DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP in Fall 2023 (LW3087)

The course engages with the widely used but insufficiently theorized concept of digital citizenship. It aims at enabling students to not only critically analyze conceptions and practices of digital citizenship more effectively but also to develop and transform such practices themselves. The course starts off with a survey of political participation via new media and then delves into a discussion of whether we should delete our social media accounts. Following that, the course offers a historical introduction to the concept of citizenship that examines how understandings of citizenship have shifted in correspondence with altering social contexts. Next, the course examines the ever-changing technological, sociological, economic, and political aspects of digital society, with special emphasis on the shifting conceptions of citizenship that correspond to these transformations of society and politics. Finally, the course’s final part focuses on specific issues of digital citizenship, including clicktivism, digital ‘de-coupling’ or ‘detox,’ privacy, and freedom of expression.