Description of the course

This class is aimed at undergraduate students of all backgrounds and interests. It does not require specific disciplinary knowledge and is designed to be understood by any student with a general level of information about society, politics, the economy, and international affairs, regardless of the student's major. Interested graduate students are welcome. A series of talks will analyze the interaction between society and contemporary information technologies, in a multicultural and comparative perspective. Talks will cover 11 topics, which will be subdivided in specific themes. Specific required online media resources will be assigned for each topic. 

Pre-requisites:
For non-sociology students; consent of the instructor.
Requirements:
Regular Participation. Engaging Required Media Resources.

SCHEDULE OF TALKS
(number between brackets indicate number of talks)

0. Introduction: Technology and Society (1)

1. The Information Technology Revolution: History, Geography, Actors (Microelectronics, computers, telecommunications, genetic engineering) (2)

2. The Internet Society: Social history of the Internet. The cultures of the Internet. Virtual communities and sociability online. Social movements, political conflicts, and the Internet. (4).

3. The New Economy: Technology and Productivity. E-business and the new economy. Globalization: financial markets, international trade, transnational production networks, internationalization of the labor force. The new international division of labor: inclusion and exclusion in the global networks of the new economy. (4)

4. The Digital Divide: (a) Technology, poverty, and minorities in the U.S. (b) Inequality, poverty, and social exclusion in the Information Age (c) The digital divide in a global perspective. (3)

5. The transformation of management, work, and employment: the network enterprise, flexible work, and the individualization of capital labor relations. (3)

6. Gender relations in the Information Age. (2)

7. The Informational City: information technology and spatial transformation (2)

8. The New Media and the culture of real virtuality. (2)

9. Informational Politics and the Network State (2)

10. The new world disorder: war and peace in the Age of the Internet (1) Conclusion: Technology and Social Responsibility (1) 

11. Communication Power (1)


REQUIRED MEDIA RESOURCES and READINGS
(Numbers refer to the topics in the program)

0. Manuel Castells "Identity and Change in the Network Society"

Please watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GBB7U5mv0w

Please read transcript: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Castells/castells-con0.html

1. Manuel Castells, "The Rise of the Network Society,” 2 nd edition, Oxford: Blackwell, 2000, chapter 1: "The Information Technology Revolution,” pp.28- 76 

Please read transcript:

2. a) Janet Abbate "Inventing the Internet,” Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999, pages 1-6, 44-81, and 181-220.
b) Eric S. Raymond "The cathedral & the bazaar. Musings on Linux and open source by an accidental revolutionary," Sebastopol, Ca: O'Reilly, 1999, pages 7 - 78.
c) Barry Wellman and Milena Gulia "Net-Surfers don't ride alone: virtual communities as communities," on Barry Wellman (editor) "Networks in the global village,” Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 331-366 

Please read transcript:

3. a) Manuel Castells "Information technology and global capitalism" in Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens "On the edge. Living in global capitalism," London: Jonathan Cape and New York: The New Press, 2000, pages 52-74 b) David Held et alter "Global Transformations,” Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999, pages 189-282. 

Please read transcript:

4.  a) Manuel Castells "End of Millennium,” Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd edition, 2000, chapter 2 "The rise of the fourth world,” pages 68-82 and 128-152
b) U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration "Failing through the net: toward digital inclusion. A report on American's access to technology tools,” Washington DC: October 2000 (the whole report minus the methodology appendix)
c) David Bolt and Ray Crawford "Digital Divide. Computers and Our Children's Future,” New York: TV Books, pages 23-71
d) Manuel Castells "Information technology and global development," keynote address to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, May 12, 2000 (text provided in class - available on-line from the United Nations). 

Please read transcript:

5. Martin Carnoy "Sustaining the new economy. Work, family and community in the Information Age," Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000, pages 14- 104 

Please read transcript:

6. a) Juliet Webster "Shaping Women's Work. Gender, Employment and Information Technology,” Harlow: Longman, 1996, pages 33-1 10, and 176- 192
b) Martin Carnoy "Sustaining the new economy,” pages 105 -151. 7. a) William J. Mitchell "E-topia," Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 31-68
b) James O.Wheeler, Yuko Aoyama, and Barney Warf "City space, industrial space and cyberspace" in Wheeler, Aoyama and Warf (eds.) "Cities in the telecommunications age," New York: Routledge, 2000, pages 3-17
c) Andrew Gillespie and Ronald Richardson "Teleworking and the city: Myths of workplace transcendence and travel reduction,” in Wheeler, Aoyama and Warf (eds) "Cities in the telecommunications age,” 2000, pages 228-248 

Please read transcript:

8. a) Bruce M. Owen "The Internet challenge to television,” Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999, pages 197-333.
b). William Dutton "Society on the line. Information politics in the digital age,” New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, chapter 10: "Wiring the global village: shaping access to audiences,” pages 257-277 

Please read transcript:

9. Manuel Castells, "The power of identity,” Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, chapter 5 "A powerless state?," pages 244-276 and 299-308, and chapter 6 "Informational politics and the crisis of democracy,” pages 309-353. 

Please read transcript:

10. John Arquilia and David Ronfeldt "The emergence of noopolitik. Toward and American Information Strategy,” Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 1999 (whole book, 89 pages). 

Please read transcript:

11. Jan A.G.M. van Dijk  "Review of Manuel Castells (2009), Communication Power,"
Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. (571 p.) ISBN 978-0-19-956-701-1. To appear in Communications, The European Journal of Communication (2010)
http://www.utwente.nl/bms/mco/bestanden/CastellsCommunicationPowerReview.pdf

  and Sy Taffel "Manuel Castells – Communication Power" precis, May 31, 2010
https://mediaecologies.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/manuel-castells-communication-power/

Please read transcript: