103-005 Cybersociety: Information Technology, Society and Self

Note

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

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

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

Students will engage in a study of high-technology and information systems in a social and cultural context, and will examine critical issues which lie at the intersection of the social and the technical. Topics covered include: cybernetics, cyberspace, cyborgs and other 'cybers', virtual lives and virtual communities, the information economy, privacy and surveillance, digital convergence, multimedia and hypermedia, techno-utopian and dyspian visions. Students will participate in theoretical work and 'hands-on' experience. The subject therefore brings together knowledge-interests in social studies, social theory and culture on the one hand, and computer science and information systems on the other. Students who successfully complete this subject will be able to critically analyse and evaluate controversial issues relating to information systems in the social context, argue credible positions in relation to these controversies, and be able to identify and draw upon the major theoretical and methodological discourses through which the relationship between information systems and society might be understood.

Assessment

Written work totalling 4000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A course reader will be available.

• W Gibson, Neuromancer. Grafton Books 1986.
• N Stephenson, Snow Crash. Penguin 1993.