INCA project

# Digital Labor in the Wake of Pandemic Times
2023-10-09 13:40 - 15:20 (Europe/Madrid)
INCA partners Niccolò Cuppini (SUPSI) and Maurilio Pirone (Bolognia University) will present a paper entitled “Platform Labour in the Cloud Metropolis. Case Studies, Trajectories and Tendencies” at the INDL conference in the session “Digital labour, time and space”.
The presentation will take place in Session 2B Digital labour, time and space, from 13:40 to 15:20.
INDL, the International Network on Digital Labor, is an initiative founded in 2019. INDL’s mission is to organize international conferences and foster global-level collaboration between academia and civil society. INDL conferences welcome stakeholders such as experts, media, union leaders, and policymakers.

Let’s talk competition - It’s soon time for DMA compliance
2023-09-28 13:00
The third Let’s Talk Competition conversation will focus on the impact of the Digital Markets Act for gatekeepers.

Three renowned experts will share their unique perspectives on this important policy development:

Mr. Alberto Bacchiega, Director for Digital Platforms at the Directorate-General for Competition;

Ms. Vanessa Turner, Senior Advisor for Competition at the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC);

Ms. Inge Graef, INCA partner and Associate Professor of Competition Law at Tilburg University.

Ms. Aoife White, Technology and Competition Editor at Politico will moderate the debate.

The event will take place on 28 September 2023 at 13:00 (CET) and it will be webcasted on this website as well as in DG Competition YouTube channel.

You are warmly invited to join the conversation and pose questions to the speakers via Slido. No need to pre-register.

CALL FOR PAPERS for a workshop on Lobbying and Political Influence
2023-07-18 - 2023-08-15
On November 7 2023, DemoTrans and Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) will organise a workshop on Lobbying and Political Influence in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The purpose of the event is to bring together researchers working on the topics of lobbying, corruption, political connections and influence to present and discuss their ongoing research and to stimulate interaction and cooperation between them. We especially welcome submissions dealing with the effects of digitalization and transparency reforms on the aforementioned issues and applications in public procurement markets. Submissions dealing with broader issues in political economics are also welcome. The deadline for full papers is July 31, 2023.

The workshop is organized as a part of the DemoTrans project, a consortium of researchers from KU Leuven, Utrecht University, Charles University, University of Bergen and Tax Justice Network (TJN) investigating the interchange between globalization and democracy in Europe.

Deadline and practical information

Submission deadline for full papers: July 31st 2023
Please submit via email: lobbying.workshop@uu.nl
Acceptance decisions: August 15th 2023
Participation fee: € 120 euros (including social dinner on November 6th)

Go to the call for papers (PDF)

Workshop: Global Infrastructures: The Production of the Modern World
2023-06-09 00:00 | Department of Arts of the University of Bologna, Via Barberia, 4, Bologna, 40123, Italy
A collaborative workshop organized by the Institute of Contemporary History at Nova University, Lisbon, and the University of Bologna, Italy, will take place on the 9th of June 2023 at the University of Bologna in the Department of Arts.
In the last twenty years, in correspondence with the growing importance assumed by Global History, numerous studies have analysed past border-crossings and long-established transnational networks. This seminar intends to contribute to the discipline by promoting a collective investigation of the origins and development of global infrastructures, emphasizing how their construction interacted with colonial projects, capitalist ventures, and cultural superstructures.
The workshop will focus on questions such as:

What global infrastructures have contributed to the construction of the modern world and the establishment of a single world market?
Which public and private actors have participated to the construction and securing of global infrastructures?
What ecologies of labour have been mobilized during the erection of global infrastructures?
What forms of resistance and sabotage have opposed and slowed down the development of planetary infrastructures?
What has been the impact of climate change and the ecological crisis on global infrastructures?
How can the concept of infrastructure contribute to expand Marxist theories beyond the traditional distinction of economic structure and cultural superstructure?
How can historical approaches help us rethink the relation between global infrastructures and imperialism?

Program:
10-10.30 Welcome and Introduction
10.30-12.00 Imperial Infrastructures (Chair & Introduction: Franco Tomassoni, Colabor)

Maria do Mar Gago (IHC – Nova Lisbon) – Botanical Networks as Imperial Infrastructures: Plantations and agro- ecology in Colonial Angola (1940-1961)
Romario Sampaio Basilio (Nova Lisbon) – Failed Railways in El Dorado: Collaboration, Competition, and Scarcity in a Megaproject for the Amazonia-Guianas Remoteness (c.1870-1914)
Emilio Distretti (University of Basilea) – The Coloniality of Infrastructure: Italian Imperial Highways in Libya and Ethiopia (title tbc)

12.00-13.30 Lunch Break
13.30-15.00 Oceanic Infrastructures (Chair & Introduction: Amedeo Policante, IHC-Nova Lisbon)

Matteo Aria (La Sapienza) Navigational Infrastructures: Governing the Sea through Meteorological Prediction and Fo
Erica Borg (King’s College) Media Infrastructures: Coloniality, Capital Circulation and the Equiano Project
Lorenzo Pezzani (University of Bologna) Title To Be Confirmed

15-15.30 Coffee Break
15.30-17 Digital Platforms as Infrastructures (Chair & Introduction: Mattia Frapporti, Unibo)

Alina Kontareva (Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society) and Martin Kenney (University of California, Davis) – Protecting Domestic Platform Infrastructure: How Russia Mitigated Dependence upon US West Coast Platform Giants
Marco Marrone (University of Salento) – The Infrastructural Power of Digital Platforms
Davide Blotta, Abdallah Hassan, Riccardo Sacco (University of Urbino) The camera is working! Making the migration infrastructure in Bosnia and Sudan.

17-18.00 Final Roundtable and Collective Discussion led by Sandro Mezzadra (Università di Bologna), Maurilio Pirone (Università di Bologna), Niccolò Cuppini (SUPSI) and Amedeo Policante (IHC-Nova Lisbon).

Exhibition: “Data is a relation, not a property”
2023-05-05 00:00 - 2023-05-26 00:00 | DumBO, via Casarini 19, Bologna, Italy
From 5 to 26 May 2023, in the spaces of Bologna Attiva at DumBO, the INCA partner Fondazione per L’innovazione Urbana host the exhibition “Data is a relation, not a property”, presented in 2021 by the Austrian Pavilion Platform Austria at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Data is a relation, not a property stages a polyphonic, profound and punctual account of the process of the ‘flattening’ of existence, with a specific look at so-called ‘platform urbanism’, i.e. the forms, dynamics and ways in which digital platforms transform the urban and its forms of life. It is a visual, textual, theoretical, artistic and research exploration that allows us to enter into the complexity, dynamics, tensions and trends of our platform-society, and contributes to creating a public space for reflection and discussion on some of the issues that affect the present of our city and contribute to designing its future.
Through a composite programme which, within the framework of the exhibition, provides for the organisation of different moments of encounter, this second life of Platform Austria will give space in particular to the deepening of the slogan “Data is a relationship, not a property“, in order to open a public reflection on the construction of new and different data policies, and on the experimentation of alternatives to the privatisation of data.
The programme:

Friday 5 May, 16.00 – 17.30: workshop What about art and the digital? Tips and insights.
Carmen Hines (Technische Universität Wien) and Benjamin Gerdes (Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm) will lead this workshop, which aims to measure how contemporary art is being transformed in the maelstrom of digitalisation. Through the discussion and viewing of the works of some digital artists, a collective reasoning on this issue will be developed through the confrontation with heterogeneous artistic practices. Secondly, the workshop intends to reflect on how it is possible to rethink forms of art exhibition and curatorship in the light of the most recent technological transformations symbolised by Artificial Intelligence.
Friday 5 May, 6.30 pm: talk and opening of the exhibition “Data is a relation, not a property”
Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer, Curators of Platform Austria and Professors at the Technische Universität Wien will open the exhibition with an introductory talk.
The talk will be in English with a presentation of the contents in Italian. Followed by an aperitif. Free admission.
Friday 26 May, 6 p.m.: Round table and closing Data as common. Possibilities, experimentations, risks.
Programme to be finalised.

The exhibition is open from Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with free admission.
All events are held at the Officina shed in DumBO, via Casarini 19.

Social justice, Economic democracy, Corporate governance and Resposibility
2023-04-28 17:30 | Polo Piagge, Via Giacomo Matteotti, 11, Pisa, 56124, Italy
Lorenzo Sacconi will be the speaker of the talk “Social justice, Economic democracy, Corporate governance and Resposibility” that will take place on the 28th of April 2023 at 5.30pm CET.
Lorenzo Sacconi is Professor of economic policy at the University of Milan. He is also Director of the inter-university center EconomEtica, member of the Italian Society of Law & Economics and a member of several international scientific associations. Previously, he was Professor of economic policy at the University of Trento, where he had the Unicredit Chair in economic ethics and corporate social responsibility. He taught at the University of Pavia, Bocconi, Cattaneo-LIUC of Castellanza, Oriental Piedmont and IUSS (Pavia). He was among the founders and president of the Italian Network of Business Ethics as well as in the executive committee of the European Network. He collaborated with the Department of Public Administration of the Italian Government and was an Italian representative on the Advisory Committee of Council of Europe experts for the drafting of the “Charter for Europe of shared responsibility”.
The event is open and free for all interested participants, who are welcome to join in person or by connecting online.

Report Launch: Fairwork UK Ratings 2023 – A Call for Transparency
2023-04-28 14:00 - 17:00 | Newspeak House, 133 Bethnal Grn Rd, E2 7DG GB, London
Digital labour platforms are increasingly challenging conventional employment relations and shaping the future of work in the UK. On the one hand, gig work promotes economic growth and the creation of new jobs lowers labour market entry barriers for some workers, and provides job flexibility to those who need it. On the other hand, companies might slip through existing regulatory frameworks and workers experience unfair working conditions on the platforms.
This year’s report ‘Fairwork UK Ratings 2023: A Call for Transparency’ evaluates working conditions at 12 of the most popular digital labour platforms in the country, including Amazon Flex, Bolt, Deliveroo, Getir, Gorillas, Just Eat, Ola, Pedal Me, Stuart, Task Rabbit, Uber, and Yoopies. Our findings reveal that there are significant shifts underway in the platform economy in the wake of a tech financing collapse, a cost-of-living crisis, and the alleviation of COVID-19 restrictions for a whole year. Whilst the pandemic may have been halcyon days for platform companies, the reality is starting to bite. We’ll be asking whether workers are left paying the price.

PROGRAMME:
14.00 – Welcome
14.15 – Presentation of report findings
14.45 – Panel discussion
16.00 – Live audience Q&A
16.30 – Networking
*Drinks and light refreshments will be provided.
PRESENTERS:
Dr. Adam Badger, Lead Researcher, Fairwork UK, Oxford Internet Institute
Dr. Funda Ustek-Spilda, Senior Researcher and Project Manager, Fairwork UK, Oxford Internet Institute
EXPERT PANELLISTS:

Dr Sarrah Kassem – Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Tübingen
Emma Selinger – Ventures Manager, Resolution Foundation
Michael ‘Six’ Silberman – Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford
Ferdousara Uddin – Regional Organiser, GMB Union

CALL FOR PAPERS for a collaborative workshop: Global Infrastructures: The Production of the Modern World
2023-04-21 00:00 - 2023-05-09 00:00
In the last twenty years, in correspondence with the growing importance assumed by Global History, numerous studies have analysed past border-crossings and long-established transnational networks. A collaborative workshop organized by the Institute of Contemporary History at Nova University, Lisbon, and the University of Bologna, Italy, intends to contribute to the discipline by promoting a collective investigation of the origins and development of global infrastructures, emphasizing how their construction interacted with colonial projects, capitalist ventures, and cultural superstructures.
The workshop will focus on questions such as:

What global infrastructures have contributed to the construction of the modern world and the establishment of a single world market?
Which public and private actors have participated to the construction and securing of global infrastructures?
What ecologies of labour have been mobilized during the erection of global infrastructures?
What forms of resistance and sabotage have opposed and slowed down the development of planetary infrastructures?
What has been the impact of climate change and the ecological crisis on global infrastructures?
How can the concept of infrastructure contribute to expand Marxist theories beyond the traditional distinction of economic structure and cultural superstructure?
How can historical approaches help us rethink the relation between global infrastructures and imperialism?

We welcome papers dealing with all these aspects from an interdisciplinary perspective. Interested scholars are invited to send a long abstract between 400 and 700 words and a short bio to policante@fcsh.unl.pt and/or to mattia.frapporti2@unibo.it by the 9th of May.
Successful applicants will be communicated by the 12th of May and invited to the final workshop that will take place on the 9th of June 2023 at the University of Bologna in the Department of Arts.
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