Coding Culture

Information
Course coordinator: Mirko Tobias Schäfer
ECTS: 7,5

Description
The dichotomy between technology and culture is vanishing in a society that recognizes more and more the fact that culture and technology are deeply intertwined. Computer technology and software have a big impact on cultural practices, and at the same time cultural discourses on technology are shaping the construction of technical artefacts. The aim of this course is to study the mutual influences between technology, culture and artefacts. The students will investigate the agency of technology in the information society. The Actor Network Theory and Latour's notion of the 'thing' will be used to map and revisit the relations between artefacts (technology) and developers and users culture).
Based on existing literature on the subject, students will explore the following themes:

•  The medium specific characteristics of computer technology
• and software
•  The agency of computers, software and protocols
•  Connections and influences between artefacts, developers and users
•  The parliament of things (Latour) for the information society

Goal
Students will learn to differentiate different approaches to describe and research technology. By reading literature from the field of Science and Technology Studies (S+TS) with special focus on Actor Network Theory (ANT) students will obtain the terminology and methods of this field and be able to apply them to their own research. They will develop a balanced understanding towards the "nature" of technology and its socio-political denotation.