Week 2 || Monday, September 11, 2023

Modality: In person || Room 5417

Topic: “The Public” and “The Commons” Who or what is the public? How does “public interest” change technology development

Readings:

• Dewey, John. “The Eclipse of the Public” and “The Search for Community” in The Public and its Problems. Athens, OH: Ohio UP, 1954. pp 110-184 (See PDF in Commons Group).
• Harney, Stefano and Fred Moten. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. Introduction by Jack Halberstam. New York, NY: Minor Compositions, 2013. pp 5 – 43. (PDF in Commons, also available at https://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/undercommons-web.pdf)
• From Environment and Society: A Reader section IV “Public Goods and Collective Action”: pages 199 – 266. Link to the digital book requires logging into your library account: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cunygc/detail.action?docID=4755946.
• Toomey, Jenny and Latanya Sweeney. “Building the Public Interest Technology Infrastructure of the Future.” Stanford Social Innovation Review. Apr. 11, 2022. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/building_the_public_interest_technology_infrastructure_of_the_future (PDF in Commons).

Writing:

Write a brief (500 – 1000 word) blog post describing your definition of “the public” and whether or not “the commons” is a tragedy, a solution, or a site for political and social contest. Due before class begins.