Choose Three of the following terms and write a short, original summary explaining each. Examples and support would be beneficial, and explaining how the term is relevant to social technologies.

Answer questions as completely as possible. This is a chance to demonstrate your knowledge of the material. Support your answers with citations and quotations from the relevant class readings and relevant examples (but no outside sources). However, I do not want answers that are nothing but quotations—I need to hear from you in your own words. Each question will indicate the number of points it is worth and the ideal length (though answers could be longer). Make sure to answer all parts of a question. A good strategy to keep in mind when selecting which questions to answer is to avoid questions that overlap too much (leading to repetition in your answers). Try to show the breadth of your knowledge.

Part A. Choose Three of the following terms and write a short, original summary explaining each. Examples and support would be beneficial, and explaining how the term is relevant to social technologies. A paragraph each.

1. Cybernetics 
(the answer has to be from: Norbert Weiner, The Human Uses of Human Beings)

1. Technique 

(the answer has to be from: Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (chapters 1, 2, 5 & 6)

1. Actor-Network (ANT)
(the answer has to be from: Bruno Latour, “Where are the missing masses? The Sociology of a few mundane artifacts”)

 

Part B. Answer the THREE following questions. A page + each.

1. Explain the difference between SCOTS and ANT.

(the answer exists in: Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker, “The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts” and : Bruno Latour, “Where are the missing masses? The Sociology of a few mundane artifacts”)

1. Compare and contrast the three feminist approaches to technology that we have covered (Wacjman, Haraway, and Noble).

( the answer has to be from the following sources: Judy Wajcman, Feminism Confronts Technology,  Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”, and Safiya Umoja Noble, “A Future for Inter sectional Black Feminist Technology Studies”)

1. Donna Haraway posed the figure of the cyborg as an ironic political myth. Explain what she 
means. How useful is this figure in understanding social technologies today over 30 years later? 
(the answer has to be from: Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”)

Part C. Answer TWO of the questions below. Two pages each

1. Select and explain one aspect of Jacques Ellul’s examination of la technique. This could be one of the characteristics of modern technique (pp. 79 ff, like automatism of technical choice, self- augmentation, etc.) or one of the human techniques from Chapter Five (like work, propaganda, technological convergence, the dissociation of man, total integration, and so on). Then explain whether (and how) this concept is useful in understanding contemporary social technologies. Consider how recent theorists we have covered might respond to or critique Ellul’s theory and analysis of this aspect.


 (The answer has to be from: Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (chapters 1, 2, 5 & 6))

1. This question has two parts:

 First, summarize for us what we most need to know from Norbert Weiner’s discussion of cybernetics in The Human Uses of Human Beings. What is most relevant to understanding social technologies today? Justify and support your answer. 


Second, how do Weiner’s ideas provide a foundation for later theorists we have studied (such as Haraway, Clark, Deleuze, Gehl, and others)? Provide examples. 


(The answer has to be from the following sources: Norbert Weiner, The Human Uses of Human Beings, Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, Andy Clark, “Cyborgs Unplugged”,  Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on Societies of Control” and Robert Gehl, Reverse Engineering Social Media)