Answer either question 1 or question 2.
Q1.
A. Critically address the following question: “With so many people rejecting the
practices of surveillance capitalism, even considering how little most of us know
about these practices, how is it that this market form has been able to succeed?”
(Zuboff, 2019: 341).
B. Drawing on relevant examples, critically consider to what extent the “first text” of
surveillance capitalism resembles the “cloak of ethicality” with which Fleming &
Jones (2013) assert that neoliberalism conceals its true intentions, and explain
Zuboff’s (2019: 504) unexpected revelation that although surveillance capitalism
was nurtured by neoliberalism, its intended outcomes diverge significantly from it.
C. Critically consider the extent to which Polanyi’s (1957) warning about the risks to
society and the environment, from the over-exploitation of “fictitious commodities”,
is now relevant to surveillance capitalism, and how such risks may be adequately
contained and controlled.
Answer all parts. Each part carries equal weight.
References:
Fleming, M. & Jones, M. (2013), The End of CSR, London: Sage
Polanyi, K. (1957), The Great Transformation, Boston (MA): Beacon Press
Zuboff, S. (2019), The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, London: Profile
Q2.
A. Critically discuss if and how autonomous and intelligent systems (A/IS) might
enable the UN SDGs to be achieved by 2030 and save the planet from
catastrophic climate-related impacts.
B. Critically evaluate the ethicality of turning to social physics as one possible
“pathway out of gridlock” (Hale et al., 2013:306) which, if vested in “supranational
institutions with enforcing power” (Perez (2016), in Jacobs & Mazzucato,
2016:214), could lead to a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive society.
C. Critically evaluate one other potentially viable way (e.g. the Collaborative
Commons, or the Belt and Road Initiative with its Environmental Big Data
Platform) “to heal the planet and advance a sustainable economy” (Rifkin, 2013:
305).
Answer all parts. Each part carries equal weight.
References
Hale, T., Held, D. & Young, K. (2013), Gridlock, Cambridge: Polity Press
Jacobs, M. & Mazzucato, M. (2016), Rethinking Capitalism, Chichester: WileyBlackwell
Rifkin, J. (2013), The Zero Marginal Cost Society, London: Palgrave Macmillan
