Universidade Nova de Lisboa

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Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Science, Technology and Society

Code

10358

Academic unit

Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Department

Departamento de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas

Credits

3.0

Teacher in charge

Maria Paula Pires dos Santos Diogo

Weekly hours

6

Total hours

72

Teaching language

Português

Objectives

This course aims at:

* (i) leading students to ask themselves crucial questions on the nature of the relationship between science, technology and society;

* (ii) leading students to think about their future work as engineers and about their rights and duties as citizens;

* (iii) increasing the students’ capacity of decision and adjustment in a changing world.

 

(i) specific capabilities to be developed:

* to understand the structure of technoscientific knowledge and its relations with social, economic, and cultural contexts;

* to master the fundamental concepts for the analysis of the interrelationship between science, technology and society.

 (ii) general capabilities to be implemented:

* to understand the dynamics of the relationship between science, technology and society;

* to build a critical memory on the role of science and technology in European society;
* to develop a sense of ethics and social responsibility;
*  to relate professional practice with the with active citizenship.

Subject matter

 

  1. Risk, Safety, Responsibility and Accountability: risk society and modern ethics. Ethics, social responsibility and citizenship
  2. Science, Technology and Gender: women in science and technology; gender issues in the construction of scientific discourse.
  3. Sustainability Networks - Environment and Society: intersections between political/economic decisions, scientific and technical expertise and environmental issues.
  4. War and Peace: Einstein, Bohr and Oppenheimer: models of contemporary techno-scientific research and social responsibility.
  5. The Bio and Nano Future: landmarks and ethical debates.
  6. And Man Created Cyborg: science, technology and pop culture; fears and distrust; the thin line between human and nonhuman.
  7. Making Modernity Visible. Science, Technology and Cinema: film narrative and technoscience.
  8. The Information Society.and the experience of contemporaneity

Bibliography

Allhoff, F.et al (eds.), Nanoethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology, Willey, Hoboken, , 2007.

Brodwin, P.E. (ed.), Biotechnology and Culture: Bodies, Anxieties, Ethics, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2000.

Carson, R., Silent Spring, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962.

Castells, M., Rise of The Network Society, Londres, Blackwell Editors, 1996.

Collins, H., Pinch, T., The Golem at Large, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Irwin, A., Sociology and the Environment, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2001.

Jonas, H., The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1984.

Evetts, J., Gender and Career in Science and Engineering, Londres, Taylor and Francis, 1996.

Malartre, E., Benford, G., Beyond Human: Living with Robots and Cyborgs, Nova Iorque, Forge Books/Macmillan, 2007.

Goodchild, P., J. Robert Oppenheimer, Shatterer of Worlds,  Nova Iorque, Fromm Int. Publishing Corporation, 1980.

Teaching method


Each session lasts three-hours (theory and practice).The contents of the program are presented by the teacher and supported by slides, technical texts, literature, and films covering the topics outlined in the syllabus.

The fouth hour of each session is for independent work to be developed by the student based on the CTS course site.

Students are encouraged to have a critical posture concerning the topics of the program.

Evaluation method

The course is evaluated by:

1. 2 miniquizzes per session on complementary information that will be available at the CTS site (25%); 

2. 2 quizzes on selected audo-visual material (20%);

3. one test on the contents of the syllabus. This test will have 8 groups of questions, from which students will answer to 6. In order to be admitted to the test students must have frequência (55%)

Participation in the debates that take place during the sessions will be taken into account.

In order to have frequência students must: (1) be present in 3/4 of the sessions; answer to 3/4 of the miniquizzes; (3) answer to one of the quizzes on selected audio-visual material.

The test aims at assessing if students master the contents of the syllabus; the quizzes aim at assessing if students are able to use what they learned in classes in different learning environments and in an autonomous way.

 

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