Digital Economy and Society (GSS509)

GSS509 Digital Economy and Society provides an advanced exploration of the digital transformation of the economy. It examines how digital technologies are disrupting traditional business models, creating new market dynamics, and fundamentally restructuring the nature of economic activity. The course takes a critical sociological perspective, investigating how social processes, power relations, and cultural norms continue to shape digital economic life despite the apparent abstraction of online interactions. Students will learn to analyse how digital platforms both reflect and reinforce existing inequalities and hierarchies in society. A central theme is the tension between the social nature of economic life and its digital representation. The course will deconstruct how algorithms, data, and networked connections in digital markets impact society. Particular attention will be given to the role of artificial intelligence, automation ethics, and algorithmic decision-making in reshaping platform power, labour markets, financial systems, and the governance structures that security professionals must navigate. Students will be given the opportunity to reflect on foundational concepts of economic action, value, and labour in the age of digitalisation. They will engage with the challenges and opportunities of the gig economy, platform capitalism, and algorithmic decision-making. The role of algorithms, collaborative platforms, and the automation of finance will be scrutinised. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to analyse digital power structures and their security implications, and to formulate policy responses to the governance challenges arising from AI-driven economic and social transformation.

• The Evolution of the Digital Economy
• Digital Transformation, Platforms and Algorithmic Governance
• Financial Markets and Technology
• Capitalism and Digital Economy
• Social Impact of Digital Economy
• Changing Nature of Work and AI-Driven Automation
• Gig Economy
• Digital Labour
• Collaborative Economies and AI-Mediated Exchange
• Digital Ownership, Value Creation and Security Implications
• Digital Sovereignty and the Geopolitics of Data
• Future of Digital Economy: Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Emerging Technologies

• Evaluate the key theoretical and methodological debates around digital economy.
• Analyse the range of digital economic phenomena, including the role of AI and algorithmic systems in shaping platforms, markets, and power relations.
• Examine the various aspects of digital economic life, including the opportunities, limitations and societal implications of artificial intelligence and automation.
• Appraise the role of technology including artificial intelligence, and evaluate its impact on economic activity, organisations and society.
• Discuss concerns with regard to the digital mode of the economy.
• Formulate strategies and policies to address challenges related to digital economy.