kling@ICS.UCI.EDU (Rob Kling) (09/28/90)
Some people have asked for course descriptions. This is the first of two messages .... the second message will list the syllabus. Rob Kling Information & Computer Science University of California, Irvine ----------------- COMPUTERIZATION IN SOCIETY -- ICS258 Rob Kling Fall 1990 A first year graduate course: A. Goals: 1. To understand the social issues raised by the use of computerized systems 2. To understand the impacts of computer use on people and social groups 3. To analyze situations in which computerization is important and to identify their salient issues. 4. To encourage you to connect very specific technical activity to a broader human context 5. To help you understand the bases for and character of the social controversies about computerization 6. To encourage you to think carefully about the social role computing and the responsibilities of computer professionals 7. To encourage you to explore your own value positions relative to these issues 8. To introduce you to a variety of thinkers and scholars who have carefully studied specific issues. Thus, it acquaints you with the way some of these issues look when studied carefully (rather than just bulled about casually.). 9. Introduce you to the research literature about social aspects of computerization. B. Role in Information & Computer Science. Some computer science students see the discipline as focussed on the development of equipment (engineering) or mathematical analysis. In contrast, some of the ICS faculty and other computer scientists see the field as having important roots in the social sciences, as well as mathematics and engineering. In this view, computerization is a fundamentally social process for designing and deploying technologies in social settings. Advancing the argument that some technology should be developed or adopted are social acts which usually make claims about how that technology will alter social life. Designers and developers make important social choices in identifying preferences ("requirements") for systems, setting priorities, and in convincing people and organizations to alter their practices when they adopt new technologies. Some aspects of computer systems design are a form of social design. For example, a large fraction of the research in software engineering aims at changing the practices of software development teams -- and hence rests on important assumptions about the ways that organizations can and do work. Consequently computer scientists in many parts of the discipline often undertake (sometimes very naive) social analyses. This course introduces you to the "science" of social analysis and should be broadly useful to computer science graduate students with a their major interests in software, AI, CAD design, and other areas. C. Description: This course introduces you to computerization as a social process, examines the social opportunities and problems raised by new information technology, the ways individuals and group mobilize support for their preferences, and the consequences of different choices for different groups. Computerization and the quality of worklife, personal privacy, organizational productivity, and the manageability, risks and accountability of large systems. D. Course Organization and Teaching Methods: This course is designed to help you think critically about the role of computerization in many spheres of social life -- from economic competition to warfare, from the quality of working life to the safety of complex computer-based systems. The readings serve as an introduction to controversies about what computer systems should play in social life, and the effects of computerized systems of different kinds. This course exposes you to more than one way of viewing what is important about computerization and what sense to make of it. This approach requires that you read a number of books and articles which represent different points of view about the same topic. You may be reading more pages each week (60-120) than in a typical computer science course; but the reading is usually less dense. I have chosen a mix of readings that I hope you will find insightful, interesting and provocative. The class is organized as a seminar with some lecture time. The seminar provides an important opportunity to discuss the ideas in the readings. I may lecture about about key ideas about a particular topic. I will discuss some of the readings in these lectures. I will examine some of their key ideas an the relationships between them. But you will get the most from the seminar by having read the assigned articles and book chapters. The seminar discussion provides an important opportunity for you to answer questions which puzzle you and to explore ideas of special interest to you. E. Reflections: This course differs from many other computer science courses since: 1. Human values are central rather than peripheral to our inquiry. Some of the skills you will learn in this course include understanding the interplay between value and technical issues. 2. We emphasize controversy rather than consensus. In most computer science courses, an authority such as a textbook or instructor tells you what to believe. You exercise your ingenuity by applying received truths to new situations. In this course, you learn about topics where people differ in how they view the key issues; you exercise your ingenuity by understanding how the same issue can appear from different perspectives, and in identifying key issues in complex social situations. 3. We emphasize understandings as much as "findings." These understandings develop in a less sequential manner than in many science courses. Our modes of inquiry are much more concentric--the same issue is studied in several different settings and therein takes on new meanings. I have organized the major topics into a sequence that I believe has a clear and helpful progression. However, these topics are not easily organized or kept so. My role is raise and refine issues and to provide you with leads to other sources rather than to simply transmit authorized information. We are studying some controversial topics which take the form of poorly understood dilemmas. In contrast, in much of computer science, there are, at worst, simply "tradeoffs." The process of reasoning through some of the situations we study is more important than the conclusions we reach. (In this way it is like a design course or programming course where exercising the skills is more important than the particular system which is designed and built.) Some of the class time is devoted to discussing the ideas presented in lectures, in the readings, or of particular concern to you. These discussions provide an opportunity to share our ideas, and think aloud. Many of the discussions do not reach a simple set of commonly accepted conclusions. Rather, they conclude with a richer and possibly more complex and ambiguous view of the topics we started to discuss. This doesn't mean that they are "bull." But they do yield a different kind of understanding than that which is emphasized in most science courses. I sometimes take specific stands; but most often, I am presenting different ways of viewing a particular issue and underlining significant social aspects of computing developments. F. Required Texts: 1. Packet of articles selected from Dunlop, C., & Kling, R. (Ed.). (February 1991). Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices. Academic Press. 2. Jackall, Robert. - Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers. Oxford University Press, pbk. 3. Zuboff, Shoshana. - In the Age of the Smart Machine. Basic Books, 1988. G. Recommended Text (paperback) 1. Perrow, Charles. Complex Organization: A Critical Essay. Scott Foresman. 1988. 2. Perrow, Charles. - Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies. Basic Books. 1984. -20-