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Ti 237 Geographies of Cyberspace

Lecturer:	Dr Pat Collins
Office:	101 Geography
Phone:	00 353 91 49 3326
E-mail:	p.collinsnuigalway.ie
Lectures:	Tue 1 - 2 Tyndall;  Wed 5 - 6 AC202
CISC

Full description of the course and course content can be downloaded HERE (downloads .doc file).

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Aims and Objectives

• To examine the changing nature of economic and social development in the information age and the place of geography in a ’spaceless’ world.
  
• To differentiate between the theory, policy and reality behind these changes and to critically interpret the cyberspace rhetoric.
  
• Provide you the student with the skills and methods to make up your own mind about the interaction between technology and society and the role of space in it.

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Course Description

This course is concerned with the evolution of Geography in an increasingly ’spaceless’ world (Ohmae, 1995). Focusing on the rise of new technologies and the analogous ’informationalisation’ of polity, society and economy the course aims to counter the naïve and simplistic analysis that ignores the geographical dimensions of cyberspace. Exploring the development of theories in academic discourse and science fiction literature this course will incorporate a retrospective and forward-looking evaluation of the interaction between society and technology and its spatial consequences.
Touching on many of the main strands of geographic inquiry the first set of lectures will attempt to ’pin down’ the meanings of many of the phrases that have entered popular parlance, from Information Society to Cyberspace and the Knowledge economy. Thereafter, the course will be divided into sections dealing with the economic, political, cultural and urban/rural geographies of cyberspace. Key areas here will be the geography of economic development in the new age which will encompass case studies on the digital divide. Governance in a cyberspace without borders and the increase of the surveillance state will constitute another segment of the course. Literary geographies will be explored through reference to some seminal science fiction novels and films. While ’cities of tomorrow’ and ’rural disconnectedness’ will be the focus of the remaining lectures.

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Learning Outcomes

• Ability to critically evaluate changes in the Information age as well as the technologies that quicken the advance of ’cyberspace’.
  
• Recognition of the potential for, and limits to, policy responses in the information age.
  
• An introduction to key qualitative methods and quantitative methods in geography (introduction to basic web page design).

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Method of Assessment

• 50% exam (2 questions from a choice of 5)
• 50% project work (essay)/practical

Project work can be computer lab and field based. One part of the project work may involve you categorising how much of your daily experience is carried out in cyberspace – or how much of your life is carried out under surveillance? We will be concerned with highlighting issues relating to privacy and the geography of surveillance. For more on increased surveillance see the American Civil Liberties Union paper here

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Key Texts

Ryan, J (2010) A history of the Internet and the Digital future Reaktion Books
Kitchin, R (1998) Cyberspace: A world in the wires. Wiley Press
Castells, M (2001) The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet. Business and Society Oxford University Press

On surveillance see:
Lyon, D (2002) "Everyday Surveillance." Information Communication and Society 5 (2) pp 242 – 257

Literary Texts:
See George Orwell’s 1984.
Any number of Philip K. Dick novels from Do androids dream of electric sheep? (later became Ridley Scott’s 1982 movie ’Blade runner’) to Minority Report (inspired the 2002 movie of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg).
You can also check out the 1999 movie by the Wachowski brothers The Matrix to stimulate thinking on how much we are part of cyberspace!

    

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