Type of Credit: Elective
Credit(s)
Number of Students
Credits can be exchanged for Sociology.
This course introduces students to the sociological study of technoscience and society. You will explore and analyze what it means to live in a contemporary technological society. A major goal will be to answer several questions:
(1) What are the social, structural, and cultural influences on our behavior, attitudes, and technological change?
(2) What are the sources, dynamics, and consequences of social inequality and our organization? and
(3) What are the implications of materials and technology for social change? We’ll then discuss fundamental social processes and concepts—culture, organization and management, social identity, and social interaction.
In the later part of the semester, you will study how technology and society have been intertwined. While technology has always been an intricate part of any society, in the second half of the 20th-century technological change became a defining characteristic of the way societal structures, and technological politics are constituted and organized. In this part, you will investigate and unravel this distinctive condition. You will study different areas where questions about technology’s role in society are central: economy, transportation, and corporation. In this course, you will learn that technological development is not just about technology.
能力項目說明
| 教學週次Course Week | 彈性補充教學週次Flexible Supplemental Instruction Week | 彈性補充教學類別Flexible Supplemental Instruction Type |
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Week-by-week Syllabus and Readings 9/13 Week 1 Course Orientation
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9/20 Week 2 Sociotechnical Imagination A quick introduction followed by a viewing of the film: Railways: The Making of a Nation – Time by BBC Liz McIvor. Before the railways, Britan was divided and local time was proudly treasured. Clocks in the west of the country were several minutes behind those set in the east. The railways wanted the country to step to a new beat in a world of precise schedules and timetables that recognised Greenwich Mean Time.
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9/27 Week 3 Technoscience and Systematic Failure A quick introduction followed by a viewing of the film: “Brakeless” directed by Kyoko Miyake, and then grouping and discussion. What led a Japanese commuter train to speed dangerously, causing a deadly crash? Was the society’s pursuit of efficiency to blame?
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10/4 Week 4 Culture and Management Required reading: Edensor, Tim (2002) ‘Popular rituals: sport and carnival’, extract from National identity, popular culture, and everyday life. Oxford: Berg: pp. 78-81
Ray, C. A. (1986). Corporate Culture: The Last Frontier of Control. Journal of Management Studies, 23(3), 287-297.
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10/11 Week 5 Identity, Groups and Organizations (Marx Weber) Required reading: Weber Rationalization and Modern Society, Translated and Edited by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters (2015 Palgrave MacMillan), Max Weber’s Sociology in the Twenty-first Century, pp 1-12
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10/18 Week 6 Social Control, Management and Surveillance (Émile Durkheim) Required reading: Lyon, D. (1998) “The world wide web of surveillance: the internet and off-world power flows”, in H. Mackay and T. O’Sullivan (eds) The Media Reader. London: Sage.
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10/25 Week 7 Modern Institution and Disciplinary Power (Michel Foucault) Required reading: Taylor, C. (2011) ‘Biopower’ in D. Taylor (ed) Michel Foucault: Key Concepts. Durham: Acumen Publishing. Pages 41-53.
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11/1 Week 8 Cultural Capital and Stratification (Karl Marx) Required reading: Lawler, Steph (2014) The Hidden Privileges of Identity: On Being Middle Class. In Sociological Perspectives on Identity.
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11/8 Week 9 Mid-term Week (Catching up Week)
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11/15 Week 10 Field Trip Island and Life of Power- The Era of Taiwan's Electrification National Taiwan Museum: Nanmen Park
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11/22 Week 11 Social Interaction and Cognitive Psychology Required reading: Miller, D. (2012) Consumption and its consequences. Cambridge: Polity, Ch 3: Why we shop p64-89.
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11/29 Week 12 Race, Ethnicity and Performativity Required reading: Rattansi, Ali (2007) ‘New racisms’, in Racism. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press: pp. 86-112.
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12/6 Week 13 Technological Determinism An introduction followed by a viewing of the documentary: “The Making of a Nation: Railway Mania: Capitalism, Company Rivalry and Railway Network” by BBC Liz McIvor
Required reading: Wajcman, J. (2002). Addressing Technological Change: The Challenge to Social Theory. Current Sociology. Volume 50, Issue 3, 347–363.
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12/13 Week 14 Technology and Politics An introduction followed by a viewing of the documentary: “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and discussion session.
Required reading: Winner, Langdon. “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” Daedalus 109, no. 1 (1980): 121–36.
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12/20 Week 15 Presentation Week
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12/27 Week 16 Final-term Week (Catching up Week)
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Week 17 Self-Learning Week Week 18 Self-Learning Week Selective reading: Orlikowski. (2007). Socio-material Practices: Exploring Technology at Work. Organization Studies, 28(9), 1435–1448.
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