We started PCDC because we were increasingly dissatisfied with i) how slow political science and - to a lesser extent - sociology have been at engaging with digitalization (broadly understood) and with ii) the lack of professional forums bringing scholars together that do precisely that.
The reading group is meant to address both of these concerns in at least some ways. On the one hand, we want to meet and discuss – around once a month – recent work on digital capitalism. This can be everything from published work to grant proposals to draft papers. On the other hand, we want to bring people together that work on similar topics, hoping that something tangible comes out of it. This can be everything from a panel at a conference to a workshop to a special issue.
What do we mean by ‘recent work on digital capitalism’? In a nutshell, what we have in mind is work that tries to understand i) how digitalization is changing capitalism, ii) how capitalism shapes digitalization, and iii) how all of this is intermediated by politics and culture (e.g., power, institutions, ideas, etc).
Michael Kemmerling, Felix Maschewski, Anna-Verena Nosthoff & Timo Seidl