28115 - History of Technological Innovation (1) (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

Al termine del corso la studentessa e lo studente: - hanno indagato dati e casi del passato e contemporanei utili a comprendere alcuni aspetti delle interazioni tra scienza e società, nonché la loro evoluzione e diffusione in contesti temporali e culturali diversi; - sono in grado di verificare, scegliere e utilizzare strumenti, fonti e dati utili a formulare un loro punto di vista, personale e autonomo, su questioni attuali che concernono i rapporti tra scienza e società.

 

Course contents

Interactions between nature, technology a society, from steam to the internet

After an introduction to society, science and technology studies (STS), we will start with the following questions:

- What is technology? Can it be distinguished from the culture we call science?

- What does it mean to say that the construction of scientific and technological facts is "social"?

- In the last half century, what differences have emerged in relations between science, technology and society in "western" countries as opposed to other, "developing" countries?

In this course we adopt the tools of history and the social sciences, and we will use them in an integrated way to compare different answers to the above questions. We will conduct long-term investigations of certain aspects of the relationship between nature and technology that have characterized human social and cultural evolution since at least the Neolithic. We will focus on the last century and a half, from the second industrial revolution of the Liberal/Victorian age when the shift began from a steam civilization to an electricity one: the epoch in which we still live. In this century, we have passed from the myth of "science for all" to the reality of the Internet, in a time of Anthropocene and personalized technologies.

The case we delve into here is our life in the context of the so-called infosphere, a dimension in which the boundaries between online and offline tend to thin or disappear altogether.

Readings/Bibliography

The program is the same for attending and non attending students, including students of the Erasmus program.

1. Texts and PowerPoints posted (during the course) on the e-learning platform;

2. Bruno Latour, Science in Action, Harvard UP, 1988, Introduction and Chap. 1.

3. Luciano Floridi, The Fourth Revolution: How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality, Oxford UP, 2014.

4. P. Govoni, Che cos’è la storia della scienza, Roma, Carocci, 2019 [new enlarged ed.].

Teaching methods

Face-to-face lessons and in-depth seminars; visit to a museum where we will analyze the communicational strategies used to narrate the role of science and technology in the social and economic development of the area.

Students' participation in the classroom is of great importance in this course. Group discussion and inquiry-based learning will be encouraged. For this reason, students will be given the opportunity- individually or in small groups - to organize presentations on the topics covered by the course, in agreement with the professor. Up to 5 points can be earned by delivering an in-class presentation.

Towards the end of the course, students will be able to take a short written exam on what they observed at the museum and discussed in class. They will be able to earn up to 5 points with the in itinere exam, which will be added to their exam scores.

Those who wish to attend and participate in the museum trip must confirm their participation with the professor at the end of the first week of lessons.

Assessment methods

Oral exam: this consists of two or three questions, stemming from a freely chosen topic.

Students will be tested on their knowledge of the course’s bibliography, as well as on their ability to reason in a logical, concise and personal way. The accuracy and precision of the student’s way of expression will also be taken in consideration.

For further information, please consult my teaching website and the educational guidelines here (Regolamento didattico).

Teaching tools

PowerPoint; e-learning tools; science museums.

Office hours

See the website of Paola Govoni