CS213 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Church Of The Subgenius, Sociotechnical System, Snowpiercer
CS213
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
CS213(B) Technology and Society
iroderick@wlu.ca
Office Hours MW 11:30-12:30
1st edition text is ok
Intro Info (all available in syllabus)
Reading responses
● # and type depend on grade bundle you are aiming for - check syllabus for instructions
Microthemes
● 3 x 350 words, graded scale 1-6
● Response to q that draws upon arguments from course
● Ground answer in reading - make sure you are using course materials to answer
● No direct quotation
Tokens
● Start course with certain amount of tokens, can be used for missing classes or opting out
of some assignments
Workshops
● Putting course content into action
● How to apply assigned readings leads to better comprehension of those readings
● Extend ideas presented in readings to problem solving activities
Content
Discourse: way in which we represent and know something (a conversation)
Slave master narrative: master has slaves serving and slaves are doing day to day business,
slaves become more knowledgeable but master becomes less engaged, slaves could take over
*When people say technology is out of control they are viewing technology as autonomous from
society*
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Topics: Culture, Technology, Progress
How do we understand culture and technology?
Culture
● Way of life
● Beliefs
● Anthropological
● Practices
● “Best of the best” mentality (Arnold) - high culture and popular culture - used to have
more strength, but we still make discriminations based on culture
Raymond Williams
● Culture as a whole way of life
● Structure of feeling
○ “As firm and definite as structure suggests, yet it operates in the most delicate
and least tangible part of our activities”
● Culture as a sphere of human activity
○ Dominant values but also residual ones
○ Constant interplay between tradition and selection
● Culture is therefore dynamic rather than static; heterogeneous rather than homogeneous
● Hegemony: leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over
other
● Culture as ordinary - lived in every day
● Presents two camps who lay claim to culture but he claims we will not find culture in
either locale
○ The tea shop with strict formalities and pretenses to gentility
○ Local drinking hole where time and money are wasted and arts are frowned upon
as not for the likes of us but for the toffs
○ Two sides of same coin
○ Culture for williams operates in two ways
■ Culture as tradition - we inherit from those who came before us
■ Culture as selection - taken from tradition, tried out, mulled over, and
recreated so as to produce new forms and practices
○ Culture is embedded in the practices and materials of everyday life
Culture and technology are always connected (tech developed in culture, used in culture, etc)
→ culture being changed by technology
→ but technology also changed by culture
→ dynamic flux of culture extends to technology
Technological Culture
● Points to idea that technology is part of culture and vice versa
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
# and type depend on grade bundle you are aiming for - check syllabus for instructions. 3 x 350 words, graded scale 1-6. Response to q that draws upon arguments from course. Ground answer in reading - make sure you are using course materials to answer. Start course with certain amount of tokens, can be used for missing classes or opting out of some assignments. How to apply assigned readings leads to better comprehension of those readings. Extend ideas presented in readings to problem solving activities. Discourse: way in which we represent and know something (a conversation) Slave master narrative: master has slaves serving and slaves are doing day to day business, slaves become more knowledgeable but master becomes less engaged, slaves could take over. *when people say technology is out of control they are viewing technology as autonomous from society*
