SOC 368
Technology and Modern Society
Last Offered Fall 2017
Division II
Cross-listed ENVI 368
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

With widespread use of new social media, controversial developments in such bio-technical practices as the cloning of mammals, rapid advances in various forms of telecommunication, and the increasing sophistication of technological weaponry in the military, the triumph of technology remains a defining feature of modern life. For the most part, modern humans remain unflinchingly confident in the possibilities technology holds for continuing to improve the human condition. Indisputably, technology has benefited human life in innumerable ways. However, as with other features of modernity, technology has also had significant, albeit largely unanticipated, social consequences. Working within a sociological paradigm, this course will focus on the less often examined latent functions of technology in modern society. It will consider, for example, the social effects of technology on community life, on privacy, and on how people learn, think, understand the world, communicate, and organize themselves. The course will also examine the effects of technology on medicine, education, criminal law, and agriculture and will consider such counter-cultural reactions to technology as the Luddite movement in early nineteenth century England, Amish agrarian practices, and the CSA (community supported agriculture) movement.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 20
Expected: 20
Class#: 1101
Grading: no pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: two short papers, a midterm exam, and a final exam
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: Anthropology and Sociology majors
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ENVI 368 Division II SOC 368 Division II
Attributes: ENVI Humanities, Arts + Social Science Electives
FMST Related Courses
HSCI Interdepartmental Electives
SCST Elective Courses

Class Grid

Updated 10:21 pm

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