Democracy, Governance, and the Digital Network

• Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”

• John Perry Barlow, “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.”

• Selections from Democracy and New Media

Week Two: Where We Stand (January 20th)

• Blown To Bits: Your Life, Liberty and Happiness After the Digital Explosion. Abelson, Ledeen, and Lewis

Week Three: The Public Sphere (January 27th)

• The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Jurgen Habermas

Week Four: Governmentality (February 3rd)

• Michael Foucault (Selected Readings)

Week Five: Limits of Habermas (February 10th)

• “Cyberdemocracy.” Mark Poster

• Digitize This Book Gary Hall (selections)

• The Dubious Link Ariel Armory (selections)

Week Six: Changing Role of Media (February 17th)

• Digital Media and Democracy. Megan Bowler

Week Seven: Media of the Future (February 24th)

• Premediation by Richard Grusin

Week Eight: Network Logic (March 3rd)

• Manuel Castells, “Why Networks Matter.”

• Connected: The Surprising Power of Out Social Networks and How They Shape our Lives Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler

• “Human Mobility,” and “Predictably Unpredictable.” Albert-László Barabási

Week Nine: (March 10th)

• No Class

• Spring Break

Week Ten: Resisting the Networks (March 24th)

• The Exploit: A Theory of Networks. Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker

Week Eleven: States vs. Networks (March 31st)

• Networks and States. Milton Mueller

Week Twelve: Good or Bad? (April 7th)

• The Net Delusion. Evgeny Morozov

• “How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history.” Clay Shirky

• “Digital Power and Its Discontents.” Edge Conversation.

Week Thirteen: Dissolving the Public Sphere (April 14th)

• Republic 2.0 Cass Sunstein

Week Fourteen: Controlling the Net (April 21st)

• Code 2.0. Lawrence Lessig

Week Fifteen: Global Policy (April 28th)

• Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace by Delbert, Palfrey, Rohozinski, Zittrain, Haraszti

Finals Week

• Class Presentations