Redesigning Everyday Organizations (308-0-20)

Instructors

Reed Stevens

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G02: Wed 9:30AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

In our everyday lives, we learn and work within particular arrangements of people, objects, tools, and information. These systems—"everyday organizations"—allow us to solve problems, achieve our goals, and generally get things done. Except when they don't. In this class, you'll learn to identify and analyze everyday organizations, document what's working and what's not, and figure out creative ways to redesign them. You'll conduct ethnographic fieldwork, using concepts and methods drawn from theories of human cognition as it happens in context. These concepts come from distributed cognition and actor-network approaches and stress the inextricability of humans and non-humans (i.e. tools, technologies, representations) in the conduct of everyday organizations. The broad goal is to equip you with strategies for making organizational change that can be applied across personal, professional, and community. Course readings are varied and include literature from cognitive science, sociology, anthropology, design, and other disciplines. Classes will be highly interactive, including a mix of discussion of the readings and our experiences in the field, short mini-lectures, and extended group activities. Assignments will include weekly reading responses, three field studies to tune your observational skills, and a final group design project.

Teaching Method

Lecture, synchronous and asynchronous discussion, and group work.