4Digital PoliticsPOL SCI 191A-S1Digital PoliticsPOL SCI 191A-S1

Professor Davide PanagiaSpring 2015Bunche 4345Bunche 1265davidepanagia@ucla.eduW 2-4:50 pmOffice Hours: M 1-3 pm

Course Description

The Topic: This seminar explores the political theory of digital politics.

The Seminar: THIS IS A READING AND WRITING INTENSIVE COURSE.

A seminar is an experimental setting for the elaboration, discussion, and critical engagement of ideas. Presumably, many of you have not yet had a seminar experience, and this will be your first. Crucial to that experience is preparation. This, because in the seminar you are expected to talk, participate, and bounce ideas off one another. It will be the best time and place to work out your thoughts on your assignments, and also to try out what does and does not work. This implies that the seminar is a time and space for potential creative flops as well as successes; and as we all know, the potential for a failed experiment is part of university inquiry. We should not be afraid of this, but should welcome experimentation with ideas and creative explorations of insights and criticisms. This is what happens in a seminar class.

The Challenge: The question we will pursue in our seminar is the following: What is digital politics? And we begin with the idea that no one has an answer to this question quite yet. The task of this class is for each and every one of you to develop your own individual and researched political theory answers to this question. But, also, to develop other questions that arise alongside your political theory inquiries. For instance: What do we mean when we say digital? Is this a tool (smartphones?), a time (21st century?), a place (the internet?)? Or all of the above? What does political theory have to do with digital politics? Is there even such a thing as digital politics? Nothing must be taken from granted, and the purpose of this course is to begin from scratch. Hence our mantra that we do not yet have a political theory answer to the question: What is digital politics?

All of the readings and the assignments are oriented to developing potential answers to our seminar query. Hence the need for you to be fully prepared, having done all the readings and all the assignments every week.

Grade Breakdown:

Assignment 1: Detailed Outline of Final Essay= 10% (Due Week 4: April 22)Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography of Final Essay = 10% (Due Week 6: May 6)Assignment 3: First draft of Final Essay= 20% (Due Week 10: MAY 31 @ MIDNIGHT)Assignment 4: Submission of Final Essay= 30% (Due Week 11, JUNE 10TH @ MIDNIGHT)Participation = 30%

Assignments:

All of the assignments are pieces of a puzzle that will help you compose and build your unique and individual research essay. That essay will explore and provide a political theory answer to the question: What is digital politics?

1. Detailed Outline: A detailed outline involves the formulation of your topic, and a an argument. It requires an introductory paragraph that states the purpose of your essay (i.e., the topic), the argument you will develop throughout (i.e., the thesis), and how you will develop it (i.e., the method). Keep in mind that this is a class in political theory, and that we are interested in elaborating the political theory of digital politics.

The outline will present a breakdown of your subsections, and a 250 word summary for each section on how you will develop the themes of the section, and how that section ties into the overall argument of your essay. The summaries must be written in complete sentences with correct grammar and punctuation. If you cite a text, author, or idea, that citation must be documented according to the Chicago Manual of Style, as specified by the American Political Science Association Style Manual available here: http://www.apsanet.org/files/APSAStyleManual2006.pdf

Each of you are expected to present your Detailed Outline in class, during class time, as part of your grade.DUE DATE: April 22, 2015 During class.

2. Annotated Bibliography of Final Essay: An annotated bibliography summarizes the central theme and scope of each source in a bibliography.

You are required to provide at least FIVE (5) sources either book, research article, www entry, or multi-media source. You are not allowed more than 2 web entries, the others must be alternate media sources.

Each annotation should include:

CITATION: a complete citation for each work included, according to the Chicago Manual of Style, as specified by the American Political Science Association Style Manual.SUMMARY: a sentence or two summarizing the authors main point. EVALUATION: a) a statement about the type of source (e.g., a scholarly research article, an editorial from a professional magazine, a feature newspaper article, a chapter from a popular book, a U.S. government website); b) a short evaluation of the authority of the author to write about the topic, quality of the source, objectivity, etc. YOUR NOTES: Your own thoughts on why this is relevant for you in the context of your research paper, and how you will use this source.

Each of you are expected to present your Annotated Bibliography in class, during class time, as part of your Participation Grade.DUE DATE: May 6, 2015 During class.

3. First Draft of Final Essay: You will submit your first, rough draft of your final essay paper (MAXIMUM LENGTH: 3500 words, including notes). This version will be circulated for all classmates and myself to read.

A rough draft does not mean notes or rambling thoughts. It means a COMPLETE ESSAY with all the formalities (including grammar, punctuation, citation references, etc.). Indeed, you should consider this a finished and polished version. You submit this version in order to get what, in the university research world, we call peer review comments. These are comments by other readers in your field who offer constructive criticism on how to improve your ideas, your formulations, and your insights. For the purposes of this class, all of your classmates are your peer reviewers, and you will submit your work to our Moodle web site for EVERYONE to read and comment.

During Class time, we will discuss all the essays as part of your Participation Grade.DUE DATE: Sunday, MAY 31, 2015 @ MIDNIGHT (upload to our class Moodle Site).

4. Submission of your Final Essay: After you receive comments and criticisms from your classmates and myself, you will be expected to judge which comments and criticisms you wish to address and revise your essay accordingly.

DUE DATE: JUNE 10, 2015 @ MIDNIGHT (upload to our class Moodle Site).

PLEASE NOTE:

NO accommodations (save medical justification or OSD) will be made for incompletions, late submissions, or absences. Incompletions will receive an automatic grade of zero (0). A late submissions will be docked one percentage point of your assignment grade for every hour it is late. Absences will be docked 10 percentage points of your participation grade for each absence.

Plagiarism: Though plagiarism might be difficult given the nature of the assignments, it is nonetheless NOT tolerated in this class. Please familiarize yourself with the Universitys Code of Conduct on Academic Integrity (http://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/StudentGuide.pdf), (as well as www.library.ucla.edu/bruinsuccess) particularly as these relate to plagiarism, which includes:

The submission of material authored by another person but represented as the student's own work, whether that material is paraphrased or copied verbatim or near verbatim form. Improper or lack of acknowledgement of sources (including websites) in essays or papers. Best practice is to cite any outside material that you consult, even if you do not use it verbatim or paraphrase.

Seminar Etiquette: Students are expected to attend all sessions, be attentive, and be respectful during class sessions. As in all similar scenarios, there are certain rules. Please adhere to the following policies: You are expected to bring the weeks reading materials to class in hard copy. No use of computers or tablets during class sessions without instructor consent. No reading of materials unrelated to our class or prolonged private conversations. Just like in movie theaters, TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONES. Avoid getting up during class sessions unless absolutely necessary. This is not only disruptive but shows a lack of respect for me and others in the class. Please be on time for class.

Readings

Week 1: April 1, 2015Introduction VideoBlack Mirror - White Bear Episode

Week 2: April 8, 2015Manuel Lima: Visualizing Complexity, pages 15-71.Richard Grusin: Radical Mediation (Moodle).John Guillory: Genesis of the Media Concept (Moodle).

Week 3: April 15, 2015Jonathan Sterne: MP3: The Meaning of a Format, pages 1-60.Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command, pages 199-239.

Week 4: April 22, 2015Assignment 1 is due in class.Please make sure you bring copies of your work for everyone in the class, including myself.

Week 5: April 29, 2015Louise Amoore: The Politics of Possibility, pages 1-76.

Week 6: May 6, 2015Assignment 2 is due in class.Please make sure you bring copies of your work for everyone in the class, including myself.

Week 7: May 13, 2015Orit Halpern: Beautiful Data, pages 1-38; 199-238.

May 19, 2015, 4: 30 pm Special Event Data Episteme Workshop with Davide Panagia, Orit Halpern, & Rita Raley. Royce Hall, 306. Program in Experimental Critical Theory.ALL WELCOME

Week 8: May 20, 2015Rita Raley: Dataveillance and Countervailance (Moodle).Roger Clarke: Information Technology and Dataveillance (Moodle).Philip Agre: Surveillance and Capture (Moodle).Haggerty & Ericson: The Surveillant Assemblage (Moodle).

Week 9: May 27, 2015Grgoire Chamayou: A Theory of the Drone, 1-21, 153-229.

MAY 31, 2015 @ MIDNIGHT ASSIGNMENT 3 DUE

Week 10: June 3, 2015Assignment 3 in class discussions.

Final essay due: JUNE 10, 2015 @ MIDNIGHT