|
Anthropology 366 Technology and Society |
|
|
||
|
Prepared
by: Richard H. Robbins
|
Course Syllabus: Fall 2006 |
Phone:
564-4006 |
||
Class website: http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/richard.robbins/technology_and_society/ |
||||
Course
Organization:
The overall goal of the course is to develop a theory of technology, to better understand the role that machines (broadly defined) have in our lives. The course will be primarily discussion and problem-based; formal lectures will be limited. The class will be divided into groups which occasionally will be asked to address problems and issues related to the relationship between society and technology. Each group will also focus on a specific technology and present their findings to the class.
Participant Responsibilities:
Participants will be expected to contribute to discussion and to prepare answers to study questions attached to each reading in the online reader and assignments. In addition, each participant working in a group, will prepare a presentation on a specific technology. The presentation will be prepared using PowerPoint and will be suitable for inclusion on the class website.
Readings and Assignments:
There will be four major
sources of information for the course.
1.
The first will be the Online Science and Technology
Reader that is available at http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/richard.robbins/technology_and_society/reader_index.htm.
Each online reading is accompanied by a series of study questions.
You will be responsible for responding in writing to those questions and
handing them in each day. Your
responses will form one of the major sources for course discussion.
2.
The Religion of Technology by
David F. Noble
3.
More Work for Mother by
Ruth Schwartz Cowen
4.
The
History of Technology: The Western Tradition by Richard Robbins.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Science Technology and Society edited by
Sal Restivo
Assessment:
Grades will be based on the quality of the answers to the study questions from the readings (approximately 1/3), the quality of the group presentation (approximately 1/3), and contributions to class discussions (approximately 1/3).
Course Outline and Assignments
|
|
|
Week 1 Introduction |
Readings: Technology in History: The Western Tradition |
|
Part One: Technology as Paradise and Utopia |
|
|
Week
2. Technology, Revelation and
Salvation: From Joachim of Fiore to Karl Marx |
Readings:
The Religion of Technology, Part 1, Chapters 1-7 (pp. 3-100) |
|
Week
3. The Miracles of Space and Mind |
Readings:
The Religion of Technology, Part 2, Chapters 8-11 and Conclusion
(pp 103-228); Optional:
For a wonderful portray of a technologically driven utopian paradise, you
might want to read Edward Bellamy’s 1888 book, Looking Backward.
It is available online at: |
|
Part Two: Technology as Destroyer
|
|
|
Week 4 Progress vs. the Unabomber
|
Readings: STR* Pt 1, Readings 1-4
|
|
Week 5 The Positive Use of Technology? |
Readings: STR, Pt 1, Readings 5-6
|
|
Part Three: Technology and Economic Growth:
|
|
|
Week 6 The Acceleration of Everything |
Readings: STR, Readings Pt 2, Readings 1-4; Robbins, “The History of Technology: The Western Tradition”
|
|
(2) Technology, Capitalism, and Globalization
|
|
|
Week 7 Technology and Capitalism |
Readings, STR, Pt 3, Readings 1-4 ; More Work for Mother, chapters 1-2
|
|
Week 8 Technology and Globalization |
Readings, STR, Pt 3, Readings 5-7; More Work for Mother, chapter 3
|
|
(3) Technology and Capital Conversion
|
|
|
Section One: The Conversion of Natural Capital
|
|
|
Week 9 Technology and the Environment |
Readings, STR, Pt 4, Section 1, Readings 1-5; More Work for Mother, chapter 4
|
|
Section Two: The Conversion of Political Capital
|
|
|
Week 10 Technology and Freedom |
Readings, STR, Pt 4, Section 2, Readings 1-6; More Work for Mother, chapter 5
|
|
Section Three: The Conversion of Social Capital
|
|
|
Week 11 Technology and Social Relations |
Readings, STR, Pt. 4, Section 3, Readings 1-4; More Work for Mother, chapter 6
|
|
Part Four: Solutions and Alternative Visions
|
|
|
Week 12 Can Technology Help? |
Readings, STR, Pt. 5, Readings 1-5; More Work for Mother, chapter 7 and Postscript
|
|
Weeks 13-15 Class Presentations |
To be Assigned |
