The lecture “The Demise of the Local: Digitalization, Platforms, and Neoliberalism”, presented by Maryann P. Feldman and moderated by CEGIST member Rui Baptista will take place on July 20th 2022 at 5 pm, in the Abreu Faro Amphitheater | ‘Complexo Interdisciplinar’. The lecture is supported by the Department of Engineering and Management (DEG) and Centre for Management Studies of Instituto Superior Técnico (CEGIST) and organized within the scope of the “American Corners Portugal” program, a partnership between Instituto Superior Técnico and the US Embassy.
Technological change based on data, algorithms, andthe cloud expand choices, providing access to information on a scale previously unimaginable. Increasingly this new technology is embedded in, and contributes to a widening income and opportunity distribution. Many early pundits predicted that technology would increase economic and democratic participation and spread opportunity globally. The opposite has occurred — technology shifts local human-scale and personal interactions to impersonal but highly automated and globally scalable operations. Reinforced by corporate and government policy, local agency and autonomy are eroding and, as a result, proximity effects may be dissipating.
Speaker: Maryann P. Feldman (Heninger Distinguished Professor, Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina & Research Director, UNC Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Chapel Hill NC, USA).