Calendar

 

 

January 19, 2016
introduction, technology defined, some basic issues in the sociological study of technology
reading:
Miller, “As Robots Grow Smarter, American Workers Struggle to Keep Up”

January 21, 2016
sociotechnical change as the quiddity of contemporary societies

January 26, 2016
an extended definition
reading:
Kline, “What is Technology?”

January 28, 2016
dependence, capitalism, systems of systems
viewing:
Gordon, “The Death of Innovation, the End of Growth”

February 2, 2016
determinism, autonomy, momentum
reading:
Bijker, “Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change”

February 4, 2016
the SCOT perspective, with particular attention to the automobile
reading:
Norton, “Street Rivals”
Winner, “Upon Opening the Black Box and Finding it Empty”

February 9, 2016
rationality and the technological mindset
reading:
Wernick, “Declaring an Open Season on the Wisdom of the Ages”

February 11, 2016
politics: how artifacts can be political
reading:
Winner, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”

February 16, 2016
politics: surveillance
reading:
Foucault, Panopticism
Holley, “The Elf on the Shelf is Preparing Your Child to Live in a Future Police State…”

February 18, 2016
politics: resistance
reading:
Kline, “Resisting Consumer Technology…”

February 23, 2016
diffusion, economics, cultural lag
reading:
Sharp, “Steel Axes for Stone-Age Australians”

February 25, 2016
gunpowder: where it came from, why it blows up

March 1, 2016
gunpowder: the Renaissance and the American Civil War
reading:
Miodownik, “Fundamental”

March 3, 2016
gunpowder: firearms in contemporary American culture

March 8, 2016
review for midterm, discussion of big project assignment

March 10, 2016
midterm exam

March 15-17, 2016
spring break

March 22, 2016
clocks: where they came from, and why that’s not China

March 24, 2016
clocks: the quest for longitude
reading:
Tattersall, “If I Had a Hammer”

March 29, 2016
evolution: social science is evolutionary science
reading:
Hawks, “Still Evolving…”

March 31, 2016
evolution: culture trumps instinct

April 5, 2016
evolution: what’s “progress”? what’s “natural”?
reading:
Diaz, “Enough is Enough: A Thinking Ape’s Critique of Trans-Simianism”

April 7, 2016
evolution: variation, selection, heredity

April 12, 2016
tool use in animals

April 14, 2016
medicalization of childbirth
reading:
Helmuth, “The Disturbing, Shameful History of Childbirth Deaths”
Davis, “Drunken Midwives and Snooty Surgeons: A Short History of Giving Birth” 

April 19, 2016
student presentations of big projects

April 21, 2016
sociocultural evolution?
reading:
Dawkins, “Memes: The New Replicators”

April 26, 2016
technology and gender
reading:
Wajcman, “Feminist Perspectives on Technology”
Cowan, “The Industrial Revolution in the Home”

April 28, 2016
conclusion: salvaging the Enlightenment project

May 10, 2016
final exam 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
(Someone will have a conflict – check your other final times now.)