SOCI3047 Shaping the Future

2020

4.5

1 x 3-hour seminar weekly

4.5 Units of Level 1 topics

Associated major: Sociology

Bachelor of Social Planning; Bachelor of Social Work and Social Planning; Bachelor of Media (Public Affairs); Bachelor of Media (Creative Arts)

This topic will provide students with the capacity to understand the ‘digital revolution’ and its implications for the future from a sociological perspective. Through a focus on considering ideas about what is happening around us, what is shaping the digital world and how new patterns and politics of inequality are generated by the digital revolution the topic will help students harness their own sociological imagination to appreciate the possibilities and constraints the digital revolution may impose on the future. Through the insights gained from the topic students will gain the capacity to practice the research, collaboration and communication skills demanded of active citizenship in a digital world.

The aim of this topic is to provide students with the capacity to understand the ‘digital revolution’ and its implications for the future from a sociological perspective. By focusing on ideas about what is happening around us and what is shaping the digital world the topic also aims to hone students’ critical thinking and reading skills, develop different forms of communicating ideas and arguments, provide opportunities to learn the technical and ideological workings of Wikipedia and equip them for some of the key challenges technology is throwing at us in the C21.

On completion of this topic, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Compare and debate the respective merits of sociological models related to the digital revolution

2. Discuss the transformational impact of the digital revolution from a sociological perspective

3. Formulate written contributions within specific online contexts (Wikipedia, social networking sites and search engines) which draw on identified patterns of inequality and knowledge/power in the digital world

4. Justify their sociological imaginary of the future.