soc 482API spring 2002

andrew pickering

weds 3.00-5.30pm

336 lincoln hall

SOC 482API: Seminar in the Sociology of Technology

The aim of this course is to explore interrelations between the social and the technological. The course examines major transformations of the worlds of production, consumption, destruction and daily life as material and social technologies have proliferated throughout our culture since the Industrial Revolution.

The course is organised as a seminar, based on open-ended class discussions of pre-assigned texts. Readings include canonical and recent theoretical works and historical studies.

Students are expected to undertake a research project on a topic of their own choosing. Grades will reflect the quality of this work as embodied in a final essay, as well as on contributions in class.

Texts: M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, W. Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century, and a hefty collection of articles.