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Kursusnavn (dansk):ESST Situated Analysis of Global Connections 
Kursusnavn (engelsk):ESST Situated Analysis of Global Connections 
Semester:Forår 2014 
Udbydes under:cand.it., Digital Innovation & Management (dim) 
Omfang i ECTS:8,00 
Kursussprog:Engelsk 
Kursushjemmeside:https://learnit.itu.dk 
Min. antal deltagere:0 
Forventet antal deltagere:0 
Maks. antal deltagere:0 
Formelle forudsætninger:Please note that this course is only available for exchange students enrolled in the programme Digital Innovation & Management.


The course also functions as the first part of the specialization 'Global Relations and Networked Practices'.
 
Læringsmål:After the course the student should be able to:

  • Apply the methodologies for a situated analysis of global technology development, scientific practice and organizational change.
  • Apply concepts from science and technology studies and related social science fields, including the anthropology of science and technology and organization studies
  • Analyze political and social effects of globalizing projects and global phenomena, including the dissemination of new technologies, scientific approaches and business models.
  • Critically analyze the challenges and possibilities for contemporary organizations in a globalized world
  • Execute and discuss the skills required for conducting empirical studies of technology-mediated practices in globalized contexts. 
    • Fagligt indhold:The course will be structured around six themes:

    Theme 1:
    What is globalization? How has it been described in critical literature? What prompts reflection about it?What insights emerge from anthropological and STS approaches to challenges of contemporary research? This introductory theme provides a general backdrop and analytical tools from social science.

    Theme 2:
    How do we conduct analysis of global projects? Why does situatedness matter? What are the challenges of situated research? How might you conduct a situated analysis? This theme presents students with a methodological toolkit for the analysis of global connections, centered on ethnography of global projects and situational analysis.

    Theme 3:
    Presents an analytical framework based on actor-network theory and feminist theories of science, facilitating understanding how global projects are constructed through mutually defining interactions between people and technologies. Examplse include aircrafts, zoology museums, scallops and trading.

    Theme 4:
    Explores the interactions between people and technologies in making global infrastructures. Examples include software development, development aid, canals and oil pipelines.

    Theme 5:
    What do standards do in and for international projects? How are they put to work? What can studying them make us aware of? What are the power dimensions of standards and classifications, and what kinds of tools can we use to become more aware of them? Examples include pigs, onions and IQ tests.

    Theme 6:
    Analyzes issues of culture, power and discourse related to global organization. Topics include expertise, elites, personal connections and transnational cooperation. 
    Læringsaktiviteter:

    The above Learning Outcomes are specific to the course Situated Analysis of Global Connections, and relate to a mix of practical skills and higher order thinking that you will be developing. During class, you will also be engaged in developing a range of MSc level skills. These include your abilities in: summarizing and breaking down sophisticated texts, synthesizing and integrating ideas from different schools of thought, diagramming the interrelationships between concepts, exploring your own interests relative to this field of study, organizing and planning your own work. You will be writing critically engaged texts of your own, something that will build on, test and develop your existing skills of expression. Perhaps more importantly, this class is invested in supporting your capacity to think independently and creatively. Openness to thinking through the important contributions that are made by social sciences to analyzing, comprehending, and engaging with the challenges of the contemporary world is welcomed.

    The course is taught intensively over six, full-day Monday seminars during the first six weeks of the semester, from January 27th to March 3rd. It is designed this way so that the remainder of the semester can be dedicated to writing, discussion and reflection.

    From March 3rd, there will be a monthly seminar to support reflection and development of written texts. During the intensive, each week addresses a different theme in the course. Sessions are based on a seminar style teaching, which comprises lectures as well as mandatory student presentations.

    Student participation is a really important part of the course, and you will be asked to read carefully, prepare thoughtful questions and small texts, listen and respond to one another’s comments. You will be supported in this by both the course manager and the TA, and you will have much richer class discussions as a result of good preparation! 

    Obligatoriske aktivititer:There are no mandatory activities for this course. 
    Eksamensform og -beskrivelse:X. experimental examination form (7-scale; external exam), Bestået/ikke bestået, Intern prøve

    Hand in exam with an oral component. The hand in exam is an elaboration on the ESST Project Outline, developed using literature from the 6 week course.

    The oral component will be a 30 minute slot, comprising a presentation of the student’s work and constructive criticism from the examining team. The outline must be approved in order for the student to continue to the ESST Thesis stage.  

    Litteratur udover forskningsartikler:January 27 Introduction to globalization

    Theme 1
    What is globalization? How has it been described in critical literature? What prompts reflection about it?What insights emerge from anthropological and STS approaches to challenges of contemporary research? This introductory theme provides a general backdrop and analytical tools from social science.

    Group 1
  • Ferguson, James. 2006. Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 25-50
  • Friedman, Thomas L. 2005. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century, London: Penguin Books, pp. 3-48.
  • Varma, Meher. 2007. “India wiring out: ethnographic reflections from two transnational call centers in India” Anthropology Matters 9(2):1-7.

    Group 2
  • Appadurai, Arjun. 1990. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy', in Featherstone, M. (ed.), Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, SAGE, pp. 195-211
  • Sassen, Saskia. 2001. “Spatialities and Temporalities of the Global” in Globalization ed Arjun Appadurai, pp. 260-278.

    Group 3
  • Beck, Ulrich. 2000. What is Globalization? Cambridge: Polity Press, “Introduction” and “The World Horizon Opens Up: On the Sociology of Globalization”, pp. 1-64
  • Tsing, Anna. 2000. “The Global Situation”, Cultural Anthropology 15(3): 327-60

    February 3 Situated Analysis

    Theme 2
    How do we conduct analysis of global projects? Why does situatedness matter? What are the challenges of situated research? How might you conduct a situated analysis? This theme presents students with a methodological toolkit for the analysis of global connections, centered on ethnography of global projects and situational analysis .

    Group 1
  • Clarke, Adele. 2005. Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory after the Postmodern Turn. Excerpts. Thousand Oaks, London & New Delhi, Sage.
  • Law, John. 2004. “Chapter 4: Fluid results” in After Method pp. 70-82.

    Group 2
  • Chung, J. “Ethnographic Remnants” in Fieldwork is not what it used to be.
  • Neyland, D. 2008. “Introduction” in Organizational ethnography. Los Angeles ; London: SAGE pp 1-24.

    Note: for those of you who have read Neyland in previous classes, the alternative reading is
  • Heyman, Josiah Mc. 2004. “The Anthropology of Power Wielding Bureaucracies”. Human Organization 63(4): 487-500.

    Group 3
  • Marcus, George E. 1995. “Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography”. Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 95-117.
  • Falzon, Marc-Anthony. 2009. “Introduction: Multi-sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research” in Multi-Sited Ethnography ed. Marc-Anthony Falzon. Ashgate

    February 10 Actor Networks and Situated Knowledges

    Theme 3
    Presents an analytical framework based on actor-network theory and feminist theories of science , facilitating understanding how global projects are constructed through mutually defining interactions between people and technologies. Examplse include aircrafts, zoology museums, scallops and trading.

    Group 1
  • Law, John and Michel Callon. 1992. "The Life and Death of an Aircraft: A Network Analysis of Technical Change". W. E. Bijker and J. Law (Eds.) Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. London: MIT Press.
  • Star, Susan Leigh & James Griesemer. 1989. “Institutional Ecology, ‘Translations’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39, Social Studies of Science 19: 387-420.
  • Akrich, Madeline. 1992. “The De-Scription of Technical Objects”. In Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law (Eds.) Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambirdge: MIT Press.

    Group 2
  • Pickering, Andrew. 1995. The Mangle of Practice — Time, Agency, and Science. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press. Chapter 1, p1-37.
  • Callon, Michel. 1986. “Some elements of a sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay” in John Law ed. Power Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? 196-229. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul

    Group 3
  • Ho, Karen. 2009. “Introduction: Anthropology Goes to Wall Street” [Excerpt] and chapter seven “Leveraging Dominance and Crises Through the Global”, pp. 1-13 and 294-325. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  • Olds, Kris, and Thrift x. 2005. “Cultures on the Brink: Re-engineering the soul of Capitalism on a Global Scale” in Global Assemblages ed. Aihwa Ong and Stephne Collier.

    Note: this week buildings on texts the majority of you you have already covered in other classes in this course. For those who have elective students outside the DIM course, please also read the text below, since it will be reference during the seminar discussion.
  • Haraway, Donna. 1988. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective”, Feminist Studies 14(3):575-59.

    February 17 Global Infrastructures

    Theme 4
    Explores the interactions between people and technologies in making global infrastructures. Examples include software development, development aid, canals and oil pipelines.

    Group 1
  • Jensen, Casper Bruun and Brit Ross Winthereik. 2013. “Infrastructures and Development Aid: Fields, Fractals and Frictions”. In Monitoring Movements in Development Aid: Recursive Infrastructures and Partnerships. Cambridge, Ma: MIT Press.
  • Graham, Mark and Laura Mann. 2013. Imagining a Silicon Savannah? Technological and Conceptual Connectivity in Kenya’s BIO and Software Development Sectors. Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 56(2): 1-19.

    Group 2
  • Carse, A. 2012. "Nature as Infrastructure: Making and Managing the Panama Watershed." Social Studies of Science 42(4): 539-563.
  • Barry, Andrew. “Introduction” Material Politics: Disputes along the Pipeline. Wiley Blackwell, pp .

    Group 3
  • Edwards, Paul. 2003. “Infrastructure and Modernity: Force, Time and Social Organization in the History of Sociotechnical Systems”. In T. J. Misa, P. Brey and A. Feenberg (eds.) Modernity and Technology, Cambridge, Ma: MIT Press. 185-225.
  • Larkin, B. 2013. "The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure." Annual Review of Anthropology 42:327-43.

    February 24 Standardization and Classification

    Theme 5
    What do standards do in and for international projects? How are they put to work? What can studying them make us aware of? What are the power dimensions of standards and classifications, and what kinds of tools can we use to become more aware of them? Examples include pigs, onions and IQ tests.

    Group 1
  • Bowker, Geoffrey C. and Susan Leigh Star. 2000. “Introduction: To Classify is Human” Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, Ma, MIT Press, .
  • Dunn, E. C. 2005. “Standards and person-making in East-Central Europe” in Global Assemblages: Technology, politics, and ethics as anthropological problems A. Ong and S. J. Collier. Oxford,:Blackwell pp. 173-194.

    Group 2
  • Star, Susan Leigh. 1991. “Power, Technology and the phenomenology of Conventions: On Being Allergic to Onions” in John Law (ed.) A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 26-56.
  • Bowker, Geoffrey C. and Susan Leigh Star. 2000. Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, Ma, MIT Press, “Categorical Work and Boundary Infrastructures: Enriching Theories of Classification”, 283-319,

    Group 3
  • Carson, J. “The Science of Merit and the Merit of Science: Mental Order and Social Order in Early 20th C France and America. in Jasanoff, S. States of Knowledge. pp. 181.205.
  • Bowker, Geoffrey C. and Susan Leigh Star. 2000. Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, Ma, MIT Press, “ Why Classifications Matter”, 319-27 ”, “Some Tricks of the Trade in Analyzing Classification”, pp. 31-51.

    March 3 Global Flows

    Theme 6
    Analyzes issues of culture, power and discourse related to global organization. Topics include expertise, elites, personal connections and transnational cooperation.

    Group 1
  • Inda, Jonathan Xavier, and Rosaldo, Renato (2008) “Tracking Global Flows”. In Inda, Jonathan Xavier, and Rosaldo, Renato (Eds.) The Anthropology of Globalization: a Reader, Second Edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Maurer, Bill 2000. “A Fish Story: Rethinking Globalization on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands”, American Ethnologist 3: 670-701.

    Group 2
  • Tsing, Anna. 2005. “Frontiers of Capitalism” and “The Economy of Appearances”, in Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press pp. 27-51 & 55-81.
  • Golubm Alex and Mooweon Rhee. 2013. “Traction: the role of executives in localising mining and petroleum industries in Papua New Guinea” Paideuma 59:215-236.

    Group 3
  • Ong, Aihwa 2005. “Ecologies of Expertise: Assembling Flows, Managing Citizenship” in Global Assemblages Blackwell pp 337.354.
  • Xiang, Biao. 2007. “Producing ‘IT-People’ in Andhra” in Global “Body Shopping”: An Indian Labor System in the Information Technology Industry. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, pp. 24-39. 
    •  
    Afholdelse (tid og sted)
    Kurset afholdes på følgende tid og sted:
    UgedagTidspunktForelæsning/ØvelserStedLokale
    Mandag 08.00-09.50 Forelæsning ITU DesignLab
    Mandag 10.00-11.50 Forelæsning ITU DesignLab
    Mandag 12.00-13.50 Øvelser ITU DesignLab
    Mandag 14.00-15.50 Øvelser ITU DesignLab

    Eksamen afholdes på følgende tid og sted:
    EksamensdatoTidspunktEksamenstypeStedLokale
    2014-03-05 14:00 Skriftlige arbejder ITU Submission in learnIT
    2014-03-10 13:00 - 14:00 Mundtlig eksamen ITU 4A22