MECM90041 Political Economy of Digital Life
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S1 2026MECM90041 Overview
- The University of Melbourne
- Semester 1, 2026
- 100% written assessment
- Weekly lecture plus weekly tutorial
MECM90041 studies digital life as a political-economic, historical and phenomenological formation.
- Assessed by A 500-word plan, 2,000-word book review and 2,500-word research essay
- Two hurdles 80% tutorial/seminar/workshop attendance plus complete genuine submissions
- Core method Connect concept, infrastructure, institution, evidence and lived consequence
- Source boundary Retrieve the research-essay questions and detailed brief from Canvas
What MECM90041 covers
The subject moves through three published phases: political economy as a way into mediated experience; historical, sociological and political perspectives; and phenomenological investigations into mediation. The chapters connect value form and technics to computing, platforms, globalisation, semiconductor supply chains, hyperreality, speed, attention, spectacle and everyday rhythm.
Assessment Map and the Two Hurdles
Three written tasks at 10/40/50 · exact 2026 deadlines · the 80% attendance hurdle · the submission hurdle · the stale-year and task-name conflicts · where each brief actually lives02How Political Economy Reads Digital Life
The subject's six framing questions in two clusters · digital life as a system (the stack) · centralised, decentralised, distributed or fragmented · the digitality/modernity map · the three phases · agency and the dark forest03Value Form and the Base-Superstructure Model
The three core elements of political economy · use value and exchange value · concrete and abstract labour · commodification · the base/superstructure spiral · sorting digital objects into base or superstructure04Technofeudalism and the Crises of Capital
Capital and technological dynamism · innovation and who value is for · cyclical crises and inner contradictions · monopolistic digital infrastructure · the digital-serfdom question · is the AI boom a coming crisis?05Technics, Modernity and Cosmotechnics
Exteriorisation and the tool · symbolisation and writing systems · media of writing · modernity and progress · enframing and standing-reserve · the technological system · myth · cosmotechnics and plasticity06How Computing and the Internet Were Built
Calculating machines to the microprocessor · information theory and cybernetics · Cold War funding and packet switching · the protocol war · standardisation · the web's three protocols · global connection dates07Commons, Platforms and Surveillance Capital
Free software and the four freedoms · cathedral versus bazaar · commons-based peer production · open licences · the dot-com cycle · the Web 2.0 platform model · surveillance capitalism · monopolisation and control08Globalisation and the Computer Revolution
Empire, trade and the world that trade created · four industrial revolutions · cybernetic economic planning in Chile · 1989 and the end-of-history thesis · the globalisation-now question09Chips, Supply Chains and Technological Sovereignty
The nanometre capability scale · foundries and fabless design · lithography machines and their own supply chain · export controls and reshoring · critical minerals · the new-cold-war question10Tech Oligarchy, Bureaucracy and Resistance
Defining far-right ideology, fascism and tech oligarchy · profiling the tech barons · poetic versus bureaucratic technologies · social imagination, bureaucracy, competition · movements and platform-state contracting11Hyperreality and the Analogue Self
The public sphere and its digital counterpart · signs, code, simulation, simulacra · the four stages · the excess of reality · analogue beings and the circle of action · alienation · database consumption12Speed, Acceleration and Futurisms
Three kinds of acceleration and the time-pressure paradox · time-space compression · timeless time · dromology · lying flat · the determinism critique · sociotechnical assemblages · accelerationism and futurisms13Attention, Spectacle and Everyday Rhythms
Attention as scarce commodity · the internal limit of capitalism · digital, affective and cognitive labour · subjectivity under command · the spectacle and its 2.0 form · rhythm, everyday life and autonomy14Book Review and Research Essay Toolkit
Choosing a text in week 3 · the 500-word plan section by section · the 2,000-word review section by section · the stated criteria · how a published review essay actually reads · what the subject guide still owes youThe subject asks how digitality shapes people, which forces develop and embed it, which historical path computing opens, how capitalism and modernity relate to that path, and how digitally constituted experience informs mentality and desire. Its recurring DIGITALITY map connects the computing revolution, technology, modernity, political economy, socialisation, social life and personal life.
Its stack map pushes analysis below the interface to Earth, cloud, city, network, address and the material and institutional systems that make a user position possible.
The first phase establishes political economy through mode of production, social organisation, socialisation and capacity for action.
Value form distinguishes use from exchange value and concrete from abstract labour; commodification traces how activities become exchangeable; the base-superstructure model gives material relations general dominance while preserving historical feedback through law, culture and politics.
Week-two materials use Varoufakis and Harvey to pose the technofeudalism and crisis questions, while week three examines exteriorisation, writing, modernity, enframing, standing-reserve, cosmotechnics and plasticity.
The historical phase follows mechanical calculation into information theory, semiconductors, packet switching, protocol standardisation and the web.
Free software, peer production and open licences are compared with Web 2.0 platform loops, surveillance capitalism and control through defaults and ranking. The globalisation chapters place computing inside empire, trade, industrial periodisation, cybernetic planning and world-order disputes.
The semiconductor case then traces design, software, fabrication, equipment, lithography, packaging, critical minerals, export controls and technological sovereignty through knowledge, supply and governance.
The political weeks examine tech oligarchy, post-democratic conditions, state-platform contracting and the contrast between poetic and bureaucratic technologies.
The available record is uneven: weeks six and seven have no lecture decks, so the guide uses tutorial methods, topic descriptions and published readings with attribution. It teaches how to investigate career, company aims, ideology and oligarchy without turning a classroom question into an unsupported statement about a living person.
Resistance is treated through social imagination, accountable procedure and material organisational capacity.
The phenomenological phase studies public appearance, signs, simulation, the four stages of simulacra, hyperreality as excess, analogue feedback, alienation and database consumption.
Speed is analysed through technological acceleration, social change, pace of life, time-space compression, timeless time, dromology, refusal and plural futurisms. Attention is treated as finite time selected, measured and made productive; digital, affective and cognitive labour connect subjectivity to value.
The spectacle and its interactive 2.0 form reveal how lived relations move into representation and feed back into precarious participation.
The assessment system contains three weighted tasks totalling 100% and two separate subject-level hurdles.
The offering-correct lecture slide dates the plan to 30 March 2026, the book review to 2 April 2026 and the research essay to 9 June 2026; the tutorial deck retains 2025 for the latter two dates, so all dates should be confirmed on Canvas. The 40% task is called Book Review, Book Review Essay and A Research Essay in different official locations.
This guide identifies it through its stable 2,000-word length, 40% weight, date and dedicated template rather than silently erasing the naming conflict.
The plan and book-review templates publish section allocations, criteria and tips. The research essay record is much narrower: it provides the 2,500-word length, 50% weight, date, flexibility about topic and the location of a question list in the Subject Guide on Canvas.
The list, structure, tolerance, criteria, rubric, marking scheme, late rule, extension rule and referencing style are not available here. Original practice prompts and model paragraphs are visibly labelled and never presented as University questions.
How MECM90041 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| In-class essay plan (also titled Book Review Essay Plan) | 10% | 500 words, ±10%; Introduction 100 / Main body 200 / Analysis 100 / Conclusion 100; due Monday 30 March 2026 per the 2026 lecture materials; task-level hurdle not stated—confirm on Canvas |
| Book Review Essay (also Book Review / A Research Essay 2,000 words) | 40% | 2,000 words, ±10%; Introduction 300 / Main body 900 / Analysis 500 / Conclusion 300; due Thursday 2 April 2026 per the 2026 lecture materials; tutorial deck retains 2025—confirm on Canvas |
| Research Essay | 50% | 2,500 words; due Tuesday 9 June 2026 per the 2026 lecture materials; question list is in the Subject Guide on Canvas; tolerance, structure, criteria and rubric not available here; task-level hurdle not stated—confirm on Canvas |
| Attendance hurdle · hurdle | hurdle | This subject has a minimum requirement of 80% attendance at tutorials, seminars, or workshops. There is an expectation that students attend lectures where offered. |
| Assessment submission hurdle · hurdle | hurdle | All pieces of assessment must be submitted to pass the subject. Each submitted assessment must be complete, constitute a genuine attempt to address the requirements of the task. |
Illustrative political-economy paragraph plan
- 2Define hosting, discovery and the relevant network layers.
- 2Explain how distribution and centralisation coexist by function.
- 2Identify evidence about ranking, interoperability and governance.
- 2Reach a qualified judgement separating resilience from authority.
Key terms
- Digitality
- The relational condition connecting computing, modernity, political economy, socialisation and personal and social life.
- Value form
- The social form through which useful, heterogeneous activity becomes comparable in exchange.
- Cosmotechnics
- An account of technical activity as related to cosmology and moral order, opening plural technical trajectories.
- Technological sovereignty
- Political capacity grounded in knowledge, supply, governance, maintenance and recoverability across technical systems.
- Hyperreality
- A condition of intensified and circulating representation that can become the practical reference for action.
- Attention economy
- An arrangement in which finite attention is selected, measured and made productive within systems of value.
MECM90041 FAQ
How is MECM90041 assessed?
The published weighted work is a 500-word in-class essay plan worth 10%, a 2,000-word book review worth 40% and a 2,500-word research essay worth 50%. Two separate subject-level hurdles govern attendance and submission.
What is the attendance hurdle for MECM90041?
The official wording sets a minimum of 80% attendance at tutorials, seminars or workshops. Lecture attendance is stated as an expectation where lectures are offered. Task-level hurdles for the three written pieces are not stated in the materials available here; confirm on Canvas.
When is the book review due?
The 2026 lecture materials give Thursday 2 April 2026. The tutorial deck retains a 2025 date, so the 2026 date is displayed with the conflict disclosed; confirm the live deadline on Canvas.
How long is the book review essay plan?
The plan is 500 words with a stated tolerance of plus or minus 10%. Its official allocation is 100 words for introduction, 200 for main body, 100 for analysis and 100 for conclusion.
Where are the research essay questions?
The tutorial directs students to the Subject Guide on Canvas. The question list is not in the materials available here and is not reconstructed.
What is published for the research essay?
The available record gives 2,500 words, 50%, a 9 June 2026 date in the 2026 lecture materials, flexibility about topic and a Canvas question location. It does not provide the question list, tolerance, structure, criteria or rubric.
Why does the 40% task have different names?
The lecture calls it Book Review, the template says Book Review Essay and the tutorial table says A Research Essay 2,000 words. Use length, weight, date and template together to identify it, and confirm the current Canvas item.
How to prepare for the assessments
Use one concept ledger across the semester. For every lecture, tutorial or reading, record the term, its contrast, the bounded object, layer, institution, relation of power, mechanism, evidence and limit.
Recheck direction words: use versus exchange value; concrete versus abstract labour; base versus superstructure; centralised, decentralised and distributed; upstream versus downstream; more versus less open licences; technical acceleration versus scarcity of time. Build figures only when geometry carries the argument.
For assessment, keep an authority column distinguishing official task wording, published scholarship, teaching prompts and original practice. Use the official plan and review allocations as qualitative controls without inventing scores. Retrieve the exact research-essay question and live criteria from the Subject Guide on Canvas.
Before submission, verify the current task identity and date, check every paragraph for claim–evidence–concept–mechanism–qualification, reopen sources for direction and scope, and retain the final file and confirmation.
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