Datafication and Society (311-0-70)

Instructors

Rajiv Mishra

Meeting Info

Northwestern Qatar Room 2-254: Tues, Su 11:30AM - 12:45PM (AST)

Overview of class

This course will introduce students to an interdisciplinary field broadly categorized as datafication and society studies. The course situates datafication in a broader historical, political, economic, and social context with the rise of modern states, colonialism, and industrialization. By exploring the broader context of datafication, students will learn about the connected nature of datafication from the times of colonialism and industrial capitalism to recent times of neoliberalism and digital capitalism. In doing so, the course will focus upon the centrality of various techniques, and technologies that were and are continuously developed, deployed, and used for datafication. Helping students to understand the changing meaning, and purpose of datafication defined, and constructed by states (both colonial and post-colonial), business-technology corporations, and neoliberal organizations. Moreover, the course will also provide a macro to micro view of datafication, trying to unbox the top-down approaches to datafication, and its bottom-up ground realities. In this manner, the course will not only provide an understanding of the way datafication is planned, and operated by various institutions and actors in global, international, and national context. But also, the way datafication unfolds in specific social and cultural context with focus on individual body(s).

Registration Requirements

Open to Sophomores and above

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Registration is reserved for sophomore, juniors, and seniors only.