INCA project

TALK: Economies of measurement: from productivity, to movement, to desire
2025-10-08 18:00 - 19:30 (Europe/Madrid) | Sala Tassinari, Palazzo d’Accursio, Bologna
On 8 October 2025, at 18:00, the talk Economies of measurement: from productivity, to movement, to desire will be held at Sala Tassinari,Palazzo d’Accursio, Bologna.

This is the second talk to be held as part of the programme of activities organized in relation to the INCA exhibition Data Materialities, open from 20 September to 12 October in Sala d’Ercole of the same palace.

The talk will feature a dialogue between Lorenza Pignatti (NABA Milan) & Superkilogirls (Lua Vollaard). It will explore the historical marginalization of women’s work in the early days of computing. The research of both professionals recontextualizes a materialist and feminist reading of techno-accelerationism.

In parallel with the works exhibited in Data Materialities, this conversation aims to highlight the potential of artistic practices, which allow us to propose speculative structures from which to reposition the digital on a human scale, shedding light on Data Materiality as a frame of reference for the contemporary study of technology.

The talk will be delivered in English. Prior registration via the following form is recommended.

This initiative is promoted within the framework of the INCA project, carried out by the University of Bologna in collaboration with Fondazione IU Rusconi Ghigi and Big Tech Watch Think Tank.

Talk: Promiscuous Approaches to Digital Spatiality
2025-10-01 18:00 - 19:30 | Sala Verde, Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna, Italy
On 1 October 2025, at 18:00, the talk Promiscuous approaches to digital spatiality will be held at Sala Verde, Palazzo d’Accursio, Bologna.
This event is part of the program of activities organized in relation to the INCA exhibition Data Materialities, open from 20 September to 12 October in Sala d’Ercole of the same palace.
In this first talk, the project The Ghost Platform, led by Benjamin Gerdes, will engage in dialogue with Letizia Chiappini from the collective Slutty Urbanism. Through an open exchange, the political implications underlying the aesthetics of logistics will be explored. Topics will include data production understood as labor, the extraction of urban resources presented as an “improvement” for citizens rather than as monetization of their data, and the possible implications of “promiscuous” and “slutty” approaches to the visualization of digital capitalism infrastructures.
The talk will be delivered in English. Prior registration via the following form is recommended.
This initiative is promoted within the framework of the INCA project, carried out by the University of Bologna in collaboration with Fondazione IU Rusconi Ghigi and Big Tech Watch Think Tank.

INCA Exhibition ‘Data Materialities’ Opening in Bologna
2025-09-20 - 2025-10-12 | Sala d’Ercole, Sala d'Ercole, Palazzo d'accursio, Piazza maggiore 6,, Bologna, Italy
📅 Opening: September 20, 2025, 5:00 PM (followed by buffet)🖼️ On view: September 20 – October 12, 2025📍 Location: Sala d’Ercole, Palazzo d’Accursio, Bologna
DescriptionINCA presents Data Materialities, an exhibition exploring the hidden infrastructures, labor, and materials that sustain our digital world. Featuring collaborations by EXTENTS (McClain Clutter & Cyrus Peñarroyo), Morgane Billuart, Rául Silva, and soju.studio, the show translates research on data materialities into immersive architectural environments.Beyond the exhibition itself, Data Materialities will be accompanied by a series of talks and public meetings.
Program

September 20, 5:00 PM – Exhibition opening, Sala d’Ercole, Palazzo d’Accursio (Bologna)
October 1, 6:00 PM – Talk with Letizia Chiappini (Slutty Urbanism) and Benjamin Gerdes (Ghost Platform Project), Sala Verde, Palazzo d’Accursio (Bologna)
October 8, 6:00 PM – Talk with Lua Vollaard (Superkilo Girls) and Lorenza Pignatti (NABA Milano), Sala Tassinari, Palazzo d’Accursio (Bologna)
October 10, 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM – Meeting “Piattaforme e digitale: un modulo educativo per le scuole”, Sala Anziani, Palazzo d’Accursio (Bologna)
October 10, 4:00 – 5:30 PM – Meeting “Design partecipativo di nuove piattaforme digitali per la città: linee guida, buone pratiche etiche e alternative a confronto”, Sala Anziani, Palazzo d’Accursio (Bologna), followed by a guided tour and closing buffet. (Registration required)

Opening hours

Tue–Thu: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Fri: 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Sat–Sun: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Mon: Closed

👉 [Read the full news story here]

Edoardo Mollona keynote speaker at the final conference of the Rebalance project
2025-09-17 11:30 - 12:30 | University of Pisa, Le Benedettine Conference Center, Piazza S. Paolo a Ripa D’Arno, 16, Le Benedettine Conference Center, Piazza S. Paolo a Ripa D'Arno, 16, Pisa, Select a State or Province:, 56125, Italy
On 17 September, our project coordinator Edoardo Mollona will participate in the final conference of our sister project Rebalance, which aims to provide new insights, resources, events, and learning materials to help foster a rebalancing of capitalism and democracy. He has been invited as a keynote speaker and will share INCA’s results on what the European media say when they talk about GAFAM and how this is politically relevant.

INCA team at the 9th APA Congress
2025-07-14 - 2025-07-18 | Esc.Sec. Monserrate Room 6.3, Viana do Castelo, Portugal
From July 14 to 18, the 9th Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association (APA) will take place in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, with participation from our colleagues at the University of Barcelona, Fabiola Mancinelli and Verna Alcalde.
On July 16, INCA members will present a paper titled “Content Moderation and Lifestyle Migration: Ethnographic Insights into Barcelona’s Digital Workforce” as part of the panel “Rooted or Remote: Exploring the Impact of Digitally Mediated Work on Mobility and Belonging.” This panel aims to encourage reflection on how changes in the work environment influence people’s perceptions, aspirations, and practices related to mobility and immobility throughout different life stages and contexts.

INCA team at the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology
2025-07-10 11:00 - 12:45 | Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences, Avenue des Nations Unies 721 Agdal, Rabat, Morocco
From 6 to 11 July, the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology will be held in Rabat (Morocco). This edition invites to reflect on Knowing Justice in the Anthropocene through an intense academic exchange and public engagement. The INCA team will contribute by making several presentations during the event.
On July 10th, from 11:00 AM to 12:45 PM, there will be a session titled “Infrastructural Power of GAFAM and Worker Power in the Platform Economy“. This session is organized by members of INCA, with Adam Mrozowicki from the University of Wroclaw serving as the organizer and Dora Fonseca from CoLABOR as the chair.
During the session, two oral presentations will be made on papers prepared by INCA:

David Versus Goliath: Power Resources and Collective Action in the Context of GAFAM’s Outsourcing Practices. Franco Tomassoni & Sara Nunes, CoLABOR.
Contested Amazonification: Comparing Amazon Workers’ Struggles in Italy and Poland. Adam Mrozowicki, Olga Gitkiwicz & Szymon Pilch, University of Wroclaw; Mattia Frapporti & Maurilio Pirone, University of Bologna.

Therefore, the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology will have a large representation of the INCA team, which will present interesting content. Stay tuned for more details on their interventions!

Barcelona INCA OIL gets underway
2025-06-05 09:45 - 18:15 | Sala Jordi Maragall, CIDOB. Elisabets 12, Barcelona, 08001, Spain
On 5 June, OIL Barcelona will hold its first public event, marking the official launch of the participatory innovation lab.
Organised by INCA’s partner, the University of Barcelona, and CIDOB, a research centre in international relations based in Barcelona, the meeting stems from the synergy between INCA and another Horizon Europe research project, called DIGNITYFIRM.
The event aims to reflect on the future of the platform economy by bringing together experts, professionals, and stakeholders from the sector.
During the day, three roundtables will be held where INCA members will present the project’s results. Each session will concentrate on a specific topic related to platform capitalism:
1) The impact on the working conditions of migrants.
2) The impact on urban space.
3) Existing alternative models.

A paper by INCA researchers at COSMOS Conference
2025-05-26 | Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza Strozzi, Florence, 50123, Italy
On May 26, INCA researchers Mattia Frapporti (University of Bologna) and Adam Mrozowicki (University of Wrocław) will participate in a conference entitled “Reclaiming Power: Bridging Social Movements and Industrial Relations in Labour Mobilisation”.
The conference will be held in Florence (Italy) and is organized by COSMOS – Centre on Social Movement Studies of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore.
The event focuses on renewed interest in class issues within social movements and labor studies and expects participants to shed light on workers’ strategies for collective action and their role in reshaping labour politics, considering their interaction with various social actors, including mainstream and grassroots unions. In this context, INCA researchers will present a paper entitled “Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History? Struggles within Amazon in Italy and Poland”.

Bucharest OIL workshop: “Co-design space: platform creation and process governance”
2025-05-22 09:00 - 12:00 | Arcub – sala Subsol, Bucharest, Romania
On May 22, as an activity of the Bucharest Open Innovation Lab, a workshop entitled “Co-design space: platform creation and process governance” will be held.
The event, organized by Urbasofia in collaboration with ADIZMB, will take place in Bucharest at the Arcub – Subsol hall. It will last for approximately 3 hours, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. During this time, around 20 stakeholders will come together to collaboratively design the governance model and participatory mechanisms for a new civic digital platform, envisioned as an ethical alternative to Facebook.
The session will concentrate on the governance, maintenance, and co-ownership of the platform by public institutions, civil society, and citizens. The workshop aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and sustainable framework for civic technology in Bucharest. This will be achieved through presentations, small group discussions, and co-creation activities.

INCA Consortium Meeting in Lisbon
2025-04-09 - 2025-04-11 | Sala da Bica, Convento de São Pedro de Alcântara, Lisbon, Portugal
On 9-11 April, an INCA Consortium Meeting will be held in Lisbon.
The project is entering its final year of activities, and after dedicating the initial phase to theoretical analysis, we are now concentrating our efforts on field research and impact activities.
The upcoming meeting days in the Portuguese capital present an excellent opportunity to collaboratively share key research findings among research units and to explore further work possibilities.
With this goal in mind, a comprehensive agenda has been prepared, featuring presentations from team members and roundtable discussions focused on the three areas where big tech companies exert their influence: politics, economics, and culture.
We will keep you informed about the progress of the meeting and the results we achieve together!

INCA at the STS Hub 2025 Conference
2025-03-11 - 2025-03-14
From 11 to 14 March, INCA will participate in the STS Hub 2025 Conference in Berlin.
Under the title ‘Diffracting the Critical’ the event will bring together more than 600 academics from different disciplines, careers, cultures and identities and will feature multiple activities.
On 14 March, INCA member Maurilio Pirone (UNIBO) will present on the panel ‘The Conjunctural Critics on “Digital Platforms” as Urban Infrastructures’. His speech entitled ‘The Conjunctural Geographies of the Territorialisation of Platforms’ will focus on the forms and effects of the digital infrastructuralisation of urban spaces.
We will provide all the details of his contribution in our newsroom. In the meantime, you can find more information about the conference and its program at this link.

Launch of Bucharest city OIL
2025-02-06 | Bucharest, Romania
On February 6, the Bucharest city Open Innovation Lab (OIL) will be launched at an event organized by the Bucharest-Ilfov Regional Development Agency for the AI4Citizens project.
At the launch event, INCA members from Urbasofia will present the details of the OIL, which will focus on gaining a deeper understanding of the role Facebook plays in public discourse and the democratic process. The ultimate goal is to create guidelines for developing an inclusive and ethical alternative to Facebook, to ensure better communication and transparency between public administration, citizens and specialists.

INCA researchers at IX SISEC - PAVIA 2025 Conference
2025-01-29 - 2025-02-01 | Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali, Università di Pavia, Corso Strada Nuova, 65, 27100, Pavia
On 29 January to 1 February, the IX SISEC conference will be held in Pavia (Italy) under the title ‘Visible and invisible in changing capitalism: enterprises, labour, territories and policies’.
The annual conference aims to be a place for reflection, deepening and contamination between different approaches, using these keys to understand the dynamics of contemporary capitalism from a plurality of points of view. The agenda of the event consists of an extensive programme with many talks on a variety of topics and among the speakers will be two UNIBO researchers from the INCA team.
On the one hand, on 29 January, Maurilio Pirone will give a presentation titled ‘Work multiplication and algorithmic control: Amazon as an ecosystem’.
On the other hand, on 30 January, Mattia Frapporti will speak on ‘The carbon foot-print of digital infrastructure. Research trajectories to be prepared to AI revolution’.

Launching of the Bologna Open Innovation Lab
2024-12-05 10:30 - 13:30 | Sala Tassinari, Palazzo D’Accursio, Bologna, Bologna, Italy
On December 5, the Bologna Open Innovation Lab will be launched during the 2nd Just Transitions Forum at the event titled ‘INCA Workshop: How to Support Policies and Partnerships for an Alternative to Large Digital Platforms.’
The event will consist of an opening seminar on the social and environmental impact of large digital platforms such as GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) and the definition of potential alternatives, namely regarding platform workers’ health and safety conditions.
INCA coordinator Edoardo Mollona and other members of the team from the University of Bologna and Fondazione IU Rusconi Ghigi will participate in the event.
The event will take place at Sala Tassinari, Palazzo D’Accursio in Bologna from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Participation is open to everyone, but registration is required. Please note that the event will be conducted in Italian.

Joint International Workshop in Lisbon: "Global Infrastructures: Aesthetic Power and Affective Networks in the (Post-)colonial Present"
2024-11-28 09:00 - 18:00 | Colégio Almada Negreiros, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, SE1 Seminar Room
On 28 November, Joint International Workshop will take place in Lisbon, organized by the Institute of Contemporary History of Lisbon and the University of Bologna, in collaboration with COLABOR, INCA, IN2PAST, and the University of Évora.
Several partners from INCA are participating in the event titled “Global Infrastructures: Aesthetic Power and Affective Networks in the (Post)Colonial Present.” Members from CoLABOR, Unibo, and SUPSI will serve as moderators and speakers during various activities throughout the event’s program.
The workshop aims to focus on infrastructures as semiotic and aesthetic vehicles. It promotes a collective investigation of the aesthetic and affective dimension of global infrastructures, with an emphasis on how it interacts with colonial projects, capitalist enterprises and cultural superstructures.
Click on the attached images to view the day’s program and learn more about the main guests and specific topics.

INCA RESEARCH SEMINAR: Big Tech politics and infrastructures. Current developments and potential alternatives.
2024-10-22 14:00 | Aula seminari Santa Cristina (piazzetta G. Morandi 2), Bologna, Italy
On 22 October, organised by INCA partners UNIBO, SUPSI, and Fondazione IU Rusconi Ghigi, a seminar entitled “Big Tech Politics and Infrastructures: Current Developments and Potential Alternatives” will be held in Bologna.
In this afternoon of studies, some INCA researchers have invited Ana Valdivia and Vili Lehdonvirta to discuss with them the latest scientific developments on the project’s themes, with a particular focus on the topic of infrastructures and Big Tech politics, starting from the important works on the subject produced by the two scholars.
Full program:

14:30 Introduction to the event (Edoardo Mollona, UNIBO)
15:00 Infrastructures of the Digital

– Introduction: Mattia Frapporti (UNIBO)
– Talk by Ana Valdivia (Departmental Research Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Government & Policy at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII)
– Discussant: Niccolò Cuppini (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern
Switzerland)

16:30 Coffee break
17:00 The Politics of Big Tech

– Introduction: Maurilio Pirone (UNIBO)
– Talk by Vili Lehdonvirta (Professor of Technology Policy, Aalto University, Finland)
– Discussant: Sandro Mezzadra (UNIBO)

TALK: Cables, Data and Labour. How to Visualize Digital Capitalism.
2024-10-17 18:30 | Sala Tassinari, Palazzo D’Accursio, Bologna, Bologna, Italy
On 17 October, there will be a talk entitled ‘Cables, Data and Labour. How to Visualize Digital Capitalism’. Organised by several partners of the INCA project (UNIBO, SUPSI, and Fondazione IU Rusconi Ghigi), the coordinator Edoardo Mollona will be in charge of introducing the talk in which the speakers will be the 5 artists selected for the INCA exhibition to be produced during the 2025.
Digital technologies are increasingly shaping the spaces, temporalities and configurations in which we live together. Their use is pervasive and simultaneously invisible. Behind each touch on our smartphones, there is an articulated and stratified overlapping of devices and services, hardware and software like the cloud, the AI, data centres and fibre cables. They all contribute to shape a global dimension of connectivity which is not free from conflicts and tensions.
Art and architecture have also been affected by this set of innovations we label as digital innovation. On the occasion of Big Tech and Counter-Technologies residency in Bologna, 5 practitioners will meet the public to illustrate their perspective on how digital tech today can be approached through their artistic practice. With a critical focus on tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft, selected projects engage the materiality of techno-capitalism on micro, meso to macro scales. Questions of labour, logistics, infrastructure and space thread each project together to pose the following: what is the spatiality of the digital? And how can we propose and visualise alternative imaginings?
Participants:

Intro: Edoardo Mollona (University of Bologna)
Speakers: Michel Kessler, Morgane Billuart, Raúl Silva, Cyrus Peñarroyo, McClain Clutter

INCA's findings at the 7th Social Boundaries of Work International Conference
2024-10-16 - 2024-10-18 | wroclaw, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław., Wroclaw, Poland
On 16-18 October, the 7th edition of the Social Boundaries of Work International Conference will be held in Wroclaw. It is co-organized by INCA researchers from the University of Wrocław.
Under the title ‘Social Boundaries of Work. Critical Labour Studies in the Times of a Polycrisis’, the conference is dedicated to analysing the relationship between academia and the world of work in the context of overlapping and reinforcing socio-economic crises.
The COVID-19 pandemic was not only a profound crisis of public health, but also of public services and social security systems, which have been under pressure from neoliberal reforms for years. The escalation of armed conflicts in Europe as a result of Russia’s large-scale attack on Ukraine only exacerbated the refugee movements that had been taking place for years. The post-pandemic reality is also marked by a cost-of-living crisis that has deepened existing social inequalities and the impoverishment of many groups of workers.
Within the programme, on Thursday 17, our colleagues Adam Mrozowicki, Olga Gitkiewicz and Szymon Pilch (University of Wroclaw) will present INCA findings.

CALL FOR PAPERS for the V Forum of the International Sociological Association
2024-08-12 - 2024-10-15 | Rabat, Rabat, Morocco
Call for papers. The deadline for submission is the 15th of October, 2024
The INCA project team has organised a session to be held during the V Forum of the International Sociological Association, to be celebrated in Rabat, Morocco, on 6-11 July 2025.
The session is organized by Adam Mrozowicki (University of Wroclaw) and Dora Fonseca (Colabor). The session description is as follows:
Infrastructural Power of Gafam and Worker Power in the Platform Economy
GAFAMs, big tech platform companies such as Google (Alphabet), Amazon, Facebook (Meta Platforms), Apple and Microsoft, are pressuring national industrial relations systems everywhere. As infrastructural platforms, these transnational companies provide essential infrastructures (both physical and digital), thus amassing great power. GAFAM operations are carried out by combining both direct investment and outsourcing and subcontracting GAFAM services. Outsourcing services allows GAFAM companies to indirectly influence industrial relations systems and mitigate the internal impact of the capital/labor conflict within their own business units by displacing these tensions to intermediary levels. It also allows GAFAM to circumvent national legal frameworks on labour standards, in addition to the adoption of union-busting practices that disrespect the internationally recognized rights (by ILO) of freedom of association and collective bargaining. Labour conflicts have been on the rise in several GAFAMs’ sites, bringing to the fore debates on the impacts of GAFAMs on national industrial relation systems, and evince different strategies from industrial relations actors, both traditional and new. Labour movements’ power resources and innovation capacity are being tested, and different responses and outcomes might be expected according to the varieties of trade unionism at stake. By the same token, industrial relation systems are expected to display distinctive levels of resilience in the face of GAFAMs challenges.
We invite papers which draw on social theory and industrial relations to discuss and illuminate the challenges posed by GAFAMs to national industrial relations systems all around the world.
https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/forum2025/webprogrampreliminary/Session19950.html
Abstract submission can be found here:
https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/forum2025/cfp.cgi
FAQ is located under this link:
https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/forum/rabat-2025/5th-isa-forum-call-for-abstracts
Key Points for Submission
For submitting your abstract, you should prepare:
Title
Keywords – Up to four custom keywords.
Author(s) – Presenting author and any co-authors. There is a limit of seven (7) authors.
Abstract – Abstract text may not exceed 300 words and can be entered in either English, French or Spanish. Please review the languages accepted in the session you want to submit for.
Duties and Deadlines
Abstracts Submission Opens: August 5, 2024
Abstracts Submission Closes: October 15, 2024 – No deadline extensions.
Notification of Acceptance: December 5, 2024
Rules for all presenters
All abstracts must be submitted in English, French or Spanish. Please review the languages accepted in the session you want to submit.
There is a limit of seven (7) authors per abstract.
Authors and co-authors cannot present and chair in the same session. Please note that the session organizer and chair do not need to be the same person.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Global Infrastructures: Aesthetic Power and Affective Networks in the (Post-)colonial Present
2024-08-06 - 2024-09-10 | Nova University, Lisbon, Portugal
Call for papers. The deadline for submission is September 10, 2024
Since the nineteenth century, an ever-more complex web of roads, railways, airports, oil pipelines, shipping lanes, fibre-optic cables, tunnels, aqueducts, gas networks, and electrical systems sustains and supports modern life. Built above, through and below the ground, infrastructural systems constitute foundational sociotechnical assemblages of modern societies: a series of installations that shape both biological and social life. A number of scholars –working across several disciplines– have begun interrogating the aesthetic dimension of these infrastructural systems, pointing to their ability to induce a “feeling of modernity”.
A collaborative workshop organized by the Institute of Contemporary History at Nova University Lisbon and the University of Bologna, and partially funded by INCA, intends to focus on infrastructures as semiotic and aesthetic vehicles. It promotes a collective investigation of the aesthetic and affective dimension of global infrastructures, emphasizing how it interacts with colonial projects, capitalist ventures, and cultural superstructures. Learn more about the workshop here.
We particularly welcome contributions focusing on questions such as:

What ideological messages are embedded in different infrastructural systems from the nineteenth century to the present?
How can historical approaches help us rethink the relationship between global infrastructures, imperialism and ideology?
What is the affective dimension associated with different infrastructural materials from steel to glass, plastics and concrete?
What has been the impact of climate change and the ecological crisis on global infrastructures and their aesthetics?
What aesthetic forms and future-looking imaginaries are embedded in contemporary infrastructures and digital platforms?

Papers dealing with all these aspects are welcome, from an interdisciplinary perspective. Interested scholars are invited to send a long abstract between 300 and 500 words and a short bio to policante@fcsh.unl.pt and/or to mattia.frapporti2@unibo.it by the 10th of September 2024.
The final workshop will take place on November 28th, 2024, at the Nova University of Lisbon. Financial support for travelling and accommodation may be available, especially for independent scholars, doctoral candidates, and early-career researchers.

“Looking back, moving forward” : Re-assessing technology regulation in digitalized worlds
2024-07-08 - 2024-07-10 | Tilburg University campus
The Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT), is delighted to announce the 8th edition of the TILTing Perspectives Conference “Looking back, moving forward: Re-assessing technology regulation in digitalized worlds”.
The conference will take place on July 8, 9, 10, 2024 at the Tilburg University campus and will coincide with TILT’s 30th anniversary celebrations. We see this as a fitting moment to take stock of decades of technology regulation and how it impacts our lives and the digitalized worlds around us.
Looking back, moving forward: What has been accomplished? By whom? And where? What is missing? Who is missing? What can we say about the relations between technology-focused regulation and other regulatory foci and modes of standard-setting?
Reflecting on these questions leads us along diverse paths of inquiry. In the realm of governance: the ways in which different forms of technology regulation are being designed, critiqued, promoted, exported, and rejected, raise questions of standing and agency with regard to technology as a power, as well as on regulatory power. On the intersection of human rights & technology, perceived challenges to a broad range of established fundamental rights raise questions about the suitability of old and new legal frameworks such as treaty law and national constitutions, the proposed EU AI Act, Data Protection, and Cyber and Data Security regulation — not least in situations of warfare. Questions with regard to competition & innovation focus on the regulatory challenges posed by ongoing social and technological transformations in key sectors such as energy, finance and healthcare, as well as the challenges of (finding new ways of) regulating competition and intellectual property rights in an increasingly digitalized world.

Data, profiles and algorithms: how digital platforms influence reality
2024-05-22 18:00 | Klubokawiarnia Recepcja, 46 Ruska Street, Wrocław, Poland
The Wrocław Branch of the Polish Sociological Society and the Institute of Sociology of the University of Wrocław, in cooperation with the Wrocław Institute of Culture, has organised another meeting as part of the SocioPerception series (vol. 41). The meeting, entitled “SocjoPercepcja vol. 41 | Dane, profile i algorytmy: w jaki sposób platformy cyfrowe wpływają na rzeczywistość (Data, profiles and algorithms: how digital platforms influence reality)”, will take place on 22 May (Wednesday) at 6 p.m. at Klubokawiarnia Recepcja, 46 Ruska Street in Wrocław (Poland).
Digitisation permeates many aspects of everyday life, influencing social and professional life. It creates conditions for the realisation of business models that have no spatial or temporal limits. This leads to ignoring workers’ rights, employing various anti-union strategies and limiting opportunities to improve working conditions. This poses a serious challenge to the protection of individual and collective workers’ rights and employment relations. It also reveals the difficulties in exercising effective control over these companies by community countries and the European Union itself.
Digital platforms and technology companies are challenging national and EU policy-makers and citizens on issues such as the practice of democracy, widening social and economic inequalities, and declining trust in public institutions. In particular, GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft) / Big Tech and digital work platforms (Uber, Bolt, or TaskRabbit, Freelancer, among others), are able to shape opinions, organise and manage work and influence the political debate. GAFAM and its growing capabilities have started a debate on how to deal with the transformations it has triggered. Currently, the role of the institutions of liberal democracy and the market economy in the public and economic life of European societies seems to be limited due to the difficulties of regulating the corporate power of platforms.
During the meeting, we want to show how platforms use their power. We will also look at legal solutions for the regulation of corporate power and the impact of platforms on social life and public services in EU countries, e.g. the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) and the use of algorithms and automated decision-making, for example with regard to credit rating or profiling of unemployed people. Does the use of algorithms guarantee impartial assessments? Does it comply with the law and democratic values? Can an algorithm be considered a legal act? Why should citizens and citizens be able to control the ways in which algorithms and automated decision-making operate in different areas of life? All these questions are relevant because the development of platforms is closely linked to the exploitation of gaps and contradictions in national and EU legislation.
Guest speakers:
Dr Joanna Mazur – DELab University of Warsaw analyst, assistant professor at the Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw and associate at the Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, author of the book ‘Algorithm as public information in European law’ (WUW, 2021)
Sylwia Czubkowska – Technology journalist, co-author of the Techstorie podcast on TokFM radio. Creator of SpidersWeb+ magazine and its head for the first three years. Previously worked for Gazeta Wyborcza, DGP, Dziennik, Polska The Times and Przekrój weekly. Nominated many times for the most important journalism awards.
Moderation:
Olga Gitkiewicz – sociologist, reporter, journalist, student of the Doctoral College of Sociology at UWr and INCA partner

Critical dialogue by Nick Srnicek and Sandro Mezzadra
2024-05-16 16:30 - 18:00 | Online
As part of the first INCA Scientific Conference, entitled “Big Tech Emerging Power: Insights from the European Landscape”, a critical dialogue will be celebrated in the evening of the first-day meeting: it will be chaired and introduced by Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna) and implemented by Nick Srnicek (London School of Economics and Political Science).
This event is part of the ‘INCA workshop series.’

Nick Srnicek is a senior lecturer in Digital Economy in the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London. Nick’s current interests are in the digital economy, digital development, anti-work politics, and the development of Marxist economics. His most recent book, Platform Capitalism, sets out a framework for understanding the novelties of businesses like Google, Amazon, and Alibaba – as well as how digital platforms generate new tendencies within our economies.
Sandro Mezzadra teaches political theory at the University of Bologna and is an adjunct fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society of Western Sydney University. His recent work has centred on the relations between globalization, migration and capitalism, on contemporary capitalism as well as on postcolonial criticism.
To participate in the event, please click on the following Zoom link

First INCA Scientific Event
2024-05-16 08:00 - 2024-05-17 17:00
The GAFAM wield multifaceted power. They shape opinions, organize and promote new forms of labour, influence politics through lobbying activities, and exert their influence throughout society. Furthermore, they represent a hegemonic approach to business, consolidating power over data, algorithms, and AI. They serve as both digital infrastructures supporting nearly all our online activities, and material infrastructure through ownership of data centres, cloud regions, submarine fibre cables, and warehouses spread across the country. As crucial players in our global landscape, they warrant careful and thorough investigation and discussions.
On the 16th and 17th of May 2024, in San Sebastian/Donostia will be held the first Scientific Meeting of the INCA project that will try to grasp the ecosystemic nature of these giants. The title is “Big Tech Emerging Power: Insights from the European Landscape” and will see a dozen researchers involved in the project exposing their fieldwork and theoretical analysis. Furtherly, a critical dialogue will be performed in the evening of the first-day meeting: it will be chaired and introduced by Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna) and implemented by Nick Srnicek (King’s College London) and Manuela Bojadžijev (Humboldt University Berlin).
After the first-year life of the INCA project, the scientific conference aims to address and discuss the first results of the research. It will be organized in four sections diversified but integrated that will be focused on different aspects. The first section will focus on GAFAM’s political power. It will host speeches related to how platforms implement their political role, the lobbying they do for specific political purposes and how their power should be regulated. The second section it will analyse how these platforms construct and propagate a hegemonic narrative about themselves, contributing to a broader cultural transformation. The third one is titled Infrastructural labour power and will delve into the immense economic influence of these platforms, especially in transforming industrial relations: perspective and examples from Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain will be presented. Finally, the morning of the second day will host the panel titled Platform alternatives and counterpowers, tackling the resistance process that characterized the last decade.
The first INCA Scientific Meeting will serve the dual purpose of fostering further discussion among researchers who have recently begun collaborating and providing another opportunity to disseminate the initial results to a larger audience. What follows is the full Program of the Conference. See you there!
Program of the Conference
16th May
9.45 – 10.00 Welcome
Morning
10.00-11:30: Political Power

Regulating platform power (Inge Graef, University of Tilburg)
How GAFAM lobbied for the Digital Services Act (Edoardo Mollona, University of Bologna)
Platform power: Technic, Aesthetics, Hegemony (Mattia Frapporti, University of Bologna)

Chair: Edoardo Mollona, University of Bologna
11.30-11.45 Break
11.45-13.00: Discourse & Cultural Power
The discourse on GAFAM: what people say when they talk about GAFAM (Martin Molder, University of Tartu)

Platform Political Discourse: Hegemony & Counter-hegemony (Edoardo Mollona, University of Bologna)

Chair: Mattia Frapporti, University of Bologna
14.30-16.00: Infrastructural Labour Power
Convergence or path-dependency? The impact of platformisation on industrial relations models in the EU (Olga Gitkiewicz and Szymon Pilch, University of Wroclaw)

“Algocratic governance” and contemporary forms of labour relationships: the case of Spain’s ‘rider law’ (Ignacio Elpido Dominguez Ruiz and Fabiola Mancinelli, University of Barcelona)
Infrastructural power of Big Tech Labour (Franco Tomassoni COLABOR, Lisbon)

Chair: Maurilio Pirone, University of Bologna
16.30 – 18.00 Critical dialogue (learn more)
Chair and introduction: Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna),
Panelist: Nick Srnicek (King’s College London)
17th May
Morning: Platform Alternatives and Counterpowers
10:00-11:30

Exploring Platform Alternatives: Shaping a Responsible Future (Alina Kontareva, Alexander Von Humboldt, HIIG)
Designing Alternatives (Chiara Faini and Marta Meloni, Fondazione Innovazione Urbana, Bologna)
GAFAM Workers and their Discontent (Renato Miguel do Carmo, COLABOR, Lisbon)

Chair: Niccolò Cuppini, SUPSI
12:00-13:00: Final remarks and pathways towards the book

Who is Driving the Innovation? From Tech Alarmism to Digital Alternatives
2024-03-14 18:00 - 20:00 | Dostoievski (former Plugarilor) str., no. 34-36, room 7
INCA partners Niccolò Cuppini (University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland) and Maurilio Pirone (University of Bologna) will present INCA’s results on the Sociology Research Seminar organized by FSAS-UBB on March 14th.
The dominant contemporary paradigm of technological transformation assumes that a few giant companies have a monopoly on innovation, while people are threatened by mass surveillance and States can simply regulate the market. For this reason, Big Tech has gained overwhelming power nowadays, resembling more and more modern commercial empires. Citizens can only attempt to limit such power embedded in corporate technological supremacy.
Nevertheless, for many years, digital technologies have been the subject of several narratives and attempts aiming to democratize technological innovation as a tool for a fairer society, from cybernetic experiments in the Allende’ Chile to the gift economy of hacker culture.
Drawing upon the results of our ongoing INCA project, our partners will present a genealogy of digital transformations from the 1960s to the present day to highlight how technological innovation has become increasingly financialized and centralized. They will analyze the different political options toward the organization of digital innovation, arguing that more than simply limiting the power of Big Tech, it would be fundamental to regain control over the planning and design of technology.

Workshop ‘Democracy and Capitalism’
2024-03-14 14:30 - 2024-03-15 14:30 | KU Leuven University or Online
The DemoTrans Horizon Europe project is organising a workshop that will promise rich insights into the intricate relationship between democracy and capitalism, offering a blend of theoretical and practical perspectives crucial for policy makers, academics, and professionals engaged in shaping the future of democratic governance.
PROGRAM
Day 1: Thursday, March 14th
14:30 – 15:00 Registration and coffee
15:00 – 16:15 Research Session 1 – Taxes
• Will the Global Minimum Tax Reduce Profit Shifting? Petr Jansky
• Corporate Tax Avoidance and Within-Country Inequality, Marek Sedivy
• What Drives the Location of Profits: Examining the Behavior of Multinational Enterprises from Country-by-Country Reporting, Tomas Boukal
• Does Tax Avoidance Make Large Firms Even Larger? Tijmen Tuinsma
16:15 – 16:30 Break
16:30 – 17:45 Research Session 2 – Procurement
• Pre-procurement market engagement for addressing competitiveness,
sustainability, and technology sovereignty: Evidence from an EU-wide survey, Pelle Berkhout
• European Cohesion Policy and Public Procurement in Spain, Jihwan Ryu
• European funds and green public procurement, Vita Titl
• A transaction cost theoretic vignette experiment on the public procurement of broader outcomes, Thomas Balbach
18:00 – 19:00 Social Activity
Guided tour with tasting at the Domus Brauhaus, a local small-scale brewery (http://www.domusbrauhaus.be/).
19:00 – Dinner
We will continue with our dinner at Domus Brauhaus

Day 2: Friday, March 15th
09:00 – 09:45 Keynote Speech
Germá Bel (Universitat de Barcelona)
Five Decades of Reforms for Local Public Service Delivery
09:45 – 10:00 Q&A
10:00 – 10:30 Coffee Break
10:30 – 11:30 Research Session 3 – Networking
• Getting in line: Synchronizing mechanisms in temporary inter-organizational networks, Vibeke Kroken
• A temporal approach to ‘Fitting in’: A longitudinal survey design.– Democracy and Capitalism, Ben Geys
• The Power of the Pen: Influence of Lobbying on the legislative procedure in Europe, Emilie Wojcieszynski
• TBC, Takis Iliopoulos
11:30 – 12:30 Research Session 4 – Policy and Democracy
• Lobbying firms/politically connected firms and revolving doors in the European context, Emilie Wojcieszynski
• Should technological sovereignty be part of challenge-led innovation policy? Pelle Berkhout
• On the drivers of voting behaviour, Lorenzo Catalano
12:30 – 13:00 Conclusion and Lunch
HOG 00.10, Naamsestraat 69

The workshop is free of charge and is offered in person or online, but registration is necessary: REGISTRATION HERE

International Workshop “Exploring new patterns of platform urbanization and citizenship”
2024-02-06 08:00 - 2024-02-08 17:00 | Future Cities Lab Global, Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
On 6-8 February 2024, the international workshop “Exploring new patterns of platform urbanization and citizenship” will be held in Singapore, organized by the National University of Singapore and the Singapore University of Technology and Design, in cooperation with INCA.
Among others, key challenges of platform urbanization and citizenship will be discussed during the workshop, and a presentation of INCA project will also be offered.
The full program is available here

Investigating Amazon. Ecosystems of 4.0
2024-02-01 09:00 - 11:00 | Università di Cagliari
INCA consortium partners Niccolò Cuppini (SUPSI) and Mattia Frapporti (University of Bologna) will present a paper on INCA research entitled “Investigating Amazon. Ecosystems of 4.0” at the SISEC conference: Work, enterprises and territories between proximity and distance.
The presentation will take place on 1 of February from 9.00 am to 11.00 am in room 11. It will be part of the S3 Panel 5 “The digital transition between proximity and distance: How are work, organisation and markets transformed?”
Full programme here

CALL FOR PAPERS for the VII International Conference "Social Boundaries of Work. Critical Labour Studies in the Times of a Polycrisis"
2024-01-26 08:00 - 2024-03-01 17:00 | University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
The Department of the Sociology of Work and Economic Sociology at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Wrocław, the Sociology of Work Section of the Polish Sociological Association, the Wrocław branch of the Polish Sociological Association, the Critical Labour Studies Network and the Research Committee 44 “Labour Movements” of the International Sociological Association invite you to participate in the international conference entitled “Social Boundaries of Work. Critical Labour Studies in the Times of a Polycrisis“, to be held in Wrocław on 16-18 October 2024. The deadline for abstracts submission is March 1, 2024.
The conference is dedicated to analysing the relationship between academia and the world of work in the context of overlapping and reinforcing socio-economic crises. The COVID-19 pandemic was not only a profound crisis of public health, but also of public services and the social security systems which have been under pressure for years from neoliberal reforms. The escalation of armed conflicts in Europe as a result of Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine only exacerbated the refugee movements that had been underway for years. The post-pandemic reality is also marked by a cost-of-living crisis that has deepened existing social inequalities and the impoverishment of many groups of workers.
In this conference, they want to look at the interplay of between the worlds of academia and labour under the conditions of the polycrisis outlined above. Applications from both academics and social practitioners representing trade unions, labour movements but also employers’ organisations are encouraged. Those representing the labour journalism circles community are also welcome to participate.
Deadlines and practical information

Until 1st of March 2024 – abstracts submissions via the conference form (please include: name and affiliations of referees, affiliations, email, title of paper, abstract (250-500 words) – please use the form: https://forms.gle/ufR2YxjtLcXUQZzh8
15 April 2024 – announcement of the list of accepted abstracts (evaluation is made by the organising committee and the conference scientific council)
31 May 2024 – deadline for payment of the conference fee

Platform Architecture Roundtable
2024-01-25 09:30 - 18:00 | Room RTZ 102 in the building Reitse Toren Professor Cobbenhagenlaan 109, 5037 DB Tilburg, Professor Cobbenhagenlaan 109, Tilburg, Netherlands
Platform power comes in many shapes, which allow for different categorizations. One helpful categorization is based on the subjects of platform power. It distinguishes platform power over markets, over individuals, and over society. Platforms can abuse this power. A common way of doing so is through ‘choice architecture’, i.e., the way in which a platform designs its digital environment to guide the choice of its users. Implementing defaults, ordering results, and prominent placement are common examples of choice architecture.
Architectural choices can be neutral or even to the benefit of users, but they can also result in harm. A marketplace platform could, for example, nudge individual consumers to qualitatively inferior or over-priced products. When such nudges are systematic, they can have market-wide consequences. They could, for example, distort competition between sellers. This becomes more likely when a platform has a financial interest in promoting certain products or services over others (e.g., because they are affiliated to the platform). And when choice architecture influences the opinions of individuals, e.g., by hiding or removing content, society at large is affected.
Different legal instruments target platform power, and in particular choice architecture. Competition law and the Digital Markets Act focus on markets, consumer and data protection laws are more concerned with individuals, and the Digital Services Act and AI Act consider societal risks. Certain obligations, e.g., those aimed at transparency, are found in multiple instruments. Questions arise with regard to the regulatory fit (are there overlaps or gaps?) and effectiveness (does transparency work given the bounded rationality of individuals?).
Our event explores the different forms of platform power through the lens of choice architecture. The aim is not only to connect different branches of law, but also to learn from other disciplines such as ethics, computer science, and economics. Invitees include academics and selected representatives from industry, regulators and non-governmental organizations. The event takes the form of an interactive roundtable. To kickstart discussion, invited speakers give short opening remarks (around five minutes each). Everyone can then join into a lightly moderated debate. Discussion is structured within four panels.
There are a few seats left for those interested to participate. If you would like to attend, please contact Friso (f.bostoen@tilburguniversity.edu) or Inge (i.graef@tilburguniversity.edu).
Note that this is an in-person event, online participation is not possible.
Venue
Room RTZ 102 in the building Reitse Toren
Professor Cobbenhagenlaan 109, 5037 DB Tilburg
See a map here
The venue is a 5 minute walk from the Tilburg University train station.

Program – Thursday 25 January 2024
9.30–9.45 Opening
9.45–11.00 Panel 1: an interdisciplinary introduction to choice architecture – moderated by Giorgio Monti, Tilburg University
▪ Gunes Acar, Radboud University Nijmegen
▪ Bart Engelen, Tilburg University
▪ Ben Schroeter, Booking.com
▪ Shiva Shekhar, Tilburg University
11.00–11.15 Coffee break
11.15–12.30 Panel 2: choice architecture and individuals – moderated by Friso Bostoen, Tilburg University
▪ Silvia de Conca, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
▪ Raphaël Gellert, Radboud University Nijmegen
▪ Catalina Goanta, Utrecht University
▪ Anne-Jel Hoelen, Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets
12.30–14.00 Lunch at Esplanade (a 10 minute walk from the venue)
14.00–15.15 Panel 3: choice architecture and markets – moderated by Jasper van den Boom, Tilburg University
▪ Alessia D’Amico, Utrecht University
▪ Victoria Daskalova, Utrecht University
▪ Inge Graef, Tilburg University
▪ Claudio Lombardi, University of Aberdeen
15.15–15.30 Coffee break
15.30–16.45 Panel 4: choice architecture and society – moderated by Inge Graef, Tilburg University
▪ Quirine van Eeden/Mariëtte van Huijstee, Rathenau Instituut
▪ Joris van Hoboken, University of Amsterdam
▪ Maria Luisa Stasi, ARTICLE19
▪ Cristiana Teixeira Santos, Utrecht University
16.45–18.00 Closing and drinks
Convenors: Friso Bostoen & Inge Graef, Tilburg University
