LIS
867/767
Fall
2003
Political
Economy of Information
Instructor: Dr. Samuel E. Trosow
Time & Place Tuesday 1:30-4:20. MC 260
Office Hours: MC 275D: Mon & Tues 11-12
27 Law Building: Thurs 11-12
and by appt
Telephone: 661-2111
x88498 (FIMS) and x82282 (Law)
Email: strosow@uwo.ca
Description: This course gives a graduate-level introduction to the political
economy perspective on library and information science. It examines the
intersections between social relations of power and wealth and changing means
of communication. The emphasis is on theory and broad historical overview. The
course treats policy in the broadest sense, as a regime of power and control of
the social processes of communication, and the production, organization,
distribution, and use of information.
·
Vincent
Mosco, The Political Economy of
Communication: Rethinking and Renewal. (
· Nick Dyer-Witheford, Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism (Urbana: University of Illinois, 1999).
· Michael Perelman, Steal This Idea: Intellectual Property Rights and the Corporate Confiscation of Creativity. NY: Palgrave, 2002).
· Samuel Trosow, Information for Society: Towards a Critical Theory of Intellectual Property Policy (selected portions tba)
· Additional readings as noted below and tba
·
[doctoral students]
Individualized supplemental reading list to be assembled in consultation with
instructor
Week 1 September 9: Course Introduction
Week 2 September 16: Metatheoretical Issues & Introduction to Political Economy
Gibson Burrell & Gareth Morgan, Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis (Portsmouth NH, 1979) (Introduction & Chapters 1-3)
Mosco, Chapters 1-3.
Week 3 September 23
Mosco, Chapter 4
Marx, Capital (volume 1, chapter 1)
Dan Schiller, The Information Commodity: A Preliminary View. (pp.
103-120) in Davis, Jim, Thomas A. Hirschl and Michael Stack [Eds.] Cutting Edge: Technology, Information,
Capitalism, and Social Revolution, (NY: Verso, 1997)
Week 4 September 30
Mosco, Chapters 5 &
6
Week 5 October 7
Mosco, Chapter 7
Doug Kellner, “Overcoming the Divide: Cultural Studies and Political
Economy,” (pp. 102-120) in Marjorie Ferguson and Peter Golding [Eds.], Cultural Studies in Question. (Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997)
Week 6 October 14
Dyer-Witheford, Chapters 1-3
Trosow, Chapter 1
Week 7 October 21
Dyer-Witheford, Chapters 4-6
Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Capitalism in the Computer Age,” (pp 57-71) in
Davis, et. al., Cutting Edge.
Martin Kenney, “Value Creation in the Late Twentieth Cewntury: The
Rise of the Knowledge Worker,” (pp 87-102) in Davis, et. al., Cutting Edge.
Week 8 October 28
Dyer-Witheford, Chapters 7-9
Marx, Grundrisse 699-743
Week 9 November 4
Perelman, Introduction, Chapters 1-4
Trosow, Chapter 2
Week 10 November 11
Perelman, Chapters 5-6, Conclusion
Trosow,
Chapters 4-5
Week 11 November 18: Political Economy and Librarianship
Herbert I. Schiller, “For
Roma Harris, “Information for
Michael H. Harris, “State, Class and Cultural Reproduction: Towards
a Theory of Library Service in the
Week 12 November 25: International Issues: WTO-TRIPS and Information Goods
Week 13 December 2: International Issues: WTO-GATS and Information Services
Week 14 December 9
Conclusions.
Final
paper due.
Evaluation:
1) 30% For weeks 2 through 11: Prepared weekly
responses to the readings; may include substantial questions about or comment
on some aspect of the weekly readings (including, for the Ph.D. students your supplemental
readings) that intrigues, puzzles or concerns you. (app 3-4 pages each week for
Ph.D. students, app. 1-2 pages for MLS students). E-mail to class list, no
later than 9 pm the evening before the readings are to be discussed. These
responses will help organize the class discussion.
2) 20 % Paper plan—mid term. A working outline of your proposed final paper, indicating its topic, thesis, problem statenent and anticipated difficulties, with a working bibliography. To be submitted to class by October 28th (week 8) and presented and discussed in class weeks 8, or 9. (Half for the written submission, half for the presentation, app. 20 minutes)
3) 40 % Final paper. Approx 25-35 pages for Ph.D. students, (20-25 for MLS students) on a topic of your choice relevant to course themes and selected in consultation with instructor. Due in final seminar. Marked for literacy, organization, argument, originality, and quality of research.
4) 10% Participation. For intelligent, constructive participation in seminar discussions.
Late assignments will not be accepted absent compelling cause. (i.e. (a) Documented medical reasons; (b) Documented extenuating personal circumstances; (c) Religious holidays, as per UWO calendar.) It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of assignments to protect against loss. Plagiarism-the unacknowledged use of other people's ideas-is a serious offence, and will be dealt with according to the established UWO procedures detailed in the Academic calendar.
Davis, Jim, Thomas A.
Hirschl & Michael Stack (eds.).
Cutting Edge: Technology, Information, Capitalism and Social Revolution,
(New York: Verso, 1997). QA76.9.C66C88 1997
De La Haye, Yves. Marx and Engels on the Means of Communication. (New York: IMRC, 1979). HE131.M37 1980
Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of
Political Economy, (volume 1). [Introduced by Ernest Mandel; translated by Ben Fowkes]. (New York: Vintage Books, 1977). HB97.5.A43 1977 v.1
Marx, Karl, Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Eeconomy. [Translated with a foreword by Martin Nicolaus]. (New York: Random House, 1973) HB97.5.M3313 1973
Mosco, Vincent. The Political Economy of Communication: Rethinking and Renewal.
Mosco, Vincent & Janet Wasko (eds.) Political Economy of Information (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988). P91.P62
Trosow, Samuel. Information for Society: Towards a Critical Theory of Intellectual Property Policy (unpublished dissertation).
Note to Ph.D.
students--The following items from the IPPI reading list may be relevant to LIS
867:
Babe,
Robert E. Communication and the transformation of economics : essays in
information, public policy, and political economy.
Bell,
Daniel. The Coming of the Post-Industrial
Society.
Bettig,
Ronald V. Copyrighting Culture: The Political Economy of Intellectual Property.
Boyle,
James. Shamans, Software and Spleen: Law
and the Construction of the Information Society.
Branscomb,
Anne Wells. Who Owns Information?: From
Privacy to Public Access.
Braverman, Harry. Labor And Monopoly Capital: The Degredation of Work in the Twentieth
Century.
De La Haye, Yves. Marx and Engels on the Means of Communication.
Dorland, Michael (ed.). The
Cultural Industries in
Dyer-Witheford, Nick. Cyber-Marx:
Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism.
Gandy, Oscar H., Jr. The
Panoptic Sort: A Political Economy of Personal Information.
Harris, Michael H., Stan A. Hannah, and Pamela C. Harris. Into the Future : the Foundation of Library
and Information Services in the Post‑industrial Era, second edition.
Harris, Roma M. Librarianship:
The Erosion of a Woman's Profession.
Kenney, Martin. AValue Creation in the Late Twentieth Century: The Rise of the
Knowledge Worker.@ In Jim Davis, Thomas A. Hirschl and Michael
Stack (eds.). Cutting Edge: Technology,
Information, Capitalism and Social Revolution,
McChesney, Robert W. "Media Convergence and
Globalisation." In Daya Kishan
Thussu, ed., Electronic Empires: Global
Media and Local Resistance, pp. 27‑46.
Mosco, Vincent. The Political Economy of Communication: Rethinking and Renewal.
Murdock, Graham and Peter Golding, AInformation Poverty and Political Inequality:
Citizenship in the Age of Privatized Communications.@ Journal
of Communication 39.3 (1989): 180‑195.
Robins, Kevin, and Frank
Webster. "Cybernetic Capitalism:
Information, Technology, Everyday Life."
In Vincent Mosco and Janet Wasko, eds., The Political Economy of Information.
Schiller, Dan. "The
Information Commodity: A Preliminary View." in Jim Davis, Thomas A.
Hirschl and Michael Stack (eds.). Cutting
Edge: Technology, Information, Capitalism and Social Revolution,