SOAN 012C. Tech, Money, Power: Critical Perspectives on Computing and Capitalism

(Cross-listed as CPSC 012)
This course interrogates digital technology by “following the money”: How are technologies designed to produce power and money - and for whom? How do hierarchies of race and gender contribute to exploitation in the tech industry? How do governments mitigate - or contribute to - the power of the tech industry? How are emerging technologies like AI harming workers, disrupting industries, and impacting the environment? Who is fighting back, and how?

This course explores examples from the history of computing, science and technology studies, and critical political economy. Your final project will “follow the money” for a technology of your choice, and imagine how it might be made otherwise.
Social sciences.
1 credit.
Eligible for Digital Humanities (DGHU), FMST
Fall 2025. Huber.
Catalog chapter: Sociology and Anthropology
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology

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