Official course description:

Full info last published 15/11-19
Course info
Language:
English
ECTS points:
7.5
Course code:
2012003U
Participants max:
70
Offered to guest students:
yes
Offered to exchange students:
Offered as a single subject:
yes
Price for EU/EEA citizens (Single Subject):
10625 DKK
Programme
Level:
Bachelor
Programme:
BSc in Global Business Informatics
Staff
Course manager
Associate Professor
Teacher
Research Assistant
Teacher
Research Assistant
Course semester
Semester
Forår 2020
Start
27 January 2020
End
31 August 2020
Exam
Exam type
ordinær
Internal/External
ekstern censur
Grade Scale
7-trinsskala
Exam Language
GB
Abstract

The objective of the course is to provide a set of coherent concepts for critical evaluation of the theoretical and methodological basis of research traditions in the information sciences. The course introduces students to important philosophical and historical perspectives on science and technology, as well as to more general epistemological and reflexive issues relating to natural and social science disciplines.

Description

Being able to critically evaluate the theoretical and methodological basis of research traditions in the information sciences is important for the appreciation of the philosophical and historical background for contemporary science and technology debates.

After the course the student should be able to: 

  • Identify and account for key positions in the Philosophy of Science 
  • Account for relevant theoretical perspectives on technology with a particular emphasis on the interactions between IT, the general BA subject area and the broader context. 
  • Identify and analyze a problem of interest that touches upon the relationships between IT and its context (may it be of political, ethical, philosophical, historical or societal nature). 
  • Present relevant concepts from the curriculum accurately, and critically use these concepts in an investigation of the select problem

Philosophy of science and technology provides a basic introduction to scientific methods and introduces central philosophical perspectives on science, epistemology and technology. The literature introduces students to paradigms such as positivism, phenomenology and social constructivism, as well as to contemporary sociotechnical approaches to science and technology. It also introduces central concepts in scientific methodology, including deductivism, inductivism and falsification. Finally, it encourages students to reflect on the interrelationships between science, technology and society.

The course especially emphasizes topics that relate to information sciences and information technologies, including questions about how humans, technologies and knowledge are assumed to operate in the information and social sciences.

Formal prerequisites
This course is part of the 4th semester of the bachelor's degree Global Business Informatics.
There are no formal prerequisites for being admitted to the course.
Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

  • Identify and account for key, select positions in the Philosophy of Science
  • Account for relevant theoretical perspectives on technology with a particular emphasis on the interactions between IT, the general BA subject area and the broader context
  • Identify and analyse a problem of interest that touches upon the relationships between IT and its context (may it be of political, ethical, philosophical, historical or societal nature)
  • Present relevant concepts from the curriculum accurately, and critically use these concepts in an investigation of the select problem
Learning activities

The course consists of lectures and exercises. The course is generally based on readings that are presented and discussed in the lecture. In the exercise sessions the students will discuss the readings and perform group work, role play, student presentations,feedback, peer-to-peer feedback, and plenum debate. The teachers employ a variation in teaching activities including video screening while the course anticipates active students’ participation and reflection, oriented towards critical thinking and dialectics. 

In the final exam report (10-12 pages) each student individually formulates a relevant question relating to philosophy of science and technology and discusses it with reference to central arguments and concepts from the syllabus. Preparations for class usually involve reading one to two articles and considering specific questions relating to the texts or other illustrations

Course literature

  • Beer, D., 2009. Power through the algorithm? Participatory web cultures and the technological unconscious. New Media & Society, 11(6), pp.985-1002.
  • Bloomfield, B. 2001. “In the Right Place at the Right Time: Electronic Tagging and Problems of Social Order/disorder,” The Sociological Review (49:2), pp. 174–201.
  • Brenner, Neil. “What Is Critical Urban Theory?” City 13, no. 2–3 (June 2009): 198–207.
  • Bryson, Valerie. Feminist political theory: an introduction. 2nd ed. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
  • Bürkner, Hans-Joachim. ‘Intersectionality: How Gender Studies Might Inspire the Analysis of Social Inequality among Migrants: Intersectionality and the Analysis of Social Inequality among Migrants’. Population, Space and Place 18, vol. 2 (March 2012): 181–95. 
  • Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” The University of Chicago Legal Forum 140 (1989): 139–167.
  • Greenfield, Adam. Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life. London ; New York: Verso, 2017. Chapter 10- Radical Technologies - The Design of Everyday Life.
  • Greenwald, Glenn (2014): “Chapter 4: The harm of surveillance” in: No place to hide, Metropolitan Books, p. 170-209.
  • Harding. S. “`From the Woman Question in Science to the Science Question in Feminism’ (Chapter 1 of The Science Question in Feminism).” In The Science Question in Feminism, edited by Sandra G. Harding, 15–29. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.
  • Harvey, David. “The Social Construction of Space and Time: A Relational Theory.” Geographical Review of Japan, Series B. 67, no. 2 (1994): 126–35.
  • Held, David. Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas. University of California Press, 1980. Introduction pp.13-28
  • Holm, Andreas Beck. Philosophy of Science: An Introduction for Future Knowledge Workers. Frederiksberg C: Samfundslitteratur, 2013.
  • Johnson, Jim. [Bruno Latour]. 1988. Mixing humans and nonhumans together: the sociology of a door-closer. Social Problems 35 (3):298-310.
  • Law, J. & Urry, J. (2004). Enacting the social. Economy and Society, [online] Volume 33(3), pp. 390-410.
  • Lupton, Deborah. "The Digital Cyborg Assemblage: Haraway's Cyborg THeory and the New Digital Health Technologies." (2013).
  • Mackenzie, A., 2005. The performativity of code: Software and cultures of circulation. Theory, Culture & Society, 22(1), pp.71-92.
  • MacKenzie, D., 1978. Statistical theory and social interests: a case-study. Social studies of science, 8(1), pp.35-83.
  • Martin, Emily. “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.” Signs 16, no. 3 (1991): 485–501.
  • May, Jon, and  N. J. Thrift, edit. TimeSpace: geographies of temporality. Critical geographies 13. London ; New York: Routledge, 2001.pp. 
  • Menges, Achim, and Sean Ahlquist, eds. Computational Design Thinking. AD Reader. Chichester: Wiley, 2011. Chapter 10- Kostas Terzidis, Algorithmic Form pp. 94-102
  • Mol, A., 1999. Ontological politics. A word and some questions. The Sociological Review, 47(1_suppl), pp.74-89.
  • Senske, Nicholas. “Digital minds, materials, and ethics: linking computational thinking and digital craft,” n.d., 10.in N. Gu, S. Watanabe, H. Erhan, M. Hank Haeusler, W. Huang, R. Sosa (eds.), Rethinking Comprehensive Design: Speculative Counterculture, Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia CAADRIA 2014, 841–850.  2014, The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong
  • Scherer, Andreas. ‘Critical Theory and its Contribution to Critical Management Studies’. In The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies, (edit) Mats Alvesson, Todd Bridgman, and Hugh Willmott. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Sismondo, S., 2010. An introduction to science and technology studies (Vol. 1). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. '
  • Van Fraassen, Bas C. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space. Columbia University Press Morningside ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. IV. The Classical Problems of the Theory of Space :122-141
  • Van Heur, B., Leydesdorff, L. and Wyatt, S., 2013. Turning to ontology in STS? Turning to STS through ‘ontology’. Social studies of science43(3), pp.341-362.
  • Wajcman, J. “Feminist Theories of Technology.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 34, no. 1 (January 1, 2010): 143–52.

Student Activity Budget
Estimated distribution of learning activities for the typical student
  • Preparation for lectures and exercises: 10%
  • Lectures: 50%
  • Exercises: 10%
  • Exam with preparation: 30%
Ordinary exam
Exam type:
C: Submission of written work, external (7-trinsskala)
Exam variation:
C: Submission of written work
Exam submission description:
Individual paper 10-12 pages.

Time and date