Postgraduate Course: Understanding Technology (PGSP11353)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Many of the students taking the MSc in Science and Technology in Society will have no prior training in the interdisciplinary field of science, technology and innovation studies. Focussing on different approaches to the social study of technology, this course introduces theoretical approaches, concepts and key empirical studies that form the canon and state-of-the-art in social research and critical thinking on technology.
While this course can be taken as a standalone course for students enrolled on other programmes, this course is designed to work in tandem with the partner core course, 'Science, Knowledge and Expertise'. Where possible, the contents of the two courses develop in parallel week by week, in order to encourage students to explore both the differences and intersections of science and technology. In doing so we avoid reifying distinctions between science and technology. The final week of each course will focus on "the future and relevance of science, technology and innovation studies", and will include reflections on the limitations of the field and its relevance for the wider world.
This core course asks what is the relationship between technology, innovation and society? Students are introduced to different social science approaches for understanding the design, development, use and circulation of technologies - from those we encounter in everyday, domestic life to industrial contexts, and from local to national, regional and global settings. In addition to theoretical and conceptual approaches, the course provides students with relevant methodological skills for studying technologies and other artefacts. |
| Course description |
The course will be delivered over 10 weeks using a lecture-plus-seminar-discussion format. Each two-hour sessions will typically consist of a 1 hour lecture intended to signpost major theories, concepts and literature in specific areas of the field, followed by a 1 hour seminar organised around classroom discussion, student-led presentations, and case study work. The lectures as somewhat longer than normal to permit adequate coverage and explication of interdisciplinary perspectives that will be strikingly novel to many of the students. The role of the seminars is (i) to ensure that students have a good working understanding of the concepts and perspectives developed in the lectures, and (ii) to give them an opportunity to explore how those concepts and perspectives may be used to analyse a range of empirical case studies of the role of technology in society.
Weekly Outline
1 What is technology? The relationship between technology and society
2 The politics of technology: foundational debates
3 The politics of technological knowledge: how do we know the properties of technology
4 Practices of technology production
5 Technological Systems and Entrenchment
6 Technology embedding & sociotechnical transitions: purposive efforts to embed novel or sustain entrenched technologies
7 Technology in everyday life
8 Technology exclusion and inclusion : Lessons from feminist technology studies
9 New challenges for technology policy and governance
10 The future and relevance of STS
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 21 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 25,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
171 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1 book review 1000 words 25%
2 paper 3500 words 75%
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- 1. to have acquired a substantive knowledge and understanding of a range of theoretical approaches, conceptual tools and methodologies for studying the relationship between technology, innovation and society, and a critical appreciation of the contending viewpoints and claims of those theories
- 2. to be able to apply and critically evaluate this learning in relation to a variety of empirical cases
- 3. to be aware of how an appreciation of the social dimension of technology can help to inform public and policy debate
- 4. to have developed their skills in finding, evaluating and analysing information about technology and its role in the modern world
- 5. to have developed their abilities to convey complex ideas through written and oral means - particularly through essay writing and seminar presentations.
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Reading List
Though there are no core texts for this course, there is a body of work, including the books listed below, that inform our work and that you may wish to become acquainted with over the course.
Bijker, W., T. Hughes & T. Pinch (eds.) (1988) The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, Cambridge MA: MIT Press
Bijker, W. & J. Law (eds.) (1992) Shaping Technology/Building Society, Cambridge MA: MIT Press
Clark, N. (1985) The Political Economy of Science and Technology, Oxford: Blackwell
Collins, H. & T. Pinch (1998) The Golem at Large,
Coombs, R., P. Saviotti & V. Walsh (1987) Economics and Technological Change, London: Macmillan
Elliot, B. (ed.) (1988) Technology and Social Process, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Feenberg, A. (1991) Critical Theory of Technology,
Feenberg, A., T.J. Misa & P Brey (2003) Modernity and Technology,
Freeman, C. & L. Soete (3rd ed., 1997) The Economics of Industrial Innovation, London: Pinter
Hackett, E. J., Amsterdamska, O., Lynch, M. and Wajcman, J. (eds) (2008), The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, Third Edition, MIT Press (also 1st edn, eds Jasanoff, Markle, Petersen & Pinch 1994)
Kirkup, G. & L.S. Keller (1992) (eds.) Inventing Women: Science, Technology and Gender, Milton Keynes: Open University
Law, J (ed.) (1991) Sociology of Monsters, London: Routledge
MacKenzie, D. (1996) Knowing Machines: Essays on Technical Change, Cambridge MA: MIT Press
MacKenzie, D. & J. Wajcman (eds.) (2nd ed., 1999) The Social Shaping of Technology, Buckingham: Open University Press (also 1st edition 1985)
McLaughlin, J. et al. (1999) Valuing Technology,
McLoughlin, I (1999) Creative Technological Change, London: Routledge
Rip, A. et al. (eds.) (1995) Managing Technology in Society
Rosenberg, N. (1976) Perspectives on Technology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Rosenberg, N. (1982) Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Scarborough, H. & J.M. Corbett (1992) Technology and Organisation
Sørensen, K. and R. Williams (eds.) (2002) Shaping Technology, Guiding Policy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
Wajcman, J. (1991) Feminism Confronts Technology, Cambridge: Polity
Webster, A. (1991) Science, Technology and Society: New Directions, London: Macmillan
Westrum, R. (1991) Technologies and Society: the Shaping of People and Things, Belmont CA: Wadsworth
Williams, R., J. Stewart and R. (2005) Social Learning in Technological Innovation: Experimenting with Information and Communication Technologies, Edward Elgar: Aldershot
Journals
Many journal papers are available electronically, at: http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/serials/ejintro.shtml
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society Science, Technology, & Human Values
History & Technology Social Studies of Science
IEEE Technology & Society Magazine Technology and Culture
MIT Technology Review Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
New Technology, Work & Employment Technology in Society
Research Policy Science, Technology, & Human Values
Science & Public Policy Social Studies of Science
* item particularly recommended ¿ minimum essential reading for lecture or seminar question
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Robin Williams
Tel: (0131 6)50 6387
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Jade Birkin
Tel: (0131 6)51 1659
Email: |
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