Technology and Society - Ethics, Law and Policy 5 credits

Digital systems shape how societies function, how organisations operate, and how individuals interact. Every digital system encodes decisions about power, value, and harm. Understanding the relationship between technology, governance, and society is essential for anyone working in digital business. In this course you will examine how technology and society co-evolve through regulatory, economic, and ethical dimensions. You will develop the ability to identify structural patterns in technological outcomes, evaluate accountability mechanisms, and assess how innovation narratives relate to actual effects. We will discuss surveillance capitalism's business models, platform governance mechanisms, corporate social responsibility frameworks, and regulatory approaches (with emphasis on the European Union). You will explore how platforms evolve over time, the politics of data protection and AI governance, the gap between corporate responsibility claims and actual practice, why regulatory attempts to govern digital power succeed or fail, and how different stakeholders shape or resist technological systems. You will engage with industry perspectives, policy documents, and critical scholarship to build analytical frameworks for evaluating whose interests technological systems serve. You will trace how business models shape platform behaviour, analyse governance successes and failures, and examine cases where technological change produced unintended consequences. After this course, you will be equipped to critically assess technological systems and their governance, articulate informed positions on digital policy challenges, and navigate ethical complexities in technology work. You will understand the broader implications of decisions made in digital business contexts and your responsibility when participating in them, with frameworks for systematic analysis of technology's societal impact.