DSOC 2080 - [Technology, Society, and Development]

(SBA)

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Next offered 2014-2015.

R. Bezner Kerr.

The relationship between technology, society, and development is complex and fraught with promises, challenges, and power relations. In this course, students will explore the social meanings of technology and their sociological relations to development and change. Lectures and readings will cover classical and contemporary debates regarding technology, society, and development, covering issues such as: the links between technology, colonialism, and empire; the role of technical expertise in assessing and implementing development projects and programs; and contemporary technological innovation and broad-scale social change. Through these investigations, students will examine technology not as a “thing,” but as a set of eminently social relations that shape our understandings of and the possibilities for change.