AP/POLS 4071 3.00
The Politics of Cyberspace: Information and Power in the Surveillance Society
As a component of the information revolution and globalization, cyber, digital technology, the internet, cyborg (cybernetic organism), artificial life (AL), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, prosthetics, robotics and tissue engineering – has since 1989 rapidly emerged as a feature of contemporary politics. The cyber is subject to competing claims regarding its positive and negative impact of power relations and individual identities. This course focuses on a variety of interpretative methods that are applied to cyber and cyberspace – communication theory, Marxism, feminism, postmodernism, posthumanism, international relations, identity theory, information theory, technological determinism, and political economy. The characterization of cyber and cyberspace as a new medium and its political significance will be emphasized. The course will examine the influence of “non-place” on democratic development, social power and interaction, as well as new identity formation.