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2021/2022  KAN-CPHIV2014U  Modern Technology: In Philosophy, Organizations, and Ethics

English Title
Modern Technology: In Philosophy, Organizations, and Ethics

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Min. participants 12
Max. participants 25
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Philosophy, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Kaspar Villadsen - Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy (MPP)
Main academic disciplines
  • Philosophy and ethics
  • Information technology
  • Organisation
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 16-02-2021

Relevant links
Learning objectives
  • Understand the nature and significance of technology in modern societies broadly, and organizational contexts specifically.
  • Define and evaluate the connections between technology, power, and subjectivity, and evaluate the role of modern technology in organizational settings.
  • Use the case materials assigned in the course to provide specific examples of the many ways in which technology influences government policies, organizational practice and individuals’ self-constitution.
  • Analyze technological challenges presented in case studies assigned during the course, and display the ability to evaluate the ambiguities and challenges that modern technologies pose for society, organizations, and individuals.
Course prerequisites
Interesse for moderne teknologi - filosofisk, organisatorisk og etisk.
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 2
Compulsory home assignments
Final essay of 10 pages covering the course content.

Oral presentations etc.
verbal presentations and small essays during the course.
Examination
Modern Technology: In Philosophy, Organizations, and Ethics:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Essay
Duration 7 days to prepare
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

The students are required to write an essay at the end of the course. They will be offered the possibility of counseling on ideas for the essay by the faculty at the course. The essay must cover a substantial part (approx. 50%) of the course literature and should be max 10 pages.  
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The seminar covers both ‘classic’ thinking on technology as well as contemporary analyses. It includes philosophical and theoretical reflections as well as concrete case examples from our contemporary organizations and individual lives. The seminar format requires a high student engagement/performance in a smaller format (max. 30 students). It will make use of a dialogue-based learning atmosphere, centered on close discussion of the texts and subject matter, involving the students’ experiences in the dialogue. There will be a requirement of Weekly student oral presentations and short essays to spur the intensity of the learning experience, which will also involve visual, aesthetic, and sensorial means. To this end, the seminar will include field visits, exposure to design and technological inventions, discussed in their philosophical, organizational, and ethical dimension. Possible field sites include The DTU Skylab, Fjernvarme Fyn (who collaborate with Facebook’s datacenter), and ‘Skibakken’ at Vestforbrædning.

The course prioritizes classroom discussion and debate over lectures in order to help course participants to develop and to refine the kinds of communication, analysis, and presentation skills that will help them address increasingly significant role of technology in society, organizations, and our private lives.

Topics and themes covered in the course include: the nature of modern technology; how technology gives shape to organizational practices; the relationship between technology, power, and subjectivity; how technology has become integral to the constitution of subjectivity.
Description of the teaching methods
Description of the teaching methods:

Class time will consist almost entirely of case-based discussions, exercises, and simulations, with very few formal lectures. Students will participate actively in analyzing and presenting cases and theoretical readings. Students will be strongly encouraged to form study groups that meet outside of class to prepare and discuss cases in advance.
Feedback during the teaching period
Feedback during the teaching period:
The discussion based teaching method will make use of continual feedback on student ideas, contributions, and discussion of case studies throughout the course.

There will be a mid-term verbal evaluation of the course midway through the course to secure possible adjustments and student satisfaction.
Student workload
undervisning 36 hours
forberedelse 120 hours
Eksamen (essay) 50 hours
Expected literature

Borgmann, A. 2005. ‘Technology’. In A Companion to Heidegger, edited by Hubert Dreyfus and Mark Wrathall, pp. 420-432. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

 

Foucault, M. 2007. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Foucault, M. 1980. ‘The Confessions of the Flesh’. In Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, by Michel Foucault, pp. 194-229. New York: Pantheon Books.

 

Heidegger, M. 1977a [1949]. ‘The Question Concerning Technology’. In The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, by Martin Heidegger, pp. 3-36. New York: Garland Publishing.

 

Karlsen, M. P. and K. Villadsen. 2008. ‘Who Should Do the Talking: The proliferation of Dialogue as Governmental Technology’. Culture and Organization 14 (4): pp. 345-363.

 

Karlsen, M. P. and K. Villadsen 2020. ‘Confession’. In The Routledge Handbook of Economic Theology, edited by Stefan Schwarzkopf, pp. 36-46. Abingdon: Routledge.

Nietzsche, F. 1994 [1887]. On the Genealogy of Morality. New York: Cambridge University Press.

 

Villadsen, K. 2019. ‘“The Dispositive”: Foucault’s Concept for Organizational Analysis?’. Organization Studies (early online Dec. 2019).
Last updated on 16-02-2021