DSOC 2120

Data, Tech and Global Development

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2018-2019.

Over the past decade, new digital tools and the explosion of social media have fundamentally altered global politics, economies and society. New technologies raise tough new questions: who benefits from the roll-out of precision agriculture? What is the role of Facebook in Myanmar's genocide? Will robots take my job? This course explores these and other questions, inquiring into how new technology shapes the patterns and processes of global development. To do so, we will analyze the ways that tech has been historically intertwined with the development project, and draw on new work from information science, STS, and critical data studies to consider how contemporary cyber frontiers might create and cross the 'digital divide' between rich and poor, urban and rural, Global North and Global South.

When Offered Summer (six-week session).

• Students will be able to explain key concepts from critical development studies and critical science studies.
• Students will be able to apply these concepts to analyze the social consequences of specific technologies.
• Students will be able to evaluate how students can contribute, as global citizens, to shaping equitable development in the digital age.

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