Advanced Diploma in Digital Capitalism: Reconfigurations and a New Accumulation Model

CLASS 1: Transformations associated with the Fourth Technological Revolution. Differences with previous technological revolutions

Teacher: Lourdes María Regueiro Bello

Conceptual summary of the class
The so-called developed countries were the core of the first technological revolutions. Today, we can speak of a break in the monopoly on technological development; countries like China, South Korea, India, and others are leading the accelerated development and introduction of technology. Unlike in the past, when decades passed between one revolutionary technological advance and the next, today's advances occur rapidly, closely linked to one another. Multiple technological domains are converging into more sophisticated, interconnected systems, resulting in an unprecedented qualitative leap in productivity. The dominance of AI based on Big Data can make a substantial difference in process optimization, including decision-making.

CLASS 2: The gaps in access to the advances of the Fourth Revolution

Teacher: Lourdes María Regueiro Bello

Conceptual summary of the class

Technological advancements in digitalization are evident from a basic indicator like population connectivity, though they extend far beyond this parameter. New technological domains seem like science fiction realities to many Latin American and Caribbean countries. While the global debate today focuses on robotic automation, the widespread application of AI, cybersecurity, quantum computing, Big Data, and 5G, regions and countries around the world are only at the initial stages of developing the basic platforms for technological takeoff. This technological lag creates gaps in participation in decision-making regarding the establishment of regulations governing the use of these new technologies.

CLASS 3: The strategic dispute in the field of technology

Teacher: Lourdes María Regueiro Bello

Conceptual summary of the class

The gaps in access to the advancements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in terms of digitalization development are evident from a basic indicator such as population connectivity, although they extend far beyond this parameter. New technological domains seem like science fiction realities to many Latin American and Caribbean countries. While the global debate today focuses on robotic automation, the widespread application of AI, cybersecurity, quantum computing, Big Data, and 5G, regions and countries around the world are only at the initial stages of developing the basic platforms for technological takeoff. This technological lag creates gaps in participation in decision-making regarding the establishment of regulations governing the use of these new technologies.

CLASS 1: Platform Capitalism and its Expansive Logic

Teacher: Hugo Moreno Hernández

Conceptual summary of the class

Digital platforms are infrastructures that mediate between different groups of users (Uber connects passengers; Facebook connects users and advertisers). These platforms not only facilitate interactions but also extract, process, and monetize data. The platform, as a device for accumulating and capturing data, extracts value from every aspect of life, which is then transformed into a new commodity and raw material that must be extracted.

CLASS 2: The Silicon Valley Revolution and its impact on the life industry

Teacher: Hugo Moreno Hernández

Conceptual summary of the class

Historical trajectory of the digital revolution from the Californian dream and its countercultural genealogy to the Silicon Valley revolution in its various phases. A revolution that began as a countercultural movement and, in its process, evolved into a life industry based on algorithmic organization.

CLASS 3: Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence in platform capitalism

Teacher: Carla Esposito Guevara

Conceptual summary of the class

In digital capitalism, algorithms regulate people's behavior: they modulate desires and consumption through personalized advertising, control attention with reward dynamics (likes, notifications, digital dopamine), generate predictive profiles that determine job opportunities, access to credit, or even police surveillance based on big data.

CLASS 1: Theoretical perspectives that explain the object of study: The digitization of production processes and the reconfiguration of social relations of
production

Teacher: Tania Aillón Gomez

Conceptual summary of the class

Technological innovations applied to production spaces transform the ways in which work is organized, and under capitalist relations of production, they signify changes in the forms of control, domination, exploitation, and distribution of surplus labor. In this sense, this class will consist of a first part dedicated to developing the main theoretical perspectives from which these changes in the workplace have been addressed. 

CLASS 2: The forms of control, domination and exploitation of labor by capital: the case of platform riders

Teacher: Tania Aillón Gomez

Conceptual summary of the class

To present the main results of a research experience among platform riders, as an empirical source of reflection to understand and explain how forms of control, domination, extortion and distribution of surplus labor are configured in the digital age of capitalism?

CLASS 3: Explanatory scope of theories about platform workers, in light of empirical evidence

Teacher: Tania Aillón Gomez

Conceptual summary of the class

Aimed at sifting through the empirical information of the aforementioned research, with the definitions of different theoretical currents, regarding the content of the social relations of production that are established between platform owners and platform workers.

CLASS 1: Job insecurity, informality and exploitation among UBER workers

Teacher: Olegario Batalla Coeto

Conceptual summary of the class

To critically analyze how digital platforms transform work, promoting job insecurity, informality and globalized exploitation, in the case of UBER workers.

CLASS 2: From the Panopticon to Digital Capitalism

Teacher: Carla Esposito Guevara

Conceptual summary of the class

Foucault's thesis on surveillance, especially his concept of panopticism, connects with digital capitalism in the way power is exercised through constant monitoring and discipline, but with new technologies and logics of control. While Foucault saw surveillance as a centralized disciplinary mechanism, digital capitalism has evolved into what Byung-Chul Han calls the society of self-exploitation. A jailer is no longer necessary because individuals expose themselves, produce content, and work constantly (on networks, in the gig economy, etc.), believing they are exercising freedom, when in reality they are within a system of algorithmic control.

CLASS 3: Teleworking and Surveillance Devices in Digital Capitalism

Teacher: Elsa Ximena Roncal Vattuone

Conceptual summary of the class

Among the most significant organizational changes brought about by digital capitalism is teleworking, or working from home, lauded for its benefits in terms of worker autonomy, flexible hours, and a better work-life balance. This analysis examines teleworking and its main characteristics within the framework of surveillance capitalism, which implements digital control mechanisms that exacerbate the monitoring and surveillance of workers' activities.

CLASS 1: Crowd behavior in the digital age and the swarm effect

Teacher: Carla Esposito Guevara

Conceptual summary of the class

While in traditional societies the masses were organized under a hierarchical structure with clear leadership, today's digital crowds act in a disjointed manner, driven by immediate stimuli on social networks and digital media. This effect leads to a decollectivization of political action. Mass digital interaction produces fragmentation, weakening the possibility of coherent political action. In this sense, the swarm is a connected crowd, but one incapable of articulating a vision for sustainable transformation.

CLASS 2: Impact of the digitization of daily life and social relationships

Teacher: Carla Esposito Guevara

Conceptual summary of the class

Digital capitalism is not merely a technological transformation, but a profound mutation of society and subjectivity. The acceleration of time, the colonization of the emotional sphere by capital, and the virtualization of human contact reduce empathy and the capacity to fully experience desire, conditioning how we feel and relate to others. It is often described as the era of the “tyrannical individual.” 

CLASS 3: New ways of inhabiting and intervening in the network

Teacher: Hugo Moreno Hernández

Conceptual summary of the class

Spaces for imagination and resistance. Creativity, art, and new forms of solidarity can offer cultural and political alternatives to the authoritarian tendencies of digital capitalism. Reclaiming autonomy through imagination and collective creation.

You must be registered in the CLACSO Single Registration System (SUIC) and enter your username and password. If you are not registered, click here . To access the registration form, click the "Register" button on the webpage of the Diploma program you are interested in.

Upon completion of the registration process, you will receive a confirmation in your email.

Classes will begin in September and will conclude in December 2025.

All registered participants will receive on the first day of activities the necessary instructions to access the classes, bibliography and discussion forums through the CLACSO Virtual Training Space.

Accessing and navigating the Virtual Learning Environment is very simple and user-friendly. In any case, a technical and academic support team will always be available. For inquiries, you can write to [email protected]

You must send an email with the request to [email protected] and we will send you the requested certificate as soon as possible.

Exceptional Criteria: In exceptional cases, and within the first 20 days of the start of the Advanced Diploma program, students may write to [email protected] requesting to withdraw and stating the reasons. After evaluation of the case, a response will be sent to the request. If approved, the student may resume the Advanced Diploma program if a new cohort is offered the following year. After this period has elapsed since the start of the course, no requests will be accepted.

Money paid will only be refunded in cases where the organizing institutions decide to cancel the activity. 

Yes, the advanced diploma is certified by CLACSO. The diploma will be sent digitally and is completely free of charge.

Payment can be made in one installment, by credit card or bank transfer. We also offer the option of paying in 3 installments.

Yes. There will be discounts for students belonging to CLACSO Member Centers and CLACSO Associated Centers, for CLACSO Associate Researchers, and for all those who pay within the discount period.

You can check if you belong to a member center here: 

https://www.clacso.org/institucional/centros-asociados/

The Advanced Diploma program integrates a dynamic of asynchronous and synchronous classes. Classes are primarily asynchronous. The schedule for synchronous sessions will be communicated by the Diploma coordinator at the beginning of the program, and participation in these sessions is not a prerequisite for passing the program.