Sociology of Information & Communication Technology

Transcription

1 Sociology of Information & Communication Technology Mondays , Thursdays , Dunning Hall 14 Dr. Norma Möllers Dept. of Sociology Office: D531 Mackintosh-Corry Phone: (613) ext Office hours: Mondays 11am 1pm SOCY284 Fall 2016 TA info will be posted on onq COURSE DESCRIPTION Information and communication technologies pervade contemporary societies. Be it work or play, they form the infrastructures through which many of our daily interactions are mediated. This course introduces you to the field of science & technology studies (STS), focusing on how technology and society influence each other in a range of different contexts. By critically engaging with theoretical debates and empirical studies, we will look at how social norms and values shape technologies designs, how technologies are implicated in maintaining social order, and how people use, appropriate, and resist technologies. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Through this course, you should gain knowledge and understanding: the ability to identify and describe key questions and concerns of technology in society; as well as a command of basic concepts in science and technology studies; an appreciation of the contested nature of technology in society; reading skills: some of the text will be challenging for you. This is either because they are theoretically dense, or because they were written based on technologies with which you will not be familiar (or both). The concepts they develop are still central to understanding the roles of information and communication technologies in social processes. In this course, you will develop reading strategies with the aim of transferring concepts across different technologies and contexts. writing skills: academic writing doesn t come naturally and needs to be learned and exercised. I have designed the assignments so they break down the process of writing a term paper into smaller tasks. This will help you build up material throughout the course which you can draw on when the time comes to write the term paper. 1 SOCY284 FALL 2016

2 EXPECTATIONS & ASSIGNMENTS I expect you to read the papers listed under required readings and to complete the assignments. I have listed quite a few additional readings under recommended readings - don t panic, you don t have to read these for class; but they are a good starting point for your term papers. In order to pass this course, you will need to complete five assignments. These assignments are: one technology diary, one reaction paper, one term paper outline, two constructive comments, and one term paper. I will give more detailed instructions on each assignment two weeks before each relevant deadline. For your technology diary, you will choose one technology from your everyday life, and observe and record your interactions with and through this technology for one day. Use your notes to identify and discuss what norms and values are activated in interacting with/through this technology (2-3 pages, double-spaced). The reaction paper (6-7 pages, double-spaced) will critically engage with two readings of your choice. Critically engage means that you do not only summarize the readings, but creatively explore your agreement/disagreement with the readings in order to generate and discuss questions that go beyond the readings. Term paper outlines (2-3 pages, double-spaced) will sketch the topic you intend to write about in a storyboard, including a preliminary bibliography. Give headings to the different sections which form the structure of your paper, and write a paragraph under each which briefly summarizes the section. Try to articulate as concisely as possible your topic, the problems and questions it raises, and where and how you intend to look for answers. You will write two short comments (1-2 paragraphs) that engage in a constructive way with your co-students term proposals. Constructive here means that you explore your agreement or disagreement with your co-students thoughts to help them explore their topic. Why do you agree/disagree? What other questions did your co-students ideas made you think of? Do you have suggestions about further sources/readings/events/phenomena that your co-students proposal does not mention but might be useful? This also implies that the comments have to be written in a respectful manner. Comments that do not engage with co-students thoughts, or are in any way disrespectful will lead to an automatic fail on the assignment. For your term paper (10 12 pages, double-spaced), try to aim for a minimum of 5 academic sources. I will not take points off if you use less -- what is important is that your argument or exploration is convincing. However, bear in mind that using appropriate sources as evidence for your argument will very likely make it stronger. The term paper may have one of the following formats: a) An in-depth exploration of any of the seminar s topics. You might want to use your reaction papers, recommended readings, comments and classroom discussions as a starting point. b) an essay in which you use concepts you learn in this course to analyze your everyday experience with technology, using your technology diary as the basis for critical engagement; c) an essay in which you use concepts you learn in this course to analyze an event related to ICTs which was covered in the news media. This would require you to do some research to obtain sources. d) You have different ideas? Come see me, and we ll discuss it. 2 SOCY284 FALL 2016

3 SUBMISSION & DEADLINES Assignments have to be submitted through onq by the specified deadline. I can only grant you extensions in exceptional cases and if you have made a request prior to the deadline. Note that in all other cases I will take 5% off your grade per day. Deadlines are as follows: Technology diary: week 2 / Sep. 23 / PM Reading response: week 6 / Oct. 21 / PM Term paper proposals: week 8 / Nov. 4 / PM Constructive comments: week 9 / Nov. 11 / PM Term paper: week 12 / Dec. 2 / PM GRADING Assignments have numerical percentage marks which are distributed as follows: Technology diary: 5% Reading response: 30% Term paper proposal: 15% Constructive comments: 5% Term paper: 45% The technology diary and constructive comments are on a pass/fail basis and will not be graded. For your final grade, your numerical course average then will be converted to a letter grade according to the Queen s Official Grade Conversion Scale: Grade Numerical Range A A A B B B C C C D D D F 49 and below ORGANIZATION The course will be taught through two lectures per week. TA info will be available via onq. 3 SOCY284 FALL 2016

4 A NOTE ON READINGS AND RESOURCES All readings, as well as course outline, lecture slides, and TA information will be available via onq. Note that this material is copyrighted and is for the sole use of students registered in the course. This material shall not be distributed or disseminated to anyone other than students registered in the course. Failure to abide by these conditions is a breach of copyright, and may also constitute a breach of academic integrity under the University Senate s Academic Integrity Policy Statement. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Academic Integrity is constituted by the five core fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility (see These values are central to the building, nurturing and sustaining of an academic community in which all members of the community will thrive. Adherence to the values expressed through academic integrity forms a foundation for the freedom of inquiry and exchange of ideas essential to the intellectual life of the University (see the Senate Report on Principles and Priorities). Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the regulations concerning academic integrity and for ensuring that their assignments conform to the principles of academic integrity. Information on academic integrity is available in the Arts and Science Calendar (see Academic Regulation 1), on the Arts and Science website, and from the instructor of this course. Departures from academic integrity include plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, facilitation, forgery and falsification, and are antithetical to the development of an academic community at Queen's. Given the seriousness of these matters, actions which contravene the regulation on academic integrity carry sanctions that can range from a warning or the loss of grades on an assignment to the failure of a course to a requirement to withdraw from the university. ACCOMODIATION FOR DISABILITIES Queen's University is committed to achieving full accessibility for people with disabilities. Part of this commitment includes arranging academic accommodations for students with disabilities to ensure they have an equitable opportunity to participate in all of their academic activities. If you are a student with a disability and think you may need accommodations, you are strongly encouraged to contact the Queen's Student Accessibility Services (QSAS) and register as early as possible. For more information, including important deadlines, please visit the QSAS website. 4 SOCY284 FALL 2016

5 Course schedule & readings Week Dates Topics 1 Sep. 12 / Sep. 15 Introduction / technological determinism 2 Sep. 19 / Sep. 22 Do technologies have politics? 3 Sep. 26 / Sep. 29 The social construction of technology 4 Oct. 3 / Oct. 6 Actor-networks 5 Oct. 10 / Oct. 13 (Information) infrastructure (no class on the 10th) 6 Oct. 17 / Oct. 20 User Configuration 7 Oct. 24 / Oct. 27 Configuring Gender 8 Oct. 31 / Nov. 3 Cultures of computing 9 Nov. 7 / Nov. 10 Technologies of valuation 10 Nov. 14 / Nov. 17 Technologies of control 11 Nov. 21 / Nov. 24 Questions of resistance 12 Nov. 28 / Dec. 1 Appropriation & domestication WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION / TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM Sismondo, Sergio (2010): Introduction to Science and Technology Studies. Chichester: Wiley- Blackwell, pp ( Two Questions Concerning Technology ). Smith, Merritt Roe; Marx, Leo (1994): Introduction. In Merritt Roe Smith, Leo Marx (Eds.): Does technology drive history? The dilemma of technological determinism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press Wyatt, Sally (2008): Technological Determinism is Dead; Long Live Technological Determinism. In Edward J. Hackett, Olga Amsterdamska, Michael Lynch, Judy Wajcman (Eds.): The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. 3 rd ed. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp Godin, Benoît (2006): The Linear Model of Innovation. The Historical Construction of an Analytical Framework. In Science, Technology & Human Values 31 (6), pp Woolgar, Steve (1991): The Turn to Technology in Social Studies of Science. In Science, Technology & Human Values 16 (1), pp Bimber, B. (1990): Karl Marx and the Three Faces of Technological Determinism. In Social Studies of Science 20 (2), pp SOCY284 FALL 2016

6 WEEK 2: DO TECHNOLOGIES HAVE POLITICS? Winner, Langdon (1980): Do Artifacts Have Politics? In Dædalus 109 (1), pp MacKenzie, Donald A.; Wajcman, Judy (1999): Introductory Essay. The Social Shaping of Technology. In Donald A. MacKenzie, Judy Wajcman (Eds.): The Social Shaping of Technology. 2 nd ed. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, pp Joerges, Bernward (1999): Do Politics have Artifacts? In Social Studies of Science 29 (3), pp Woolgar, Steve; Cooper, Geoff (1999): Do Artefacts have Ambivalence? Moses' Bridges, Winner's Bridges and other Urban Legends in S&TS. In Social Studies of Science 29 (3), pp Joerges, Bernward (1999): Scams Cannot Be Busted. Reply to Woolgar & Cooper. In Social Studies of Science 29 (3), pp WEEK 3: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF TECHNOLOGY Pinch, Trevor J.; Bijker, Wiebe E. (1984): The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts: or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology might Benefit Each Other. In Social Studies of Science 14 (3), pp Kline, Ronald (2003): Resisting Consumer Technology in Rural America. The Telephone and Electrification. In Nelly Oudshoorn, Trevor J. Pinch (Eds.): How Users Matter. The Co-Construction of Users and Technologies. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp Bijker, Wiebe E. (1995): King of the Road. In Wiebe Bijker: Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs. Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp Humphreys, L. (2005) Reframing Social Groups, Closure, and Stabilization in the Social Construction of Technology. Social Epistemology, 19, Kline, Ronald; Pinch, Trevor J. (1996): Users as Agents of Technological Change. The Social Construction of the Automobile in the Rural United States. In Technology and Culture 37 (4), pp Rosen, P. (1993). The social construction of mountain bikes: technology and postmodernity in the cycle industry Social Studies of Science, 23, Ruth Schwartz Cowan (1985): How the Refrigerator Got Its Hum. In Donald Mackenzie and Judy Wajcman (Eds.): The Social Shaping of Technology. Milton Keynes: Open Univ. Press, pp SOCY284 FALL 2016

7 WEEK 4: ACTOR-NETWORKS Akrich, Madeleine; Latour, Bruno (1992): A Summary of a Convenient Vocabulary for the Semiotics of Human and Nonhuman Assemblies. In Wiebe E. Bijker, John Law (Eds.): Shaping Technology/Building Society. Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp Latour, Bruno (1992): Where are the missing masses? The sociology of a few mundane artefacts. In Wiebe E. Bijker, John Law (Eds.): Shaping Technology/Building Society. Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp Sismondo, Sergio (2010): Actor-Network-Theory. In Sismondo, Sergio: An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp Callon, Michel (1986): Some elements of a sociology of translation. Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. In John Law (Ed.): Power, action and belief. A new sociology of knowledge? London: Routledge, pp De Laet, Marianne and Annemarie Mol (2000): The Zimbabwe Bush Pump. Mechanics of a Fluid Technology. In Social Studies of Science 30(2), pp Latour, Bruno (2005): Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Law, John and John Hassard (Eds.) (1999): Actor Network Theory and After. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pubs. Mol, Annemarie (2002): The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Star, Susan Leigh (1991): Power, Technology and the Phenomenology of Conventions. On Being Allergic to Onions. In John Law (Ed.): A Sociology of Monsters. Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. London: Routledge, pp Strathern, Marilyn (1996): Cutting the Network. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2 (3), pp WEEK 5: (INFORMATION) INFRASTRUCTURE Star, Susan Leigh (1999): The Ethnography of Infrastructure. In American Behavioral Scientist 43 (3), pp Brunton, Finn; Coleman, Gabriella (2014): Closer to the metal. In Gillespie, Tarleton; Boczkowski, Pablo J.; Foot, Kirsten A. (Eds.): Media Technologies: Essays on communication, materiality, and society. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp Aouragh, M.; Chakravartty, P. (2016): Infrastructures of empire. Towards a critical geopolitics of media and information studies. In Media, Culture & Society 38 (4), pp Bowker, Geoffrey C. (2008): Memory Practices in the Sciences. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 7 SOCY284 FALL 2016

8 Bowker, Geoffrey C.; Star, Susan Leigh (2000): Sorting Things Out. Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press; Chapter 1: Some tricks of the trade, pp Edwards, Paul N. (2010): A vast machine. Computer models, climate data, and the politics of global warming. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Hanseth, Ole; Monteiro, Eric (1997): Inscribing Behaviour in Information Infrastructure. In Accounting, Management and Information Technologies 7 (4), pp Hughes, Thomas P. (1987): The Evolution of Large Technical Systems. In Wiebe E. Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, Trevor J. Pinch (Eds.): The Social Construction of Technological Systems. New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press. Larkin, Brian (2013): The politics and poetics of infrastructure. In Annual Review of Anthropology 42, pp Star, Susan Leigh; Ruhleder, Karen (1996): Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure. Design and Access for Large Information Spaces. In Information Systems Research 7 (1), pp WEEK 6: USER CONFIGURATION Akrich, Madeline, The De-Scription of Technological Objects, in: Bijker and Law, Eds., Shaping Technology/Building Society (MIT Press, 1992), p Woolgar, Steve (1991): Configuring the User. The Case of Usability Trials. In John Law (Ed.): A Sociology of Monsters. Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. London: Routledge, pp Bardini, Thierry, and August T. Horvath The Social Construction of the Personal Computer User. Journal of Communication 45 (3): Schüll, Natasha Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp (Ch. 2: Engineering Experience ). Winthereik, Brit; Johannsen, Nis; Strand, Dixi Louise (2008): Making technology public: Challenging the notion of script through an e-health demonstration video. In Information Technology & People 21(2), pp Oudshoorn, Nelly; Pinch, Trevor J. (2008): User-Technology Relationships. Some Recent Developments. In Edward J. Hackett, Olga Amsterdamska, Michael Lynch, Judy Wajcman (Eds.): The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. 3rd ed. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp Oudshoorn, Nelly (2003): Introduction. How Users and Non-Users Matter. In Nelly Oudshoorn, Trevor J. Pinch (Eds.): How Users Matter. The Co-Construction of Users and Technologies. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp WEEK 7: CONFIGURING GENDER Faulkner, Wendy (2001): The technology question in feminism: A view from feminist technology studies. In Women s Studies International Forum 24(1), pp SOCY284 FALL 2016

9 Oudshoorn, Nelly; Rommes, Els; Stienstra, Marcelle (2004): Configuring the User as Everybody. Gender and Design Cultures in Information and Communication Technologies. In Science, Technology, & Human Values 29 (1), pp Mellström, Ulf (2002): Patriarchal Machines and Masculine Embodiment. In Science, Technology & Human Values 27 (4), pp van Oost, Ellen (2003): Materialized Gender. How shavers configure the users' femininity and masculinity. In Nelly Oudshoorn, Trevor J. Pinch (Eds.): How Users Matter. The Co-Construction of Users and Technologies. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp WEEK 8: CULTURES OF COMPUTING Forsythe, D. E. (1993): Engineering Knowledge. The Construction of Knowledge in Artificial Intelligence. In Social Studies of Science 23 (3), pp Irani, L. (2015): Hackathons and the Making of Entrepreneurial Citizenship. In Science, Technology & Human Values 40 (5), pp Adam, Alison (1998): Artificial knowing. Gender and the thinking machine. London, New York: Routledge. Coleman, Gabriella (2010): The Hacker Conference. A Ritual Condensation and Celebration of a Lifeworld. In Anthropological Quarterly 83 (1), pp Faulkner, W. (2000): Dualisms, Hierarchies and Gender in Engineering. In Social Studies of Science 30 (5), pp Lindtner, Silvia (2015): Hacking with Chinese Characteristics. The Promises of the Maker Movement against China's Manufacturing Culture. In Science, Technology & Human Values 40 (5), pp Suchman, Lucy A. (2007): Figuring the Human in AI and Robotics. In Human-machine reconfigurations. Plans and situated actions. 2 nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, pp WEEK 9: TECHNOLOGIES OF VALUATION Gillespie, Tarleton (2014): The Relevance of Algorithms. In Media Technologies, edited by Tarleton Gillespie, Pablo Boczkowski, and Kirsten Foot. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Introna, Lucas D., and Helen Nissenbaum (2000): Shaping the Web: Why the Politics of Search Engines Matters. In The Information Society 16 (3), pp Espeland, Wendy Nelson; Sauder, Michael (2007): Rankings and Reactivity. How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds. In American Journal of Sociology 113 (1), pp Fourcade, Marion (2011): Cents and Sensibility. Economic Valuation and the Nature of Nature 1. In American Journal of Sociology 116 (6), pp SOCY284 FALL 2016

10 MacKenzie, D.; Spears, T. (2014): 'The formula that killed Wall Street'. The Gaussian copula and modelling practices in investment banking. In Social Studies of Science 44 (3), pp Heuts, Frank; Mol, Annemarie (2013): What Is a Good Tomato? A Case of Valuing in Practice. In Valuation Studies 1(2) 2013: WEEK 10: TECHNOLOGIES OF CONTROL Bowker, Geof; Star, Susan L. (2000): The Case of Race Classification and Reclassification under Apartheid. In Bowker, Geof; Star, Susan L.: Sorting things out: classification and its consequences. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp Gillespie, Tarleton (2006): Designed to 'effectively frustrate'. Copyright, technology and the agency of users. In New Media & Society 8 (4), pp Aneesh, A. (2009): Global Labor: Algocratic Modes of Organization. In Sociological Theory 27 (4), pp Beer, D. (2009). Power through the algorithm? Participatory Web cultures and the technological unconscious. In New Media & Society 11(6), pp Deleuze, Gilles (1992): Postscript on the Societies of Control. In October 59, pp Lash, Scott (2007): Power after Hegemony: Cultural Studies in Mutation? In Theory, Culture & Society 24 (3), pp WEEK 11: QUESTIONS OF RESISTANCE Gürses, S.; Kundnani, A.; van Hoboken, J. (2016): Crypto and empire. The contradictions of countersurveillance advocacy. In Media, Culture & Society 38 (4), pp Portwood-Stacer, L. (2012): Media refusal and conspicuous non-consumption: The performative and political dimensions of Facebook abstention. In New Media & Society. Wyatt, Sally (2003): Non-Users Also Matter. The Construction of Users and Non-Users of the Internet. In Nelly Oudshoorn, Trevor J. Pinch (Eds.): How Users Matter. The Co-Construction of Users and Technologies. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp Irani, Lilly; Silberman, M. Six (2013): Turkopticon: Interrupting Worker Invisibility in Amazon Mechanical Turk. Proceedings of CHI 2013, Apr 28-May 2, Brunton, Finn; Nissenbaum,Helen (2013): Political and Ethical Perspectives on Data Obfuscation. In Mireille Hildebrandt and Katja de Vries (Eds.): Privacy, Due Process and the Computational Turn. New York: Routledge, pp SOCY284 FALL 2016

11 WEEK 12: APPROPRIATION & DOMESTICATION : Silverstone, R., and Haddon, L. (1996): Design and the domestication of information and communication technologies: Technical change and everyday life. In Communication by Design, ed. R. Silverstone and R. Mansell. Oxford University Press. Siles, Ignacio From online filter to web format: Articulating materiality and meaning in the early history of blogs. Social Studies of Science 41 (5): Burrell, Jenna (2011): User Agency in the Middle Range: Rumors and the Reinvention of the Internet in Accra, Ghana. In: Science, Technology, & Human Values, 36(2), pp Abbate, Janet (1999): The most neglected element : Users transform the ARPANET. In Abbate, Janet: Inventing the Internet. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp Haddon, Leslie (2011): Domestication Analysis, Objects of Study, and the Centrality of Technologies in Everyday Life. In Canadian Journal of Communication 36 (2), pp Lie, Merete; Sørensen, Knut H. (Eds.) (1996): Making technology our own? Domesticating technology into everyday life. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR TERM PAPERS For your term paper, you might want to have a look at the readings listed under recommended readings, and/or search the following journals for relevant articles (accessible online when you re in the university network). Science, Technology & Human Values; New Media and Society; Organization; Information, Communication and Society; First Monday; Social Studies of Science; Big Data & Society; Science & Technology Studies Technology and Culture For more theoretical sources and overview articles, have a look the books listed below: Bauschspies, Wenda; Croissant, Jennifer; Restivo, Sal (2005): Science, Technology and Society. A Sociological Approach. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Bijker, Wiebe E. (1995): Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs. Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge: MIT Press. Bijker, Wiebe E.; Hughes, Thomas P.; Pinch, Trevor J. (Eds.) (1987): The Social Construction of Technological Systems. New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press. Bijker, Wiebe E.; Law, John (Eds.) (1992): Shaping Technology/Building Society. Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 11 SOCY284 FALL 2016

12 Cockburn, Cynthia; Ormrod, Susan (1993): Gender and Technology in the Making. London: Sage. Gillespie, Tarleton; Boczkowski, Pablo J.; Foot, Kirsten A. (Eds.) (2014): Media Technologies: Essays on communication, materiality, and society. Cambridge: MIT Press. Hackett, Edward J.; Amsterdamska, Olga; Lynch, Michael; Wajcman, Judy (Eds.) (2008): The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. 3 rd ed. Cambridge: MIT Press. Law, John and John Hassard (Eds.) (1999): Actor Network Theory and After. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pubs. Law, John (Ed.) (1991): A Sociology of Monsters. Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. London: Routledge. MacKenzie, Donald A.; Wajcman, Judy (Eds.) (1999): The Social Shaping of Technology. 2 nd ed. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Oudshoorn, Nelly; Pinch, Trevor J. (Eds.) (2003): How Users Matter. The Co-Construction of Users and Technologies. Cambridge: MIT Press. Sismondo, Sergio (2010): An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies. 2 nd ed. Chichester: Wiley- Blackwell. Suchman, Lucy A. (2007): Human-machine reconfigurations. Plans and situated actions. 2 nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Wyer, Mary (Ed.) (2014): Women, science, and technology. A reader in feminist science studies. Third edition. New York: Routledge. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON ACADEMIC WRITING I strongly recommend that you consult any or all of the following writing guides, and/or use the library s writing center at some point during your undergraduate career (sooner better than later): Becker, Howard S. (2010): Writing for social scientists. How to start and finish your thesis, book, or article. 2 nd ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Eco, Umberto (2015): How to write a thesis. Cambridge: MIT Press. Turabian, Kate L. (2013): A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations. Chicago Style for students and researchers. Revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams. 8 th ed. Chicago, Ill: Univ. of Chicago Press. 12 SOCY284 FALL 2016