Fall 2023
INF 385T Special Topics in Information Science : Ethnography and Socio-Technical Futures
DESCRIPTION
This course will present the basics of ethnographic research, completing a project centered on the idea of sociotechnical imaginaries to interrogate the future.
Ethnographic research has been adapted and adopted by all types of academic disciplines and industry. This class will introduce the basic elements of ethnographic thinking and doing for the study of sociotechnical systems. Grounded in anthropological approaches, but oriented to current developments such as design ethnography, the class will present an emphasis on futures and the various imaginaries about it. The future has always been at the center of how we use and design technologies, systems, and information. A common trope is to present a particular technology or system as a "revolution" or "the future of" something. This course will follow an ethnographic approach to interrogate various sociotechnical imaginaries of the future.
PREREQUISITES
Graduate standing.
RESTRICTIONS
Restricted to graduate students in the School of Information through registration periods 1 and 2. Outside students will be permitted to join our waitlists beginning with registration period 3.