Fall 2017
INF 380C Information in Social and Cultural Context
DESCRIPTION
Examines the role of information in human activities, particularly in relation to particular social and cultural contexts. Examines how individuals, groups, organizations, institutions, and society at large create, find, use, understand, share, transform, and curate information.
COURSE NOTES
The course examines frameworks for understanding the role of information in society such as social construction; introduces concepts from science and technology studies, feminist technology studies, queer and archival theory; explores how information and information technology is an asset that is unequally distributed in society and what the implications are; considers what it means to be a community of information or an information society; identifies the role of social and cultural, including identity, diversity, and inclusion factors play in the adoption and use of information technologies; provides a framework for understanding the ethics and professionalization of information; explores the role of information in personal and collective identity and memory; and considers other topics that relate culture or society to information. Students will consider how creating, finding, using, understanding, sharing, transforming, and curating information impacts and is impacted by the social and cultural contexts of individuals, groups, organizations, institutions, and society at large.
PREREQUISITES
Graduate Standing.