Controversies in Digital Society

Full course description

The ways in which digital technologies affect society, culture, and politics continue to change rapidly. Topics that were headline news when you started your degree might have faded from memory by the time you have reached your final year. Other topics remain salient and controversial over time.

In this course we study processes of digitalisation that have sparked contentious debates.  The course will challenge you to analyse and understand them in their full historical, social, technological, and infrastructural context, drawing on what you have learned in previous courses (e.g. Digitalisation and Politics, Surveillance Society, The Good Life, Artificial Society). You will be specifically trained in looking at these debates from different—and sometimes diametrically opposed—perspectives through in-class role plays (LARPs) focussing on three major themes. In each LARP, you will be challenged to take on the identity of different stakeholders ranging from scholars to policy makers, from critical thinkers to political activists, and from platform developers to civil society actors. 

The Critical Debates in Digital Society course will develop your skills in thinking with/against different positions in contemporary topics of debate. Furthermore, it will hone your analytical reading, critical thinking and persuasive arguing skills. The multidisciplinary setup of the course will contribute to knowledge of a variety of theories and concepts from the social sciences and humanities.