<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><div style="font-size: 14px; ">Dear iDC,</div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px; ">Greetings everyone. I teach at The New School in the Global Studies program, and am particularly excited by this upcoming Digital Labor conference because I am teaching a new undergraduate course on "Global Economies" this fall. I will include a unit on technology, and I would be grateful for suggestions from the community about two things: 1. Readings for the students, and most importantly, 2. Ideas about how to possible connect the students to the conference. Currently, I'm planning three weeks around technological issues: "trading at the speed of light" (flash crashes, robot traders, etc.); "share and share alike?" about the sharing economy/"zero price" commodities; and "labor in a digital world." I'm just putting this together now, and if people have comments about how best to organize this section I'm open to all ideas. It's an intro level course for students with no prior background.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px; ">This unit is planned for the week before, during, and after the conference. Ideally I would like the students to attend panels, workshops, studios, etc. at the Digital Labor Conference and report back to the class the following week. I am not yet sure what is being planned specifically, but I wonder if there are ways to creatively involve students beyond having them attend as passive audience members?</div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px; ">Briefly about myself, since I've been lurking forever on this list. My own work takes a cultural approach to politics, and I'm currently trying to finish a manuscript on the afterlife of socialist-era material culture in Germany today, and co-editing a book on the evolution of the Chinese city of Shenzhen, which is connected to work I've done on special economic zones. I'm trained as a political scientist, but have strayed far into anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies. At one point I worked on technology and organizational change, specifically how NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe were using digital technology in the 1990s. I've maintained an abiding interest in questions of digital culture, especially the relation between the material and the digital, and the question of how to define "value." I look very forward to this third conference in the series, and am very thankful for any suggestions about readings or ways to involve the students.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px; ">Yours,</div><div style="font-size: 14px; ">Jonathan</div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div><div><font face="Calibri,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">--</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><font face="Calibri,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Jonathan Bach<br>Chair and Associate Professor</font></span><div><font face="Calibri,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Global Studies Program</font><div><font face="Calibri,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The New School, New York, USA<br><a href="bachj@newschool.edu">bachj@newschool.edu</a><br><a href="http://jonathanbach.info">http://jonathanbach.info</a></font><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; "><br></span></div></div></div></font></div></div></body></html>