Soc. 291: Community and Conflict in Cyberspace
Course Schedule and Reading Assignments
Textbooks:
Required texts:
- Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Simon and Schuster,1995.
- Steven Jones, ed., Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, Sage Publications, 1995.
Recommended, but not required:
- Victor J. Vitanza (ed.), CyberReader, Allyn and Bacon, 1996.
- Mike Featherstone and Roger Burrows (eds.), Cyberspace/ Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk: Cultures of Technological Embodiment, Sage, 1995.
- Howard Reingold, The Virtual Community.
- And a variety of othe Virtual Texts.
- JAN 13: Introduction and Overview. E-Mail basics and the WWW.
- JAN 20: ML King Holiday- NO CLASS!
Part 1- Basic Concepts and Issues: Society, Technology, and Cyberspace
JAN 27: Theories of Self, Society and Technology: Hopefully by now you have looked at the available
lecture notes, and have begun exploring Turkle's Life on the Screen.
FEB 3: Theories, Continued. Start Investigating Howard Reingold's The Virtual Community.
FEB 10: The Culture and Structure of Virtual Worlds. We will be discussing Turkle's Life on the Screen
FEB 17: Developing a Virtual Identity.
FEB 24: Groups: Real and Virtual. We'll be specifically discussing Howard Reingold's The Virtual Community.
MAR 3: Deviance and Conflict in Cyberspace. Now's a good time to start looking at Steven Jones' Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community
- MAR 10: SPRING BREAK
- MAR 17: Stratification and Inequality
- MAR 24: Stratification and Inequality
- MAR 31: Social Movements
- APR 7: Social Movements
- APR 14: Social Change
- APR 21: What's Next
- APR 28: Presentations
- May 5: Presentations (Final Exam Day)