::SOC 490 The Social Implications of Computers & Technology::

East Stroubdsburg University, Department of Sociology
Instructor: Stevphen Shukaitis (ss325@leicester.ac.uk), University of Leicester Centre for Philosophy and Political Economy

Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:00 – 5:15, Room 417
Office Hours: Strouds Hall Room 419b, Monday and Wednesday 3:00 – 4:00 or by appointment

::Description::
Over the past fifty years usage of computers and digital technologies have had increasing impacts on virtually all spheres of human endeavors. Computational technologies have vastly altered the ways in which people live, interact, communicate, produce goods, travel, think, and perceive themselves and the world. From the rise of the internet and communication technologies to the digitalization of production computing technology has vastly transformed the cultural, social, political, and economic reality of great portions of the world's population. This course will explore the social and cultural implications that the usage of computing technologies and technology more broadly has had on our everyday lives. Drawing from various streams of social theory from social constructivism to labor process theory and post-structuralism, it will consider issues such as the rise of network culture, simulation, labor organization and control, the informatization of production, the rise of immaterial labor and post-Fordist capitalism, the relation of technology and the body, cyberfeminism, intellectual property rights, and new forms of digital media and aesthetics, collaborative techniques, and forms of social resistance. It will also more broadly consider the changing relation between the social and technical aspects of culture, exhibited as a tension that has endured in western culture from the usage of the first machines.

::Goals and Objectives::
-receive an overview of the various issues and concerns related to the increasing importance of computer usage and the social and cultural effects these have.
-understand the rise of computing and digital technologies in a historically and socially informed context and understanding.
-be able to analyze the implications of computer technologies at both the micro and macro levels, extending from effects on personal interactions to international relations.

::Evaluation::
Evaluation of the course will take place through the form of a 5,000 word essay reflecting on a particular aspect of the socio-cultural impact of computers and digital technologies (60% of grade) and an in-class presentation of one of the assigned readings or an agreed upon complementary reading (30% of grade), and a shorter mid-term writing or reflection on a set of readings (10% of grade). Students are expected to discuss with the instructor what they would like to write their essay on by the end of October. Further information on assignments and grading will be provided in class.

::Readings::
Readings will consist of sections from the texts indicated below supplemented by additional materials and photocopies that will be provided in class (additional copies will be held at the sociology office for those not in class). Readings are divided into required readings (indicated with a *) and supplementary / optional readings that are useful to read but are not required.

:Required::
Simon Lilley, Geoff Lightfoot, and Paulo Amaral. Representing Organization: Knowledge, Management, and the Information Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
subRosa Collective. Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2002)

:Recommended::
Critical Art Ensemble. Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2001)
Greenpepper Magazine “Information Issue,” December 2003. http://www.greenpeppermagazine.org/archives
Matthew Fuller. Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2004)
Arnold Pacey. Meaning in Technology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999)

::Listserv::
There will be a class listerv used to facilitate discussion and communication outside the classroom. To subscribe to the list send a message to esusoc490-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
to send messages to the list send to esusoc490@yahoogroups.com. For more information about the list see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/esusoc490/.

::Digital Class Discussions::
During several points of the semester due to scheduling difficulties, and fitting with the nature of the class itself, the classroom discussion will be moved to an internet chatroom through the format of MIRC. Students are expected to acquaint themselves with the using of chatroom technologies before these dates (information will be provided before hand).

:: Monday August 29th :: Introduction and Overview of the Class ::
- discussion of the syllabus, assignments, presentations, class listserv, and related matters

:: Wednesday August 31st :: Digital Ecology and Its Study
*Konrad Becker, “Introduction” and “Digital Ecology,” Tactical Reality Dictionary: Cultural Intelligence and Social Control (Vienna: Edition Selene, 2002), 9-15, 45.
*Alexander Galloway, “What is Digital Studies*” Read Me! Filtered by Nettime: ASCII Culture and the Revenge of Knowledge (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 1999), 486-490.

No Class Monday September 5th

::Wednesday September 7th::
Class in chat room
*Horace Miner, “Body Ritual Among the Nacimera,” The Nacimera. Ed. James Spradley and Michael Rynkiewich (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1975), 10-13.
::Monday Setepmber 12th::
No Class / “Capturing the Moving Mind” audio (optional)

Wednesday September 14th
No Class / “Capturing the Moving Mind” audio (optional)

::Monday September 19th::
No Class / “Capturing the Moving Mind” audio (optional)

::Wednesday September 21st::
No Class / “Capturing the Moving Mind” audio (optional)

::Monday September 26th:: Social Construction of Technology
*“The Social Shaping of Technology,” The Social Shaping of Technology. Ed. Donald McKenzie and Judy Jacjman (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1985), 2-25.
Jared Diamond, “Necessity's Mother,” Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997), 239-264.
Lewis Mumford. The Future of Technics and Civilization (London: Freedom Press, 1984)
*Langdon Winner, “Do Artifacts Have Politics*” The Social Shaping of Technology. Ed. Donald McKenzie and Judy Jacjman (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1985), 26-38

::Wednesday September 28th ::
Social Construction of Technology Continued

No Class Monday October 3rd

::Wednesday October 5th:: Technical Knowledge and Power
Peter Kropotkin, “Brain work and Manual Work” from Fields, Factories, and Workshops Tomorrow. Ed. Colin Ward (London: Freedom Press, 1985), 169-187.
Herbert Marcuse, “The New Forms of Control,” One-Dimensional Man. Available at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/marcuse/works/one-dimensional-man/index.htm
James C. Scott. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998)
*Charles Thorpe, “Violence and the Scientific Vocation,” Theory, Culture & Society Volume 21 (3): 59-84
*Michelle Wright, “Racism, Technology, and the Limits of Western Knowledge,” in DomainErrors!

::Monday October 10th :: Labor Process and Technology
*Simon Lilley, Geoff Lightfoot, and Paulo Amaral. Representing Organization Chapter 1
Karl Marx, The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, section on “Alienated Labour”, in David McLellan, Karl Marx: Selected Writings (1990), pp. 77-87.
Raniero Panzieri, “Surplus Value and Planning: Notes on a Reading of Capital,” Trans. Julian Bees. The Labour Process & Class Strategies (London: Stage 1, 1976), 4-25.
*Andrew Ross, “Fixing How You Feel,” from No Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 87-122.
Harold L. Sheppard and Neal Q. Herrick. Where Have All the Robots Gone* Worker Dissatisfaction in the 70s (New York: Free Press, 1972)

::Tuesday October 11th::
Labor Process and Technology continued

::Wednesday October 12th:: Technology, Organization, and Community
*Rhadika Gajjala and Annapurna Mamidupdi, “'Analoging' the Digital, Digitizing the Analog: Contemplations on Communities of Production and Virtuality” in Domain Errors!
*Simon Lilley, Geoff Lightfoot, and Paulo Amaral. Representing Organization Chapter 2, 8
Howard Rheingold. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Virtual Frontier (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000). On-line at : http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/

::Monday October 17th:: Information Theory and Organization
*Simon Lilley, Geoff Lightfoot, and Paulo Amaral. Representing Organization Chapters 3-4, 8
Karl Marx, excerpt from the “Fragment on Machines,” from Grundrisse. Translated Martin Nicolaus (London: Penguin Books, 1973), 704-706.
Franco Piperno, “Technological Innovation and Sentimental Education,” in Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics (Minneapolis, MN: University of Michigan Press, 1996), 123-130.
Tiziana Terranova. Network Culture: Politics and the Information Age (London: Pluto Books, 2004)
*Jeremy Valentine, “The Mood of Networking Culture,” Economising Culture: On the Digital Culture Industry (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2005), 63-73.
Paolo Virno, “Labor, Action, Intellect” from The Grammar of the Multitude. Trans. Sylvčre Lotringer (New York: Semiotext(e), 2004), 47-71. Available at http://www.generation-online.org/c/fcmultitude3.htm

::Wednesday October 20th::
Information Theory and Organization continued

::Monday October 24th:: Software Culture
*Matthew Fuller. Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2004)

::Wednesday October 27th::
Software Culture continued

::Monday October 31st:: Gender and Technology
*B.Berch, “For Women the Chips are Down,” Processed World 11 (1984): 42-46.
*Maria Fernandez and Faith Wilding, “Situating Cyberfeminisms”in DomainErrors!
*“Introduction: Practicing Cyberfeminisms” in DomainErrors!
*Susanna Paasonen, “The Woman Question: Addressing Women as Internet Users” in DomainErrors!

::Wednesday November 2nd::
Gender and technology continued

::Monday November 7th:: Bodies, Technology, and Cyborgs
*Leopoldina Fortunati, “Real People, Artificial Bodies,”Mediating the Human Body: Technology, Communication, and Fashion. Ed. Leopoldina Fortunati, James E. Katz, and Raimonda Riccini (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 2003), 61-71.
*Chris Hables Gray and Steven Mentor, “The Cyborg Body Politic and the New World Order,”
Prosthetic Territories: Politics and Hypertechnologies. Ed. Gabriel Brahm Jr. and Mark Driscoll (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), 219-247.
*Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: the Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), 149-181.

::Wednesday November 9th::
Bodies, Technology, Cyborgs continued

::Monday November 14th:: Simulation Inside the Matrix
Showing and discussion of “The Matrix”
*Jean Baudrillard. Simulations. Trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton, and Philip Beitchman (New York: Semiotext(e), 1983)
*Simon Lilley, Geoff Lightfoot, and Paulo Amaral. Representing Organization Chapter 5
Lisa Nakamura, “Race in the Construct, or the Construction of Race: New Media and Old Identities in 'The Matrix,” in Domain Errors!

::Wednesday November 16th::
Simulation Inside the Matrix continued

::Monday November 21st:: War, Technology, Speed
*Critical Art Ensemble, “The Mythology of Terrorism on the Net” in Digital Resistance
Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore. War and Peace in the Global Village (New York: Bantam Books, 1968)
*Paul Virilio and Sylvere Lotringer, “Fragmentation and Technology / Speed and the Military,” Pure War. Trans. Mark Polizzotti (New York: Semiotext(e), 1983), 37-56.

No Class Wednesday November 23rd

::Monday November 28th:: Digital Art and Aesthetics
*Irina Aristarkhova, “Happy Endings: Engagements with Women Artists in Singapore” in DomainErrors!
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schoken Books, 1968), 217-251.
*Maurizio Lazzarato, “New Forms of Production and Circulation of Knowledge,” Read Me! Filtered by Nettime: ASCII Culture and the Revenge of Knowledge (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 1999), 486-490.

::Wednesday November 30th:: Digital Resistance
*Critical Art Ensemble. Electronic Civil Disobedience & Other Unpopular Ideas (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 1996)
*Critical Art Ensemble, “Recombinant Theater and Digital Resistance” in Digital Resistance
Armin Medosch, “Society in Ad-Hoc Mode: Decentralising, Self-Organising, Mobile,” Economising Culture: On the Digital Culture Industry (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2005, 135-161.

::Monday December 5th:: Surveillance, Disciplining, Scanning
Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage, 1995)
*Simon Lilley, Geoff Lightfoot, and Paulo Amaral. Representing Organization Chapter 6-7
*Graham Sewell and Barry Wilkinson, “Someone to Watch Over Me: Surveillance, Discipline and the Just-in-Time Labour Process,” Sociology Volume 26 Number 2 (1992: 271-289.
Shoshana Zuboff. In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power (New York: Basic Books, 1988)

::Wednesday December 7th:: Biotechnology
*Critical Art Ensemble, “The Promissory Rhetoric of Biotechnology and the Public Sphere” in Digital Resistance
*Lucia Sommer, “InVisible Body: Notes on Biotechnologies Vision” in Domain Errors!
Nikolas Rose, “The Politics of Life Itself,” Theory, Culture & Society 2001 Vol. 18(6): 1–30

::Monday December 9th:: Intellectual Property rights, Ownership, Open Source
*Critical Arts Ensemble, “The Financial Advantages of Anti-Copyright”in Digital Resistance
*Martin Kretschmer, “Intellectual Property in Music: A Historical Analysis of Rhetoric and Institutional Practice,” Studies in Cultures, Organizations, and Societies. Volume 6 Number 2 (2000), 197-223.
Richard Stallman, “Why Software Should Not Have Owners.” Available at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html

::Websites::
Critical Art Ensemble: http://www.critical-art.net/
Interactivist Info-Exchange: http://slash.interactivist.net
Mute Magazine: http://www.metamute.com
Surveillance and Society: http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/