and critically assess the ethical and political implications of surveillance capitalism.

• Workshop 4: Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

Students engage with current debates around algorithmic decision-making, bias, and automation. Through critical analysis and experimentation with AI tools, they assess both utopian and dystopian narratives surrounding AI and its role in shaping digital futures.

• Workshop 5: Digital Citizenship

The final session addresses the conditions of citizenship in the digital age, with a focus on ordinality, ranking systems, and digital infrastructures. Students reflect on issues of access, agency, and accountability, and collaboratively explore strategies for inclusive and just digital societies.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Students will develop a critical and contextual understanding of key concepts, theories, and developments in the digital society. They will be able to:

• Understand the historical, social, economic, and political foundations of the digital age;
• Identify and explain major theoretical frameworks and critical perspectives on digital media and infrastructures;
• Analyze the evolution and impact of digital technologies on society;
• Engage critically with scholarly literature, media texts, and multimedia resources.

Applying Knowledge and Understanding

Students will learn to apply conceptual and theoretical knowledge to practical and analytical tasks in digital contexts. They will be able to:

• Relate abstract ideas to concrete digital practices, systems, and case studies;
• Design and carry out analytical tasks such as strategic evaluations, historical mappings, and problem analyses;
• Critically assess how digital technologies function in social, political, and economic contexts;
• Simulate roles and decision-making processes relevant to digital strategy and policy;
• Identify connections, patterns, and consequences across different digital phenomena.

Making Judgements

Students will be able to critically evaluate digital phenomena, ethical implications, and strategic choices. They will be able to:

• Make informed judgments on the use and consequences of digital technologies;
• Reflect on ethical challenges related to surveillance, data use, and algorithmic governance;
• Evaluate the effectiveness and impact of digital strategies and platforms;
• Analyze the presence of ideological and systemic biases in digital narratives and practices;
• Formulate well-reasoned arguments by considering multiple perspectives and sources.

Communication

Students will develop the ability to express complex ideas clearly, collaboratively, and persuasively in academic and practical settings. They will be able to:

• Communicate effectively in both oral and written forms using appropriate academic language;
• Participate in structured dialogue, peer feedback, and group discussions;
• Present arguments, critiques, and proposals to a variety of audiences;
• Use digital platforms and tools for collaborative communication and presentation;
• Express interdisciplinary insights through a variety of media and formats.

Learning Skills

Students will develop the capacity for independent, reflective, and collaborative learning in dynamic and interdisciplinary environments. They will be able to:

• Take initiative in learning through reading, research, and media exploration;
• Reflect on their learning process and integrate feedback to improve their work;
• Adapt to new tools, technologies, and conceptual frameworks;
• Engage with diverse materials and perspectives beyond the classroom context;
• Collaborate effectively with peers to solve problems and develop shared knowledge.

Course Syllabus

The detailed syllabus of the Module CM2a is available for students enrolled at DIGISOC via the Learning Management System OpenOLAT:

Compulsory Module 2a: Digital Technology and Society: Theories and Emerging Issues (146502)

The course aims at analyzing the theories and models of digital politics. In the first part key concepts of political science will be investigated, by reflecting in particular on the transformations brought about by the sudden spread of new technologies in the political and social sphere. The main areas and actors of this change will be discussed, with reference to mechanisms for forming the opinions of citizens, political organization and public administration.

The second part of the course will aim at considering new technologies in the field of public administration and public policies, also with reference to AI applications. In this key, the student will be provided with theoretical-applicative knowledge relating to the use of tools for the analysis and evaluation of public policies in the new digital context.

Course Content

The module will comprise five modules.

• The first module will be dedicated to reconstructing the transformations in politics and society following the impact of digital technology. The new concept of digicracy will be introduced. Students will be invited to understand the aspects and consequences of the digicratic regime through workshop-style reflection, including the use of artificial intelligence tools.
• The second part will aim at presenting the framework of administrative innovation through new technologies. Students will be asked to analyse experiences and carry out analysis and comparison activities.
• The third part will present the concept of digital regulation, by considering the main fields – and challenges – of its application, such as the internal restructuring of public administration, the design of public services, the establishment and defense of administrative boundaries.
• The fourth part will be dedicated to reflect on the impact of AI in the political and social reality. Applications to public administration and public policies will be investigated.
• The focus of the fifth part will be digital twins (Dt) which represent one of the most advanced frontiers of digital innovation. Their growing relevance is evidenced by the rapid emergence of a vast body of literature on the subject, which has expanded alongside a remarkable increase in global investments in this field. More in detail, this part will ragard three fundamental dimensions in which Dt challenge conventional frameworks in political science: control, management, and design.

Learning Outcomes

The Digital Politics module aims to provide students with the essential knowledge and methodological tools to analyse and understand digital politics. In particular, the analysis conducted during the course will provide students with a method for independently observing and analysing the main processes of change related to new technologies. The course aims to impart the operational skills necessary to apply political science knowledge and methodologies in practice, with particular reference to the field of digital politics. The course is therefore geared, on the one hand, towards imparting basic knowledge of digital politics and, on the other, towards providing specific methodological tools for the analysis, implementation and evaluation of public administration and public policies in the new digital context. Students will also be asked to experiment with AI tools in this field.

Knowledge and understanding

The Digital Politics module aims to provide students with the essential knowledge and methodological tools to analyse and understand digital politics. In particular, the analysis conducted during the course will provide students with a method for independently observing and analysing the main processes of change related to new technologies.

Applying knowledge and understanding

The course aims to develop the operational skills necessary to apply political science knowledge and methodologies in practice, with particular reference to the field of digital politics. The course is therefore geared, on the one hand, towards imparting basic knowledge of digital politics and, on the other, towards providing specific methodological tools for the analysis, implementation and evaluation of public administration and public policies in the new digital context. Students will also be asked to experiment with AI tools in this field.

Course Syllabus

The detailed syllabus of the Module CM2b is available for students enrolled at DIGISOC via the Learning Management System OpenOLAT:

Compulsory Module 2b: Digital Politics (146503).

This course will discuss the fundamental concepts of digitalization and datafication. Focus topics include the social, cultural, political, and economic impacts of digital transformations. The significance of ethics, law, and governance in the digital age is examined.

Course Content

The course will focus on the following topics:

• Governance in Times of Technological Change;
• Ethics, Studying in Digital Times and Global Digital Citizenship;
• Sustainability in Tech Governance;
• Ethics and Governance of Online Communication Spaces;
• Discourse and Democracy: Systemic Risks and Disinformation;
• Ethics and Governance of Human- Machine- Interactions;
• Quantum Ethics and Governance;
• AI and Ethics: Regulating for Maximizing Welfare;
• The Future of Citizenship in the Digital Age: Being Online, Well-being Online, Rights Online.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

Students will be able to apply the conceptual and analytical tools needed for a critical, creative, future-oriented and engaged understanding and exploration of:

• the relationship between society, communication and digital technologies;
• the emergence of digital cultures;
• the social implications of the uses of digital technologies;
• the relationship between digital technologies, culture and identity in contemporary societies;
• the transformations that digital technologies stimulate in politics and the public sphere;
• the relationship between digitalization and inequalities;
• how human rights, democracy, inclusion, and diversity are relevant for digital technology development and implementation, and how human society is changing as a result of digital innovations;
• different ethical perspectives on digitalization;
• processes of digitalisation and datafication and the associated opportunities and challenges for social life, overarching and context-related questions and conclusions in the areas of ethics, law and governance; and social, cultural, political, legal and economic aspects of processes of digitalisation and the datafication of societies.

Applying knowledge and understanding

Students will be able to:

• assess and critically reflect on processes of digitalization and datafication and the associated opportunities and challenges for social life;
• have the competence to independently formulate overarching and context-related questions and conclusions in the areas of ethics, law and governance;
• describe social, cultural, political and economic aspects of processes of digitalization and datafication;
• analyze digital methods and data from an ethical perspective, reflect on them critically.

Course Syllabus

The detailed syllabus of the Modules CM2c are available for students enrolled at DIGISOC via the Learning Management System OpenOLAT:

• Compulsory Module 2c: SE Ethics and Governance (146504).