In this course, we will ask: whose ethics and interests are being upheld, renegotiated, or overridden — by whom, for whose benefit? Using historical and current expositions of the moral economies of AI, this course invites imagining sustainable and just alternatives.

The PhDs course will interrogate and explore the moral economies of AI through critical, interdisciplinary and different/contrasting cultural lenses by asking whose ethics and interests are being upheld, renegotiated, or overridden — and by whom, for whose benefit? 

The historical/classical understanding of the notion of the "moral economy" (e.g., Thompson, Scott, and Polanyi) will serve as point of departure for investigating current critiques (e.g., Zuboff, Fraser, Srnicek, Mbembe, Varoufakis) and introduce course participants to alternative moral economies of AI (e.g., rights-based, power-aware ethics, state-security, virtue-ethics, decolonisation, pluriversal, indigenous and commons-based ethics).

Participation at the BSRS is credited under the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Participants submitting an essay, in a form of a publishable manuscript of 10-20 pages, after the end of the summer school will receive 10 ECTS. Deadline for submission will be decided by your course leader.

It is also possible to participate without producing an essay. This will give you 5 ECTS. In order to receive credits, we expect full participation in the course-specific modules, plenary events and roundtables.

The course will be given by Anja Salzmann and Paul Prinsloo.

Read more and apply here by February 1st.