Area 808

Books
Frank Webster, editor. (2004). The Information Society Reader. (London, NY: Routledge).Available at the Loyola Bookstore

Readings
Various readings will be available at the Learning Center, designated (LC) on the course syllabus, or available via CLUES, designated (CLUES) on the syllabus, or available online.

Various course materials be posted on the blog http://808.pariso.com

Requirements and Assignments
This course is conducted as a seminar; students are actively encouraged to participate in the class discussions and to come to class prepared to discuss the weekly readings. As we meet only once a week, attendance is mandatory. Please let me know in advance if you are unable to attend the class.

Class Participation: 10%
Come to class prepared to engage with your colleagues and with a few questions to pose on the weekly readings.

Take-home mid-term exam: 25% (due October 12 in class or emailed to me by noon; will be distributed in class September 27)
This exam will consist of short essays based on the course readings and class discussions.

Surveillance in Everyday Life Project: 25% (due in class November 2). Students are asked to provide a portfolio of their everyday interactions and how they are impacted by surveillance. Be as creative as possible! This can include photo documentation, monitoring of public discourses on surveillance issues, fiction, a play, podcasting, the creation of a CDROM or….

Research Paper: 40% (includes bibliography and outline, 10%)
Students are asked to choose a research topic related to the class and write a research essay of approximately 4,000 words (around 15 pages including references). The preliminary bibliography and outline are worth 10% of the final grade and due no later than November 16th. This will allow me to give you timely feedback on your paper. The final paper will be due by midnight on December 13th. E-mail to me please.

Citation guidelines can be found here.
Plagiarism will be taken seriously. Look at the Undergraduate Calendar Code of Conduct here.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Week 1: September 7
Introduction to course

Week 2: September 14
Advocates of the Information Society
o Webster, Chapters 1-3

o Linda Kintz (2002), Performing Virtual Whiteness: George Gilder’s Techno-Theocracy, Cultural Studies 16(5): 735-773. (CLUES)

Week 3: September 21
Critics of the Information Society
o Webster, Chapters 4-6

o Vincent Mosco. (2005). Chapter 3, Cyberspace and the End of History, pp. 55-84 in The Digital Sublime (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press). (LC)

Week 4: September 28
Post-Industrial Society

Take-home midterm will be distributed

o Webster, Chapter 7-9

o Ursula Huws (2003), Material World: The Myth of the Weightless Economy, pp. 126-151 in The Making of a Cybertariat: Virtual Work in a Real World (NY: Monthly Review Press). (LC)

o Read excerpts from:
Edwin Black (October 9, 2002). IBM and the Auschwitz
Edwin Black (2002). Excerpt from IBM and the Holocaust.

Week 5: October 5
The Network Society
o Webster, Chapters 10-12

o Darin Barney, (2004) Network Identity, pp. 143-175 in The Network Society (London: Polity). (LC)

o Judy Wajcman (May 2002), Addressing Technological Change: The Challenge to Social Theory, Current Sociology 50(3): 347-363. (CLUES)

Week 6: October 12
Transformations

Take-home midterm due in class OR emailed to me by 12noon today

o Webster, Chapters 13-16

o Gina Neff. (January 2005). The Changing Face of Cultural Production: The Location of Social Networks in a Digital Media Industry. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 597: 134-152. (CLUES)

o Krista Scott-Dixon, (2004) New Work Versus Same Old, Same Old, pp. 128-163 in Doing IT: Women Working in Information Technology (Toronto: Sumach Press). (LC)

Week 7: October 19
Divisions, Pt 1.
o Webster, Chapters 17-19

o Ellen Seiter. (2005).Children’s Use of Computers at Home and at School, pp. 1-17 In The Internet Playground: Children’s Access, Entertainment, and Mis-Education. NY: Peter Lang. (LC)

o Neil Selwyn (2004). Reconsidering Political and Popular Understandings of the Digital Divide. New Media & Society 6(3): 341-362. (CLUES)

Week 8: October 26
Divisions, Pt 2.
o Donna M. Hughes. (2002). The Use of New Communication and Information Technologies for Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children. Hastings Women’s Law Journal 13(1): 129-148.

o Saskia Sassen. (2002). Global Cities and Survival Circuits, pp. 254-274 in Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, ed. Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (NY: Henry Holt). (LC)

Week 9: November 2
Surveillance

Everyday Surveillance Project Due

o Webster, Chapters 20-22

o Robert O’Harrow, Jr. (2005). Chapter 10, No Place to Hide, pp. 281-300 in No Place to Hide. NY: Free Press. (LC)

Week 10: November 9
Democracy
o Webster, Chapters 23-26

o Mimi Sheller and John Urry (2003). Mobile Transformations of ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ Life. Theory, Culture & Society 20(3): 107-125. (CLUES)

Week 11: November 16
Virtualities
o Webster, Chapters 27-29

o Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia , (2002). Prepared by The Basel Action Network (BAN) and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC). See also See also www.it-environment.org

Week 12: November 23
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
o Marita Moll and Leslie Regan Shade. (2004). Vision Impossible?: The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), pp. pp. 45-80 in Seeking Convergence in Policy and Practice: Communications In the Public Interest, Vol. 2. Co-Edited with Marita Moll. (Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). Available online at http://www.globalcn.org/en/article.ntd?id=1983&sort=1 and hardcopy at LC.

o Dafne Sabanes Plou (2003), What About Gender Issues in the Information Society, pp. 11-31 in Communicating in the Information Society, ed. Bruce Girard and Seán Ó Siochrú (Geneva: UNRISD). URL: http://files.crisinfo.org/cris/plou.pdf

Week 13: November 30
Course Wrap-Up

The final paper will be due by midnight on December 13th.
E-mail to me please.