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Perspectives on Technology and Society - 5 ECTS


Date and time

Monday 3 February 2025 at 09:00 to Friday 7 February 2025 at 15:00

Registration Deadline

Friday 20 December 2024 at 23:55

Location

Dalgas Have - room DHV 2.69, 2.70 & 2.71 (second floor), Dalgas Have 15, 2000 Frederiksberg Dalgas Have - room DHV 2.69, 2.70 & 2.71 (second floor)
Dalgas Have 15
2000 Frederiksberg

Perspectives on Technology and Society - 5 ECTS


Course coordinators: Julie Uldam & Rasmus Koss Hartmann, Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)

 
Faculty
 
Associate professor Julie Uldam
Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS

Associate Professor Rasmus Koss Hartman
Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS
 
Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS

Professor Hans Krause Hansen
Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS

Associate Professor Oana Albu
Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS

 

Pre-requisites

Participants must be enrolled in a PhD program with a project dealing with technology and its relationship to management, organizations and/or society (unless dispensation is provided by the course coordinators). 

As part of the course registration, participants are required to hand in:

(1)
a short motivational statement of about 500 words on why you are applying for the course
After being accepted to the course and two weeks prior to the course start at the latest, participants are required to hand in: 

(2)
a short paper of 2,500 – 3,000 words max. (plus references) in which his/her PhD project (or one of the papers of a cumulative dissertation) is presented and explicitly related to the course curriculum. The paper must include specific links to one or several texts from the course literature (further instructions will follow after acceptance to the course). 

It is a precondition for receiving the course diploma that PhD students hand in the required paper in advance and attend the entire course.

Aims

Technology has long been part of the human experience. But our current moment represents a particularly intense instance of technological transformation, comparable in scope to the transformations brought about by steam engines, electrification, petrochemicals and similar innovations with profound implications for society, organizations and management. This is reflected in surging interest in questions about both specific technologies and technology in general in management and organization research as well as media and communication studies. 

This PhD course explores these issues, examining the novel questions and dynamics occasioned by our current moment and its defining foundational technologies, the particular transformations that we are observing in management, organizations and society because of them, and the deep continuities that persist in spite, or because of, technological change. It will provide students with a state-of-the-art theoretical understanding of technology as it relates to management, organizations and society, and with an occasion to experiment with different theoretical perspectives that can inform empirical analysis of this evolving set of phenomena. 

Content

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to, and let them experiment with, current perspectives in the social scientific analysis of technology, to understand technology as (shaping) an evolving context for research, focusing on management and organization studies and media and communication studies, and to reflect on the implications of technology and technological change. The course will address themes related to transparency, power, control, innovation, learning and ethics as they relate to technology and reflect on how these themes are impacted by the particular technologies that define our specific historical moment. 

Students will learn how to engage with technology from a suite of theoretical perspectives, and to think about their own research through this expanded theoretical repertoire in order to do more interesting and assumption-challenging research. 

Finally, students will be trained in the craft of writing about and communicating management and organizational research, with a focus on becoming better, happier and more productive academic writers. 

Tentative program

Lectures will introduce a particular perspective on technologies and society that reflects the presenters own research agenda broadly conceived and exemplify the use of this perspective in a recent empirical project. 

The course coordinators will facilitate student presentations and lead the discussion sessions. 

Breaks are included in the allotted timeslots.

 

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

0800-0900

Doors open (@0800) 

Welcome (@0830)

Doors open (@0800)

 

Doors open (@0800)

 

Doors open (@0800)

 

Doors open (@0800)

 

0900-1100

Lecture:
Perspectives on technology and society: From macro to micro, from determinism to constructivism

Rasmus Koss Hartmann

Lecture:
Digital architectures and the management of visibility

 

Mikkel Flyverbom

 

Lecture:

Algorithmic governmentality

 

Hans Krause Hansen

Lecture:

In/Visibility, social movements and platforms

Oana Albu

Lecture:

Perspectives on technology and society: Implications for research and society

 Julie Uldam

1100-1200

Writing about background

Writing about theory

Writing about methods

Writing about findings

Writing about discussion

1200-1300

Lunch

Lunch

Lunch

Lunch

Lunch

1300-1400

Student presentations

Student presentations

Student presentations

Student presentations

Student presentations

1400-1500

Discussion and reflections

Discussion and reflections

Discussion and reflections

Discussion and reflections

Discussion, reflections and evaluation

1800-2100

(nil)

(nil)

(nil)

Course dinner

(nil)


Number of hours

30 hours of presence, 24 hours of direct teaching activity (6 hours set aside for lunch)

Teaching style

The course combines keynote lectures by MSC faculty with facilitated discussions and student presentations. 

Learning objectives

Upon completing the course, students will:

  • Be able to apply and reflect on a repertoire of state-of-the-art social science perspectives on technology, organizations and society
  • Do so judiciously in the context of their own and others’ research projects in verbal and written form

Course literature (tentative)

For Monday:

Chosen by presenter

Hartmann, M. R., & Hartmann, R. K. (2023). Hiding practices in employee-user innovation. Research Policy52(4), 104728.

Perez. 2003. Technological Revolutions and financial capital. Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Bodrozic, Hartmann & Krabbe. 2024. The ascendance and decline of entrepreneurialism: A Neo-Schumpeterian Perspective. Working paper

Barley. 1986. Technology as an occasion for structuring: Evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments. Administrative Science Quarterly. 

Rosenberg. 1978. Pressures towards bigness. Science. 

David. 1990. The dynamo and the computer: An historical perspective on the modern productivity paradox. American Economic Review.

For Tuesday:

Chosen by presenter

Flyverbom, M. (2022). Overlit: Digital Architectures of Visibility. Organization Theory, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877221090314

Power, M. (2022). Theorizing the Economy of Traces: From Audit Society to Surveillance Capitalism. Organization Theory, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877211052296

Zuboff, S. (2022). Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy? The Death Match of Institutional Orders and the Politics of Knowledge in Our Information Civilization. Organization Theory, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877221129290

Reaction paper

Bodrožić, Z., & S. Adler, P. (2022). Alternative futures for the digital transformation: A macro-level Schumpeterian perspective. Organization Science33(1), 105-125.

For Wednesday:

Chosen by presenter

Hansen, H. K., & Weiskopf, R. (2021). From Universalizing Transparency to the Interplay of Transparency Matrices: Critical insights from the emerging social credit system in China. Organization Studies42(1), 109–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619878474

Thompson, J. B. (2005). The New Visibility. Theory, Culture & Society22(6), 31–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276405059413

Galič, M., Timan, T., & Koops, B.-J. (2017). Bentham, Deleuze and Beyond: An Overview of Surveillance Theories from the Panopticon to Participation. Philosophy & Technology30(1), 9–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-016-0219-1

Reaction paper

Felin, Teppo and Kauffman, Stuart, Disruptive Evolution: Harnessing Functional Excess, Experimentation, and Science as Tool (2023). Industrial and Corporate Change, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4374767 

For Thursday:

Chosen by presenter

Albu, O. B. (2022). Managing Visibilities: The Shades and Shadows of NGO Work in Repressive Contexts. Management Communication Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189221144991 

Etter, M., & Albu, O. B. (2021). Activists in the Dark: Social Media Algorithms and Collective Action in Two Social Movement Organizations. Organization, 28(1), 68-91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508420961532 

Leybold, M., & Nadegger, M. (2023). Overcoming communicative separation for stigma reconstruction: How pole dancers fight content moderation on Instagram. Organization, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221145635 

Reaction paper

Chaundhry, I. (2014). Arab revolutions: Breaking fear|# hashtags for change: Can Twitter generate social progress in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Communication, 8, 943–961. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/2362 

For Friday:

Chosen by presenter

Bennett, W. L., & Uldam, J. (2024). Corporate social responsibility in the disinformation age. Management Communication Quarterly, 08933189241261717.

Mansell, R. (2004). Political Economy, Power and New Media. New Media & Society, 6(1), 96-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444804039910

Uldam, J. (2019). Extra-parliamentarian political power and (social) media visibility. Journal of Political Power12(2), 293-311.

Reaction paper

Thompson, J. B. (2005). The new visibility. Theory, culture & society22(6), 31-51.

Note: In case we receive more registrations for the course than we have seats, CBS PhD students will have first priority. Remaining seats will be filled on a first come first serve. The course is offered annually. 
 

Registration Deadline and Conditions

The registration deadline is 20 December 2024. If you wish to cancel your registration, it must be done by this date. By this deadline, we determine whether there are enough registrations to run the course or decide who should be offered a seat if we have received too many registrations.

If seats are still available, we will extend the registration deadline to fill the remaining spots. Once you receive our acceptance/welcome letter, your registration becomes binding, and no course fee refunds will be issued. The binding registration date is the deadline mentioned above.
 
 
Payment Methods
 
Ensure you choose the correct payment method when finalizing your registration:
 
CBS students:
Select the payment method CBS PhD students. The course fee will be deducted from your PhD course budget.
 
Students from Other Danish Universities: 
Select the payment method Danish Electronic Invoice (EAN). Provide your EAN number, attention, and any relevant purchase (project) order number.
If you do not pay via EAN number, select Invoice to pay via electronic bank payment (+71).
 
Students from Foreign Universities:
Select the payment method Payment Card. If you are unable to pay by credit card, choose Invoice International to pay via bank transfer.

Event Location

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Organizer Contact Information

CBS PhD School
Nina Iversen

Phone: +45 3815 2475
ni.research@cbs.dk

Organizer Contact Information

CBS PhD School
Nina Iversen

Phone: +45 3815 2475
ni.research@cbs.dk