Graduate Reading Seminar
DMS603, fall 2007

This reading group investigates the realities of the Social Web from a cultural studies perspective. At the bi-weekly meetings graduate and Ph.D. students present, read, and discuss drawing on texts out of the fields of cultural theory, sociology, philosophy, and art. The group proposes an ethics of participation (on the sides of users/producers and corporations alike) by focusing on topics like immaterial labor on the Social Web, lateral surveillance, ambient intimacy and social alienation.

Participants write responses to the readings and relate the presented ideas to their own work as emerging theorists and cultural producers. The resulting texts will be valuable for students' final thesis. The participants are challenged to position themselves in a well-informed and critical way within the larger discursive media landscape.

Requirements:

2 Papers (7-10 pages before mid-term)

1 Final paper (20-25 pages) 

1 Presentation 

Grade

2 Papers (7-10p)  30%

Final  paper (20-25p) 40%

Presentation 20%

Overall Participation 10%


Required Readings:

Putnam, Robert D.. Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American
Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Terranova, Tiziana. Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age. London: Pluto Press, 2004.

Virno, Paolo. A Grammar of the Multitude (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents). Los Angeles: Semiotext(E), 2004.

Ross, Andrew. Fast Boat to China: High-Tech Outsourcing and the Consequences of Free Trade: Lessons from Shanghai (Vintage). New York: Vintage, 2007.

Lovink, Geert. Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture. Boston: Routledge, 2007.

Levy, Pierre. Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation, 1997.

Lessig, Lawrence. Code: Version 2.0. New York: Basic Books, 2006.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Weinberger, David. Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. Toronto: Times Books, 2007.

Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Ottawa: Portfolio Hardcover, 2006.

Keen, Andrew. The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture. New York, NY: Currency, 2007.