An ever-looser union? Juxtaposing accumulation and agglomeration in the context of surveillance capitalism

Sonja Kleinod and Ulrich Klüh
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ulrich Helmut Klueh

No 3, ZNWU Discussion Papers from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt Business School, Center for Sustainable Economic and Corporate Policy (SECP)

Abstract: The article explores regional policy issues at the nexus of economic geography and the recent academic literature on the political economy of digitalization. The objective is to blend these two areas of research to derive a first set of preliminary policy implications for so called "Smart Region" strategies. First, we document and analyze the finding that digitalization and, more generally, technological progress based on information and communication technologies represents a risk rather than an opportunity for many regions. Against the backdrop of the role of human capital accumulation in this process, "Smart Region" strategies should re-focus their attention on the settlement and development of "digitally competent" human capital. Second, we summarize key findings from studies that deal with the capitalist accumulation regime emerging in the course of digital change. This regime, often referred to as "platform capitalism" or "surveillance capitalism", appears to be antagonistic what is considered an integral and functional regional economy. Against this background, regions should meet calls for a rapid integration into this regime with a good deal of skepticism. Similarly, they should be careful not to embrace "smart" initiatives overhasty. Instead, they should develop their own definition of digital literacy and consciously incorporate alternatives to platform capitalism in their digital strategies. Attracting digitally competent human capital can support such an approach, especially if the respective initiatives are directed towards the public, educational and non-profit sectors.

Keywords: Digitalization; Surveillance Capitalism; Platform Economy; Labour Markets; Regional Development; Smart Cities; Smart Regions; Economic Geography; Agglomeration; Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H4 J24 J45 J48 J61 L16 O3 P1 R1 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-hme and nep-ict
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/224172/1/znwu-dp3.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:znwudp:3

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ZNWU Discussion Papers from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt Business School, Center for Sustainable Economic and Corporate Policy (SECP) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().