SOC439

042471

Knowledge is power, right? But it doesn't always feel that way in our modern world, even though information is at our fingertips. How do we make sense of it? Who, if anyone, curates and interprets it, and to what end? This course delves into the intricate relationships between knowledge, power, and our global society. It explores how we socially organize the knowledge of our physical and social worlds extracted from the deluge of data and information and the consequences it holds for us. We examine how hierarchies and systems of knowledge like social categories, scientific paradigms, cosmologies, and diffusion networks are symbiotically connected with us, as we both sustain and perpetuate these systems while also being defined and subjugated by them. We consider how these systems and hiearchies of knowledge that catalyze technological and scientific advances might shape our globally interconnected societies in the future.

OPT - Student Option

Undergraduate

CE - CL (Cross Listed)