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
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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.
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