103-210 Cybersociety: Information Technology, Society and Self

Note

Available as 103-310 at 3rd-year level.

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Normally, completion of any two subjects from budget departments of the Faculty of Arts. Students from other faculties should seek approval from the Arts Faculty Office.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

Students will engage in a study of information systems in a social and cultural context, and will examine critical issues which lie at the intersection of the social and the technical. The subject brings together knowledge-interests in social science and social theory on the one hand, and computer science and information systems on the other. Students who complete this subject should: critically analyse and evaluate controversial issues relating to information systems in a social context, and argue credible positions in relation to these controversies; identify and draw upon the major theoretical and methodological discourses through which the relationship between information systems and society might be understood; understand concepts and terms used in an analysis of information system design and function and understand concepts and terms used in an analysis of society and culture; critically evaluate utopian and dystopian visions of advanced information systems in a social context.

Assessment

Up to 5000 words of class papers, essays and assignments.

Prescribed Texts

Course Reader available from the Subject Coordinator.

• Gibson, W, Neuromancer. Grafton Books, Glasgow 1986.