The current global political economy is widely understood as a shift of power from centralized state authorities to private firms and other non-state entities. At the same time, integrated global financial markets play a large and increasing role in shaping outcomes in national labour and product markets. Technological and organizational innovations have been central in these trends; however, the link between technology and social and political outcomes is not straightforward. Technological advances may be used for transformative, constructive purposes, empowering those who are typically excluded from political processes. But they also have the capacity to exacerbate, intensify and broaden the destructive impacts of the already powerful, with dire consequences for many, consequences that are difficult to measure or document.