Digital Civil Society (CSRE 230A)

This class takes a global perspective and historical approach to understanding digital civil society in democracies. 'Civil society' includes social movements, philanthropists, unions, nonprofits, informal associational life, individual activism, and cooperatives, among others. Students will interrogate how civil society is evolving in a world of pervasive digitization and data collection. This year's syllabus divides the class into three "clusters" of topics: Elections, Culture and Community, and Company Towns. Through these clusters we will study tech workers unionizing, digital ID systems, disinformation, voting and democracy in digital times, the human labor behind content moderation, digitization's effects on intellectual property and creativity, and community efforts to shift corporate and/or government power. Class includes guest speakers and an optional field trip.