Spring quarter 2008

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Week Ten (June 3 and June 5)

Community Inquiry paper due.

For Thursday, June 5:

The questions on this worksheet should be answered by Thursday, June 5. We will discuss the learning objectives in class that day to help prepare for self evaluations.

Each student has been assigned one of the learning objectives (listed on the syllabus) for this quarter.

• To gain increased knowledge of technological evolution and social change to understand opportunities and challenges (TIM)
• To gain a better appreciation, knowledge of pertinent lexicon, theories, issues, and ideas (CARL)
• To gain a better ability to decode and analyze media products (TIFFANY)
• To gain a better appreciation of techniques for presenting and framing messages (JOHNNY)
• To gain a better appreciation etc. of underlying social, technological, and other circumstances that affect the spectrum of possibilities (KIRSTEN)
• To gain a better appreciation of the tools available to the public to influence political decisions as well as learning about the barriers to political participation (SOPHO)
• To gain a better sense of ones' own power and social imagination for the future. Imagining futures leading to proactive, empowered citizens (CHAD, CRYSTAL)
• To gain a better understanding of the risks and responsibilities of a public point of view / orientation; to understand the citizen as actor not part of the audience (MATT)
• To gain increased knowledge of useful analytic tools and frameworks (EILEEN)
• To gain a better understanding and, hence, increased possibility for control, over technology (JAMES)
• To gain an increased understanding of the particular challenges of our era and the mechanisms that are now governing it (DAVIS)

Thinking about the films, plays, patterns, readings, Cornell box, conceptual frameworks, writing, concepts, vocabulary, discussions, presentations, and events that were related to the program, answer the following questions in relation to the learning objective you have been assigned. (You can also include your own independent work but this is secondary to shared program work). You should focus on spring quarter but you should also include other quarters if you were in the program for other quarters besides spring.

1. What did we do in the program to address this objective?
2. What did you personally learn in relation to this? List some of the most important or interesting things you learned.
3. Where would people go to do more research on this?
4. What concepts or ideas or organizations or events or historical periods of time or people would you like to follow up on?
5. How important is this objective in relation to the others? (choose one: one of the most important; one of the least important; about average importance)
6. How important is this objective to your life? (Rate 1 to 5, where 1 = "I don't think I'll ever think about it again" and 5 = "this has probably influenced the way I see the world and how I act in the world.")
7. How would / could you apply the knowledge gained from this learning objective?
8. What could have been done in the program in relation to this objective that wasn't done?

Week Nine (May 27 and May 29)

Political Engagement writeups

Guest speaker: Daniel Hannah, Reclaim the Media

Week Eight (May 20 and May 22)

Seminar ticket: Using your knowledge of Politics, Performance, and the Public (especially how the public — people and civil society — works to effect change) identify 1 -3 aspects of "real life" that seem to missing or inadequately represented in the functional model of civic intelligence. The way to do this is to recall or envision some "real life" social process that you feel promotes "civic intelligence" and determine where — if anywhere — in the model it would — or could — be presented. [Suggestion: use your research project or political engagement assignment for ideas.] Remember that the ovals are "roles" (generally people, organizations, institutions, or movements), rounded rectangles are "activities," and rectangles are "entities" (often data or other resources that are produced, used, or modified by the actions). Last, but not least, arrows represent "relations" which tie two objects in a SeeMe universe together. Relations include carries out, is used by, produces, influences, is followed by, belongs to, etc.

On Thursday we will get in groups to work out the details of the political engagement project. The write-up is due on Tuesday, May 27.

Week Seven (May 13 and May 15)

Please read patterns: Memory and Responsibility, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, and Transparency. Also skim one or more leaked documents on the Wikileaks site.

Week Six (May 6 and May 8)

Please read — or at least skim — by Thursday: Towards Civic Intelligence: Building a New Socio-Technological Infrastructure (1 page per page, 2 pages per page)

Seminar ticket — for May 13... How to improve the theory and/or practice of civic intelligence to make it more appealing and/or useful (If you don't finish the Civic Intelligence chapter by Thursday, read it thoroughly by Tuesday, May 13.) (There will probably be other readings for next week also...)

Week Five (April 29 and May 1)

Fifth week notices will go out this week. Please have everything turned in by Thursday, May 1. Please talk to me if you have excessive absences.

Read patterns: Alternative Media in Hostile Environments, Everyday Heroism

Also, since we will be viewing The Agronomist, if you can, please read America's Role in Haiti's Hunger Riots, Dying in Haiti, Haiti Travel Guide, other historical or other aspects of Haiti, or Haitian Radio — from Haiti or Brookyn.

Week Four (April 24)

Write seminar ticket: The setting in The Cure at Troy is a microcosm that is far removed from the rest of the world. At the same time, the "rest of the world" is present. Briefly discuss what the play might be like if the situation were contemporary. For example, who would be Odysseus? Philoctetes? Neoptolemus? What would Neoptolemus be trying to convince Philoctetes to do? What moral issues would be involved? What political issues? What personal issues? You have full license to be imaginative.

Week Three (April 15 and April 17)

Read:

• Bai, Matt. 2005, July 17. Framing Wars. New York Times.
• Lakoff, George. 2006. Simple Framing
• Strategic Framing (pattern)

Watch the Video:

• All the President's Men (within the last two months)

Read:

• Illegitimate Theater (pattern)
• Spiritual Activism (pattern)
• Tactical Media (pattern)
• Brueggemann, Walter. 2007, November. What Would Jesus Buy? Rev. Billy and his "Church of Stop Shopping" preach the gospel of love, anti-consumerism, and radical neighborliness. Sojourners.

There may be a seminar ticket. Watch this space:

Week Two (April 8)

Read:

• Community Inquiry (pattern)
• Community Networks (pattern)
• From Hull House to Paseo Boricua: The Theory and Practice of Community Inquiry, Bertram Bruce. (Note this might be tough going. Please work your way through all of it and at least get the gist of it.)

Write seminar ticket: What is community inquiry and how does it relate to politics and performance?

Respond. To help prepare for your research paper, address these requests — but keep in mind what you find interesting!

• List 3 or more movies, television shows, books, songs, etc. that reflect the program themes.
• List 3 or more social or environmental issues that you find compelling.
• List 3 or more cultural, economic or other social "forces" that are powerful in society today.
• List 3 or more psychological or sociological tendencies that people or groups have in our society today.
• List 3 questions that you might want to address that link together 2 or more of the items you listed above with your individual research project.

NO CLASS ON THURSDAY April 10

Week One (April 1 and 3)

For Thursday, April 3, read:

• Chapter One: Thinking about Social Change in America from Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam, and
• Six Degrees of Lois Weinberg by Malcolm Gladwell. January 11, 1999, New Yorker.

Bring answers to these requests to class on Thursday, April 3

(1) List 3 or more type of political events that you might like to attend as part of your political engagement project.

(2) List 2 or more upcoming political events in this region.