introduction
  books
  reading & due dates
  assignments
  internet sites

introduction
Science and technology play an increasing role in the political life of nations and in international politics, and yet students have few opportunities to step back and familiarize themselves with the challenges that arise from this fact. While the list of relevant issues is nearly limitless, to mention but a few indicates the breadth and depth of this subject area: genetically-modified crops; AIDS; global warming; cloning; DNA fingerprinting; bioterrorism; nuclear proliferation; the search for energy; and regulation of the Internet. Governments are under constant pressure to decide what to fund or favor in scientific and technological policy decisions, and individual citizens live with the ramifications of these decisions for generations. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the machines we work with, the systems within which we are enmeshed, how we are born, have sex, live, and die: all of these individual and collective actions are part of a larger web in which science, technology, and politics play a role. And in an increasingly interconnected world, the decisions of one nation have implications across the family of nations.

This course approaches questions about the politics of science & technology from within a comparative framework, encouraging students to develop an international perspective on this topic. The readings will use case studies from different national contexts in order to facilitate this comparative framework, lectures will provide important connective and background material, and discussions will allow students to build analytical perspectives by bringing together their own diverse interpretations. The final project, a 8-10 page topics paper, offers students the opportunity to pursue a topic of their own choosing, and to compare it from two national contexts.

books
-- Hubris and Hybrids: A Cultural History of Technology and Science (Routledge, 2005) /
         Mikael Hard and Andrew Jamison
-- Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict (Holt, 2002) / Michael Klare
-- The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change (North Point
          Pr, 2004) / Charles Wohlforth
-- Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl (Princeton U Pr, 2002) / Adriana Petryna
-- Whose View of Life? Embryos, Cloning, and Stem Cells (Harvard U Pr, 2003) / Jane Maienschein
-- The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real
          World and Crashing the System (Basic Books, 2004) / Siva Vaidhyanathan

reading and due dates

Week 1

8/21    Introduction: Course Themes, Organization, Goals

8/23   Overview: The Ecology of Science, Technology, and Politics
Pass Out Background Essay Questions for Hard and Jamison, Hubris and Hybrids
Articles Packet for Warm-Up Exercise Passed Out

8/25    Historical Background: The Politics of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment 

Reading
Hard and Jamison, Hubris and Hybrids (Introduction, plus Chapters 1-3)
Articles Packet

Week 2

8/28    Historical Background: The Politics of the Steam Age  

8/30    Historical Background: Technoscience and the Making of the Modern World

9/1        Case Studies from Recent News Stories / Discussion of Articles Packet
* Articles Packet Warm-Up Exercise Due
Pass Out Reflection Essay Questions for Klare, Resource Wars

Reading
Hard and Jamison, Hubris and Hybrids (Chapters 4 and 10)
Klare, Resource Wars (Chapters 1-2)

Week 3

9/4    Labor Day Holiday -- No Class

9/6    Perspectives on Placing Ourselves Strategically as Analysts

9/8    Video: World in the Balance, "China Revs Up" (NOVA, PBS: 2004)
* Background Essay for Hubris and Hybrids Due

Reading
Klare, Resource Wars (Chapters 3-5)
Hard and Jamison, Hubris and Hybrids (Chapters 5 and 7; 6 optional)

Week 4

9/11    The Costs of Consumption: Thinking About Automobiles and Air Conditioning 

9/13    Discussion of Resource Wars

9/15    Small Group Discussions of Internet Cluster #1
Pass Out Reflection Essay Questions for Wohlforth, Whale and the Supercomputer

Reading
Klare, Resource Wars (Chapters 6-9)
Wohlforth, Whale and the Supercomputer (Preface, Chapters 1-2)

Week 5

9/18     Resource Contests and 3/4 of the Planet: The Ocean

9/20    Video: Strange Days on Planet Earth, "Troubled Waters" (National Geographic:
                  2005)
*Reflection Essay for Resource Wars Due

9/22    Nation States and the Controversy over Whaling

Reading
Wohlforth, Whale and the Supercomputer (Chapters 3-6)

Week 6

9/25     Heated Debates: The Kyoto Accord

9/27     Discussion of The Whale and the Supercomputer

9/29     Small Group Discussions of Internet Cluster #2

Reading
Wohlforth, The Whale and the Supercomputer (Chapters 7-10)

Week 7

10/2    Spaceship Earth, the Greens, and the Birth of EcoPolitics

10/4    Energy Crisis: Love Canal
* Reflection Essay for The Whale and the Supercomputer Due
Pass Out Reflection Essay Questions for Petryna, Life Exposed

10/6    OU-Texas Football Holiday: No Class

Reading
Petryna, Life Exposed (Chapters 1-3)
Hard and Jamison, Hubris and Hybrids (Chapter 11)  

Week 8

10/9     The Politics of Assessing Risk

10/11    Political Calculations: AIDS and the Blood Supply in the U.S. and France

10/13   Video (tba)

Reading
Petryna, Life Exposed (Chapters 4-6)
Hard and Jamison, Hubris and Hybrids (Chapter 9)

Week 9

10/16    Discussion of Life Exposed

10/18    Small Group Discussions of Internet Cluster #3
Pass Out Reflection Essay Questions for Maienschein, Whose View of Life?

10/20   Library Session on Using Databases to find Topic Information

Reading
Petryna, Life Exposed (Chapters 7-8)
Maienschein, Whose View of Life? (Introduction, Chapter 1)

Week 10

10/23   Do You Own Your Own Body?
* Reflection Essay on Life Exposed Due

10/25   The Global Traffic in Body Parts

10/27    Who Owns the Dead? The Controversy over "Kennewick Man"

Reading
Maienschein, Whose View of Life? (Chapters 2-4)

Week 11

10/30  Discussion of Whose View of Life?
Pass Out Reflection Essay Questions for Anarchist in the Library

11/1       No Class / Library Research Time (Computer Databases)

11/3     No Class / Library Research Time (Computer Databases)

Reading
Maienschein, Whose View of Life? (Chapters 5-7 and Conclusion)

Week 12

11/6   Small Group Discussions of Internet Cluster #4

11/8   Video: Revolution OS (Wonderview: 2003)

11/10  Finish Revolution OS
* Reflection Essay on Whose View of Life? Due

Reading
Vaidhyanathan, Anarchist in the Library (Introduction and Chapters 1-5)
Hard and Jamison, Hubris and Hybrids (Chapter 8)

Week 13

11/13    The Open Source Movement: More than Digital?

11/15    Discussion of Anarchist in the Library

11/17    Small Group Discussion of Internet Cluster #5

Reading
Vaidhyanathan, Anarchist in the Library (Chapters 6-12)

Week 14

11/20   Public Science: The "Science Shops" Model in Europe
*Reflection Essay on Anarchist in the Library Due

11/22    No Class: Thanksgiving Holiday

11/24    No Class: Thanksgiving Holiday

Week 15

11/27   Case Study for Integrating the Semester's Work: Analysis of the Issues in Harvest of Fear:
                   Exploring the Growing Fight Over Genetically Modified Food  (PBS, Frontline: 2001) /                         Start Video

11/29    Continue Video

12/1      Analysis and Discussion

Reading
Hard and Jamison, Hubris and Hybrids (Chapter 12)

Week 16

12/4    Final Thoughts

12/6    Topics Paper Consultations

12/8    Topics Paper Consultations

The Topics Papers are due Thursday Dec. 14th, 1:30-3:30,
the Final Exam Time for this Class

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