Politecnico di Torino

Science and Technology Studies

01SUMPM

Iowa State Course Substitution

Technology, Globalization, and Culture

ME 4840

Course Info

International Credits: 6.0
Converted Credits: 3.5
Country: Italy
Language: English
Course Description:

Topics tackled along the course will be: the relations between science, technology and society; artifacts’ capacity to act and produce effects and the ways in which all that can be described thanks to the concepts of script and de-scription; the biography of artifacts and the domestication process they go through (Domestication Theory); the role of users in these processes; the tracking, analysis and mapping of design controversies; the relavance of gender in relation to technology; the shared management of innovation processes considering issues like the relations between expert and lay expert knowledge, Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), Technlogical Assessment and especially Constructive Technological Assessment (CTA), Social Acceptance of Technologies and Infrastructures. The approaches introduced through which all these topics will be tackled are Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), the Theory of Social Practices (TSP) and, especially, Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The course will tackle the various topics mainly through case studies – some introduced and discussed in class, other deepened through readings – and through home and class assignments, such as: comparison and schematization of articles; short descriptions of technical objects’ use through ethnographic observations; description of the social relations inscribed in technical objects; mapping of design controversies.

Review

Evaluated Date:
March 27, 2023
Evaluated:
Megan Myers
Expiration Date:
March 27, 2028