Information Society
Code: 102142 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2501232 Business and Information Technology | OB | 3 | 1 |
| 2501233 Aeronautical Management | OT | 4 | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Francesc Xavier Rambla Marigot
- Email:
- Xavier.Rambla@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- Yes
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Teachers
- Arnau Palou Fons
Prerequisites
Students must meet the necessary requirements to enroll in a third year subject. If you are not fluent in Catalan or Spanish, please contact the professor for specific support.
Objectives and Contextualisation
Information technologies were not invented by an isolated mind but by several nuclei of engineers, mathematicians, software developers and other specialists who worked on cryptography, population censuses and management. Later on, these technologies have evolved into personal computers, internet, web sites and finally Web 2.0
At the same time as these tools were designed, other transformations incentivated their use and inspired further developments. The economic structure no longer was based on industry but on services. The geography of nation states changed into a geography of nodes, fluxes, scales and new territorial matrixes. Nation states had created networks of cities and transportation that were centralised around a capital city. This geography has not disappeared but new phenomena have complicated the pattern, namely: nodes (e.g. global cities, technological hubs), fluxes (e.g. air and land traffic), global scales of decision-making (e.g. growth of financial capital, multiplication of international organisations, displacement of national sovereignity by several forms of authority) and new territorial matrixes (e.g. social movements, migrations and transnational religions). Information technologies have contributed to all these processes, and have experimented the consequences so much so that their very potential inevitably intermingles with these social changes.
This course is an introduction to sociology and social sciences that delivers conceptual instruments to understand the interface between business and technology in this context. For this reason, the course focuses on globalisation, the knowledge economy, the labour market, organisation and social inequalities (between classes, between genders, between ethnic majorities and minorities). These conceptual instruments help to (learn how to) interptet an array of official, political and professional discourses such as the European Framework for Quality Management, regional systems of research and innovation, ideas about smart cities, the OCDE Skills Strategy, the European Union 2020 Strategy, the Sustainable Development Goals or the United Nations Human Development Development Program.
Competences
- Business and Information Technology
- Demonstrating a comprehension of the fundamental aspects of the social environment and its main transformations in what we know as information society, and the main tendencies related to the social relations in this context.
- Demonstrating a comprehension of the individual and collective human behaviour in professional environments.
- Demonstrating a concern for quality in the objectives and development of the work.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Using the more effective and up-to-date technical means in oral and written communication.
- Working in teams, sharing knowledge and communicating it to the rest of the team and the organisation.
- Aeronautical Management
- Communication.
- Personal work habits.
- Work in teams.
Learning Outcomes
- Communicate knowledge and findings efficiently, both orally and in writing, both in professional situations and with a non-expert audience.
- Demonstrating a comprehension of the fundamental aspects of the social environment and its main transformations in what we know as information society, and the main tendencies related to the social relations in this context.
- Demonstrating a comprehension of the individual and collective human behaviour in professional environments.
- Demonstrating a concern for quality in the objectives and development of the work.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Make efficient use of ICT in communicating ideas and results.
- Manage time and available resources. Work in an organised manner.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Using the more effective and up-to-date technical means in oral and written communication.
- Work cooperatively.
- Work independently.
- Working in teams, sharing knowledge and communicating it to the rest of the team and the organisation.
Content
1. Organisation, labour and employment.
2. Knowledge economy and innovation.
3. Innovation, globalisation and governance.
4. Inequalities and sustainable development.
Methodology
The course draws on lectures, work seminars, problem-based learning and the elaboration of students’ portfolios
Both lectures and seminars will present and discuss the main concepts as well as make sense of a selection of compulsory readings in Catalan, English and Spanish. If students do not feel fluent enough in any of these languages, special support classes will be scheduled in order to help them with the texts.
Problem-based learning will consist of doing exercises and elaborating a portfolio. The exercises will focus on case studies on the connections between globalisation, the knowledge economy, labour markets and social inequalities. Case studies will be presented in portfolios so that students can also learn by solving concrete problems.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures | 33 | 1.32 | 2, 3, 9 |
| Work seminars | 13 | 0.52 | 4, 3, 8, 9 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorials | 5 | 0.2 | 4, 9 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Student's individual work | 45 | 1.8 | 4, 2, 3, 8, 9 |
| Team work | 50.5 | 2.02 | 4, 2, 3, 8, 9 |
Assessment
Activities
Exam(s) on several conceptual issues (40%)
Collective analysis of a social digital innovation (30%).
Writing a personal learning journal on the social digital innovation (30%).
Assessment criteria:
You will pass this subject if your final grade is 5 or above.
If your grade is below 3,5, you must repeat the course next year.
If your grade scores between 3,5 and 4,9, you can take a resit examination according to the below mentioned procedure.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collective analysis of a digital social innvoation | 30 | 0.5 | 0.02 | 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 9 |
| Elaborating a personal learning journal | 30 | 1 | 0.04 | 4, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9 |
| Exam | 40 | 2 | 0.08 | 4, 2, 3, 8, 9 |
Bibliography
This course requires students to do a series of required readings. All will be available for at least one of these three pathways: (1) open access; (2) the UAB digital library; (3) the photocopiers of the Sabadell campus.
Sustainability
DIAMOND, J. 2006. Colapso. Por qué unas sociedades duran y otras desaparece. Barcelona: Debate.
NACIONES UNIDAS. 2015. Objetivos de desarrollo sostenible. URL: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/es/objetivos-de-desarrollo-sostenible/ (Consultado el 10 enero 2019).
SEN, A. 2000. Desarrollo y libertad. Barcelona: Planeta.
Transformations of work and knowledge management
ACKER, J. 1990. Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations. Gender and Society. 4(2): 139-158.
DRUCKER, P.F. (2002) The Discipline of Innovation, Harvard Business Review. August Issue.
KÖHLER D-A; MARTÍN ARTILES, A. (2003) Manual de la sociología del trabajoyde las relaciones laborales. Madrid: Delta Publicaciones Universitarias.
MCELROY, M. W. 2000. Integrating Complexity Theory, Knowledge Management, and Organizational Learning. Journal of Knowledge Management. 4(3): 195-203.
NONAKA, I. & von KROGH, G. 2009. Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory. Organization Science. 20(3): 635–652.
PORTER, M. 2008. The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review. January: 25-41.
SENNETT, R. (2012) El triángulo social. De cómo las relaciones sociales se resienten en el trabajo. A: Sennett, R. Juntos. Rituales, placeres y política de cooperación. Barcelona: Anagrama. pp. 210-253.
Globalisation and the knowledge economy
CASTELLS, M. 2003. La societat de la informació. Economia, societat i cultura (3 vols) Barcelona: UOC.
GEREFFI, G. 2014. Global value chains in a post-Washington Consensus world. Review of International Political Economy. 21(1): 9-37, DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2012.756414
HALL, P. & SOSKICE, D. (2001) Varieties of Capitalism.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
LORENZ, E. 2015. Work Organisation, Forms of Employee Learning and Labour Market Structure: Accounting for International Differences in Workplace Innovation. Journal of the Knowledge Economy. 6: 437–466.
LUNDVALL, B-A (2007) National Innovation Systems- Analytical Concept and Development Tool. Industry and Innovation, 14(1): 95-119.
SASSEN, S. (2012)Interactions of the technical and the social, Information, Communication and Society, 4: pp. 1-14.
SCHOLTE, J. A. 2018. Global Governance 2030. In: S. Mair, D. Dressner & L. Meyer. (orgs) Germany and the World in 2030. What Will Change. How We Must Act. Berlin: German Development Institute.
Social inequalities in the information society
FLORIDA, R. 2002. Bohemia and Economic Geography. Journal of Economy Geography. 2: 55-71.
LUENGO, F. 2016. Las raíces de la desigualdad. Sin Permiso, 25/08/2016. (accés obert)
MILANOVIC, B. 2016. Una 'tormenta perfecta' de desigualdad en el horizonte. Entrevista. Sin Permiso, 7/05/2016.
RAMBLA, X. (coord.); Mora, E.; Moreno, S.; Parella, S.; Tarabini, A.; Verger, A. 2008. Les fractures de l'estructura social. Barcelona: Servei de Publicacions de la UAB.
TORNS, T. & RECIO, C. 2012. Desigualdades de género en el mercado de Trabajo entre la continuidad y la transformación, Revista de Economía Crítica, 14: 178-202.