POLI 480: Politics of Our Networked World in the Digital Era (Rev. C5) Report a Broken Link

This course explores the emergence of the networked society, the information-technology revolution, and the consequences for power, production, and culture on a global and local scale as examined by such disciplines as political science, political economy, sociology, and communications. Throughout, the course views digital technologies as contested terrain and examines the tension between the networked world as a means of domination versus a means of hope, liberation, and democracy.

Unit 1: Introduction—the Rise of the Network Society


Do not read the "Media Manipulation" section.

Unit 2: The Digital World—a Realm of Surveillance and Control or a Realm Beyond Control?


Unit 3: The Informational Economy and the Process of Globalization


Unit 4: The Countermovement to Neoliberal Globalization—the Global Justice Movement


Read pages 5–8 only.

Read the following pages only: 260–261 stopping at “Occupying Boston” and also pp. 266–268 beginning with the heading “Social Media and Logics of Aggregation” and ending with the paragraph on page 268 beginning with “In the #Occupy Boston encampment…”

Unit 5: Movements of Resistance—the Arab Spring, Indignados, and Occupy Movements


Unit 6: Movements of Resistance—the Idle No More, Black Lives Matter, and Climate Justice Movements


Unit 7: Digital Democracy—Concepts and Issues


Unit 8: Political Communication and Political Journalism in the Digital Age


Unit 9: Digital Democracy, Elections, Parties, and the Political Process


Unit 10: The Future of the Internet—Free? Governed? Controlled?