Science and technology studies - an introduction - WISe 2021/2022
Today’s societies are entangled with nature, things and technologies in many complex and ambivalent ways. Pathogens and viruses cause heated political debates and make restrictions of fundamental rights happen, the Ozon hole urges governments to limit their co2 emissions and brings new social movements into being, or algorithms and platforms reconfigure rapidly almost all realms of society and permeate our everyday life. How can we describe those phenomena that haunt and shape contemporary societies? How can we conceptualize “action”, “the social”, the “body” or “nature” when humans, materials, technologies, objects and other species are entangled so tightly with each other? How can we think of politics and ethics in the light of “nature-cultures”, “hybrids”, “cyborgs” and earthy catastrophes in times of the anthropocene? And what is the role of science in all of this? This course touches upon such questions by introducing into the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS). Based on theoretical readings and empirical case studies, this course will discuss work on • science in action and the fabrication of scientific knowledge • the politics of technologies and artefacts • cyborgs, human-machine interaction and multi-species collectives • situated knowledge and modest forms of research • technologies, imaginaries and state formation • nature-cultures and the anthropocene
- Lärare: Pollozek Silvan
Introduction to Data Science with R for Social Scientists - WiSe 2021/2022
The Digital Revolution has produced unprecedented amounts of data that are relevant for researchers in the social sciences: from online surveys to social media user data, travel data and digital or digitised text data. However, how can these raw data be turned into understanding, insight, and knowledge? The goal of this course is to introduce you to R, a powerful programming environment that offers a wide variety of tools, used by journalists, data scientists and researchers alike. Unlike many introductions to programming in computer science, the focus of this course is on challenges in social science and how to explore, wrangle, and communicate data to solve them. The seminar will take place as an intensive course over two non-consecutive weeks ("Blockseminar") and in-person (if the situation permits). Successful completion of the seminar qualifies you for the advanced course "Text and Network Analysis in R" that will be offered in the summer term.
- Lärare: Gruber Johannes