Undergraduate Course: Technology in Society (STIS08002)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The news is filled with stories of rapid and often confusing technological change, making it feel like waves of technological disruption are crashing around us. Stories in the media tend to present technological change as an inevitable march of progress over which we have little to no control. In this course, we will give you the ideas and conceptual tools to question and challenge this narrative; to make sense of how new technologies emerge and evolve, understand how they relate to politics, power, and resistance; and consider how we as active citizens might imagine and create different technological futures.
This course offers a broad foundational and critical understanding of technology and its development and role within modern society, including how innovation actually happens in practice. You will be introduced to the interdisciplinary field of technology and innovation studies, which has revealed new insights into the design, development, use and circulation of technologies - from those we encounter in everyday domestic life to industrial contexts, and from local to national, regional and global settings. We will cover a range of technology areas, including the space sector, AI and data, biotechnology and health; energy; security and defence. For these different technologies and innovations, which include both mundane and advanced technologies, we will unpack the technical, social, economic and political dimensions that shape their design and use; recognising that the production and use of technologies have important gender, race, and class dynamics.
This course will be of interest to students from across the social sciences, but we very much welcome students from the natural sciences, engineering, arts and humanities, who want to critically engage with the changing role of technology and innovation in society. It is particularly useful for students who may eventually want to take more advanced courses in science and technology studies, or work in policy and technology analysis, for which this course provides a good, foundational grounding. |
| Course description |
What is 'technology' and how has it been used to create the modern societies in which we live? How are technologies shaped by individuals and groups? How do politics, economics, historical and material factors, social policies and human values give rise to the types of technologies that emerge in our societies?
In this course we will explore how technologies are made and unpack what engineering and innovation actually involves. We will see that technology and innovation are shaped by social activities and cultural practices. What this means is users or customers play an important role in the design of technologies and how they are used. But this also means the politics and values of those who create the technology can become embedded in the things they make, so technologies are not value-neutral.
The concept of 'technology' encompasses both ordinary and mundane things like the ballpoint pen or coffee cup, as well as complex technologies like smart phones, video games consoles, particle accelerators and rocket ships. They include tangible objects like microscopes and computers, but also intangible and often invisible things like software and algorithms. The idea of 'innovation' (creation of the new or novel) is a key part of understanding the development and use of technology in modern society. We will therefore jump from individual technological products right up to globe-spanning digital infrastructures, from the industrial revolution to the space age, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, and from technologies of control to technologies of resistance.
You will learn how the broad field of technology studies emerged as a critical response to crude 'technological determinism' - the idea that technological progress is inevitable and the key driver of social change - and understand how concepts like technology adoption and diffusion; domestication; socio-technical systems and imaginaries; infrastructures; and social worlds can be used to better appreciate the many different types of technologies that now impact our society. In addition to theories and concepts, the course will introduce contemporary case examples from colleagues within the Science, Technology and Innovation Studies subject area. You will get a sneak preview of our research at the cutting edge of the field on topics as diverse as outer space, artificial intelligence, espionage, nanotech, climate engineering, drug and diagnostic technologies, sport and gaming, and government algorithms.
We will explore what are now seen as relatively ordinary technologies like refrigerators and bicycles, as well as the very expensive and complex technologies that confront our modern societies, such as smartphones, gaming consoles, medical devices, electric vehicles, powerful telescopes, and space and defence etc. For all these technologies, we will unpack the social, cultural, economic, and political contexts that have shaped their creation, development and use. We will address the ways that technology, and its social use, has important gender, class and race dimensions. Technology can be a tool for discrimination and oppression, but also enable and support social and political activism. We will also look at technology in more global contexts, where histories of colonialism continue to shape the development and use of technology in these societies.
The course is taught through two lectures and one tutorial per week. Students are also assigned readings, podcasts and videos linked to the week's theme. Tutorials are largely organised around discussions and activities concerning the content of the lectures and readings from the week before.
Indicative lecture topics:
What is 'technology' and its relationship to society?
The Politics, Design and Use of Technology - What Makes a Technology Successful?
Technology and Innovation Policy Futures
Race and Technology
Colonialism, Technology, and Innovation
Gender, Class and Technology
LGBTQ+, Intersectionality and Technology
Technology Policy and Governance
Technology, Place and the Economy
The Future of Technology Studies
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Available to all first and second year students |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
90 %,
Practical Exam
10 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
A short summative essay (1500 words) constituting 30% of the final mark;
Student led Project report (3500 words) constituting 60% of the final mark.
A further 10% of marks will be allocated on the basis of tutorial participation
|
| Feedback |
Feedback on all assessed work shall normally be returned within three weeks of submission. Where this is not possible, students shall be given clear expectations regarding the timing and methods of feedback. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Develop a critical analysis of the mutual relationship between technology and society, exploring the ways in which technology is itself shaped by social and other factors as well as the effects of technology on society. The student will become familiar with, and develop a critical understanding of, the main approaches to the socio-economic analysis of technology, and the ways in which these theories have been deployed to analyse various technological innovations in different settings (including industrial production, technology in the home, contraception, information technology, biotechnology and defence technologies, environmental technologies.
- Exploring the ways in which technology is itself shaped by social and other factors
- Exploring the effects of technology on society
- Develop a critical understanding of, the main approaches to the socio-economic analysis of technology
- Become familiar with, and develop a critical understanding of, the ways in which these theories have been deployed to analyse various technological innovations in different settings (including technology at work and in the home, information technology, biomedicine and defence technologies,
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof James Mittra
Tel:
Email: james.mittra@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Ian McClory
Tel: (0131 6)50 3932
Email: Ian.McClory@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage