Digital Society: Addressing Issues of Equity and Justice

The micro-programme seeks to develop students and support them to become interactional experts’ (Collins, 2004). This term refers to those who can work in interdisciplinary ways to address the challenges of ensuring that digital tools and services are developed in equitable and just ways for the communities these seek to support. 

The module focuses on key areas of social life that have been reconfigured by digitalisation, such as work, production and consumption, health, identity, the welfare system, personal relationships, and civic participation. In doing so, it examines crucial and ongoing debates in relation to the increasing datafication of everyday life, the pervasion of surveillance and the impacts of digitalisation on vulnerable populations in the broader context of existing policies and structures of inequality.

You will be taught by leading experts from world-leading universities:

• University of Glasgow (UK),
• University of Tübingen (Germany),
• Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain),
• University of Witwatersrand (South Africa).

Main Topics Addressed

• The sociology of digital society including AI
• Digital media, social participation and lifelong learning 
• Ethical aspects of digital society 
• Power and justice in the digital age from an international perspective 
• Datafication, surveillance and just society

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, the students will be able to:

• Independently identify areas for research in digital society related topic areas, their significance and importance to knowledge development and the end-users of digital services.
• Think carefully and rigorously about the ethics of research and how to consider ethics in the design and development of a digital service.
• Demonstrate the ability to evaluate and formulate digital transformations, involving new approaches to learning, collaboration, and participation within diverse social contexts.

Read more about the micro-programme