On 2 December 2022, the online symposium New Perspectives on the Digital Economy: Sharing, Platforms & Regulation took place. The event was jointly organized by Associate Professor Christoph Lutz (Nordic Centre for Internet and Society, BI Norwegian Business School), Associate Professor Mikko Laamanen (emlyon Business School) and Dr. Volker Stocker (Weizenbaum Institute/TU Berlin).
Perspectives from many fields and countries
The one-day symposium marked the second of its kind. Eleven renowned speakers from across the world presented their papers, among others Giana Eckhardt (Professor at King’s College London), Pinar Özcan (Professor at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford), Johannes Bauer (Professor at Michigan State University and Director of the Quello Center), Alessandro Gandini (Associate Professor at Università degli Studi di Milano), Brooke Erin Duffy (Associate Professor at Cornell University), and Angèle Christin (Assistant Professor at Stanford University).
Furthermore, the event provided a venue for ample discussion on different aspects of the digital economy, from development and trajectories of sharing economy services, to openness and governance issues of digital platforms, to aspects of inequality and power in new forms of work such as the influencer industry, neo-craft work and ride-hailing (Uber). The fields included economics, sociology, information systems, law, and communication.
A well attended event with many fruitful and constructive discussions
The symposium was split into four sessions, with three presentations for each session, except the second one. A full overview of the sessions and talks is available here. The presentations were recorded and the recordings (without discussion) will be made available in due time.
Overall, the Symposium was well attended, with around 80 participants throughout the day. The discussions were fruitful and constructive, showing how the digital economy comes with novel opportunities, for example in the form of new types of careers, flexible and meaningful ways of working and exciting digital innovations. However, several talks and discussions also stressed how these opportunities are unequally distributed and how governing the complex digital economy ecosystem is challenging.