Digital Sociology

Undergraduate course

Course description

Objectives and Content

SOS120 will provide students with an introduction to core concepts, debates on and methods to investigate the digitalization of society - understood as processes through which domains of social life are restructured around digital communication and media infrastructures. Many areas of social life have been and continue to be impacted by digital technologies - from global trade (e.g., 'the Big Bang') to social protest (e.g., #BLM, #MeToo), to intimate relationships (e.g., dating apps), to political communication and public health (e.g. 'filter bubbles', polarization and conspiracy theories). But human use of these technologies - their commercial, military and surveillance applications for example, and the cultural, social and political domains in which they become entangled - also shape their development. The course seeks to understand these interactions, and their implications for social practice, society, human and ecological relationships, and for sociological theory. It will do so primarily through the investigation of digitalization in selected social domains, and by introducing students to digital methods of investigation. These domains will initially comprise - gender and intimate relationships; global capitalism and the environment; diaspora communities; social protest and activism; and political and scientific communication - but the list may change from year to year.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will have achieved the following outcomes:

Knowledge

  • Understand how the terms 'digitalization' and 'digital capitalism' are used in social scientific debate and public discourse
  • Understand and be able to compare theories on the relationship between technological, social and environmental change with reference to specific social fields such as intimate relations, political communication, diasporic networks, and social activism

Skills

  • Work together with peers to gather, analyze, and relate digital data to sociological theories.
  • Analyze how social domains such as intimate relations, political communication, diasporic networks, and social activism are impacted by and shape digital technologies.
  • Critically assess claims of social transformation due to digitalization.

General competencies

  • Be able to relate classical and modern sociological theories to debates on the process of digitalization
  • Be able to evaluate methodological rigor in the use of digital methods

ECTS Credits

15 ECTS

Level of Study

Bachelor 

Semester of Instruction

The course can be offered both spring and autumn, but the offer will vary from semester to semester
Required Previous Knowledge
None
Credit Reduction due to Course Overlap
none
Access to the Course
Open for all students at the University of Bergen
Teaching and learning methods

Lectures (10-12 x 2 hours) = 20-24 hours

Seminars (10-12 x 2 hour) = 20-24 hours

Group work (student led, to work on a group project to make a presentation) 1 x 10-12 hours) = 10-12 hours

Self-directed study (reading for lectures, seminar preparation, exam preparation= 344-350 hours

Total hours = 400

Compulsory Assignments and Attendance

Completion of compulsory term paper (1500 words +/- 10%, excluding the title page, table of contents, references, tables, and attachments) 

The term paper must be approved before the student can take the exam.

Approved compulsory work requirements are valid in the exam semester and the following exam semester

Forms of Assessment

Digital home exam (3 days, 3000-word limit +/- 10%, excluding the title page, table of contents, references, tables, and attachments ). 

The exam will be given in the language in which the course is taught.
The exam answer can be submitted in Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish. It is also possible to submit in English.

Grading Scale
Graded A-F
Assessment Semester

Assessment in teaching semester.

A retake exam is arranged for students with valid absence according to § 5-5 in the UiB regulations.

If there is a retake exam, this will be available for students with the follow results/absences:

  • Medical certificate/valid absence
  • Interruption during the exam
  • Fail/failed

If you have the right to take a retake exam and a retake exam is arranged for students with valid absences, you can sign up yourself in Studentweb after January 15/August 1.

Reading List
The reading list will be ready before 1 July for the autumn semester and 1 December for the spring semester. 
Course Evaluation
All courses are evaluated according to UiB's system for quality assurance of education.
Examination Support Material
None
Programme Committee
The Programme Committee is responsible for the content, structure and quality of the study programme and courses. 
Course Administrator
Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences has the administrative responsibility for the course and the study programme.