Admission requirements
Only open to bachelor students of Public Administration (DDG track).
Description
This course is designed to help students explore and assess how digital technologies impact communities and transform the way citizens interact with public administrations. During the sessions, students will reflect on the relations between digital technologies and several dimensions of social life (including economy, culture, media and politics), using an interdisciplinary perspective. In the sessions we will pay special attention to how technologies such as social media, the internet of things, or artificial intelligence, among others, are changing the role of citizenship (e.g., from clients to partners/co-producers). The course delves into some of the most important debates around the digital society. This includes – among others – reflecting on how digitization has changed collective action and activism; to what extent digital developments are enhancing political and social change through new lenses and considerations of power; how communities navigate towards datafication and shared economies; and what are the main challenges produced by these digitized social realms, in terms of inequalities and divides, platform capitalism, disinformation, cyber-threats, or surveillance, among others.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
Give insights on the historical development of the digital society, from the information age to the advent of data-driven algorithms;
Give insights on how the use of digital technologies has changed the role of citizens (within communities, and when they interact with public administrations);
Analyze the effects of digitization on several societal contexts, from civic engagement, to the conformation of identities, social change and the platformization of economies;
Critically problematize some developments of the digital society, focusing on challenges such as the digital divide, disinformation, privacy concerns, and surveillance practices.
Timetable
On the right side of programme front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Brightspace.
Mode of instruction
The course follows an in-person lecture approach, combined with breakouts/discussions in class, in which students are required to actively participate.
The course load is 140 hours, distributed as follows:
Lectures (7 lectures of 2 hours each) = 14 hours
Assessment (1 final exam, 3 hours + 1 'inzage and bespreking') = 4 hours
Self-study (readings, preparation for classes, assignments, and final exam) = 122 hours
Assessment method
Assessment consists of a final exam (70%) and two small individual assignments (15% each, for a total of 30%). Students who score below 5.5 on the final exam will need to take a resit.
The two individual assignments can be compensated by getting a higher grade in the written exam. In case the student scores a 5.5 in the exam, but has an average grade lower than 5.5 due to a failed individual assignment, an additional individual assignment will be placed by the instructor as a resit.
A final grade greater than or equal to 5.5 is required to pass the course.
Partial grades are only valid in the current academic year. Partial grades will not remain valid after the exam/retake.
Reading list
A syllabus will be available on Brightspace at the start of the course. Course materials can be accessed online through the Leiden University Library, or through open access portals. Students do not need to purchase any material.
Registration
Students will be enrolled in this course by the administration. You can view your personal schedule in MyTimetable after logging in.
Leiden University uses Brightspace as its online learning management system. After enrollment for the course in MyStudymap you will be automatically enrolled in the Brightspace environment of this course.
After registration for an exam you still need to confirm your attendance via MyStudymap. If you do not confirm, you will be ultimately de-registered and you will not be allowed to take the exam.
More information on registration via MyStudymap can be found on this page.
Contact
Dr. Julián Villodre: j.villodre@fgga.leidenuniv.nl