STS.463J/11.461J Technocracy
Professor JS Light
Program in Science, Technology, and Society
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
E51-173, x2-2390, jslight@mit.edu
Mondays, 12:30-3:30, attendance required
This course surveys the history of efforts to apply scientific methods and technological
tools to solve social and political problems, with a focus on the United States since 1850.
Topics include: city planning, natural resource management, public education, economic
development, quantification and modeling in the social and policy sciences, technology
transfer, and political economies of expertise. Readings bridge science and technology
studies, urban and environmental studies, political science and public administration,
sociology, and US history. The class is organized as a reading seminar, based around
discussions and student presentations as detailed below.
By semester’s end, students will appreciate the broader context for MIT’s longstanding
mission applying scientific and technological expertise and innovations to serving the
nation and the world. Those who move on to academic scholarship will understand the
necessity of cross-disciplinary inquiry around this subject; those in professional fields
will understand how history can guide future practice.
Course Organization
Readings and discussions are organized around four two-week units, with flexibility for
student interests to shape course content in the final weeks of class. The first unit
supplies theoretical and historical context for our cross-disciplinary reading list. Units 2,
3, and 4 devote their first weeks to specific bodies of scientific or technical knowledge
and associated tools, and their second weeks to investigating the transfer of that
knowledge/those tools to novel settings.
Written Assignments, Oral Presentations, and Grading
Readings for each week consist of one required book, to be read by the entire class.
These are listed in bold on the syllabus.
Three times during the term, each student will write an in-depth book review, covering
the book assigned for that week as well as one additional book from the syllabus (books
listed but not in bold). You will sign up for these reviews in advance. On those weeks
when you write a review, present your work, 10-15 minutes, and then ask questions for
class discussion. The actual written review should be 1,000 – 1,500 words (3-4 double
spaced pages), and should be handed in the week following the presentation (so you can
incorporate comments from the discussion). These additional books are chosen to
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enhance the collective intelligence of the class on each of the weekly topics.
Read and write with the following questions in mind:
Who is the author?
What is his/her background (education, training, professional societies, etc.)?
What other work has the author done?
What is the book arguing against?
What is the book’s thesis/argument?
What evidence does the author use to support the argument?
What is the relationship between narrative and analysis in the book?
What is the significance of the work?
Is there a literature on this subject in other disciplines – and if so, to what extent does
the book engage it?
How might this book have been written differently to reach a broader audience?
What has the author done to insure his or her book will be read decades after its
publication?
You will be graded on: attendance, class preparation and participation, organization,
clarity and liveliness of presentation and writing. There is no final paper.
A note on books: This is a doctoral-level seminar, so it is expected that students will
borrow, purchase, or order the materials they need to do their work. Some of the
required books are at the Coop, though not everybody needs to purchase all of them,
and most, though not necessarily all, are on reserve at the MIT libraries. In the case of
the two books of mine I’ve assigned, I will be able to provide you with a free copy of at
least one.
Weekly Syllabus
[Required Reading in bold, plain type for review books]
September 14: Introduction and Course Overview
Presentation Signups
Unit I: Sociological and Historical Perspectives on Technocracy
September 21: Constructing Public Problems
Joseph Gusfield, The Culture of Public Problems
George Lakoff, Metaphors We Live By
Andrew Abott, The System of the Professions
September 28: The Road to Technocracy
Theodore Porter, Trust in Numbers
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James Beniger, The Control Revolution
Howard Segal, Technological Utopianism in American Culture
Unit II: Engineering Factories and Public Education in the Progressive Era
October 5: Engineering Factory Efficiency
Hugh Aitken, Scientific Management in Action
Andrea Tone, The Business of Benevolence
Ruth Oldenziel, Making Technology Masculine
October 13 –NOTE CLASS HELD ON TUESDAY: Making Education Efficient
Raymond Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency
Camilla Stivers, Bureau Men, Settlement Women
Martha Banta, Taylored Lives
Unit III: Conserving Natural and Urban Resources in the New Deal
October 19: Managing Natural Resources
Neil Maher, Nature’s New Deal
Philip Szelnick, The TVA and the Grassroots
Gregg Mitman, The State of Nature
October 26: Applying Ecological Models to Cities
Jennifer Light, The Nature of Cities
William Graebner, The Engineering of Consent
Donald Worster, The Dust Bowl
Brainstorm final weeks of class
Unit IV: Fighting Enemies and Poverty in the Cold War
November 2: Systems Engineering
Paul Edwards, The Closed World
Michael Latham, Modernization as Ideology
Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi, The Worlds of Herman Kahn
Decide on final weeks of class
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November 9: Engineering the Great Society
Jennifer Light, From Warfare to Welfare
Christopher Simpson, The Science of Coercion
Anna McCarthy, The Citizen Machine
November 16, November 23, November 30, TBA
Readings during the final 3 weeks of the course will be decided by the students in
consultation with the instructor. Here are some suggested subjects and specific
readings to stimulate your thinking. We could select one, more than one, or we could be
creative and come up with something entirely different:
1. Everyone picks a book/article(s) they’d like to read and reports on it to the class
2. Recent work: Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, Nudge; Jane McGonigal, Reality
is Broken
3. Patronage: Edward Berman, The Ideology of Philanthropy; Mark Solovey, Shaky
Foundations
4. Quantification and Modeling: Patricia Kline Cohen, A Calculating People; Hunter
Heyck, The Age of System
5. Classification: Margo Anderson, The Census; Geoffrey Bowker and Leigh Star,
Sorting things Out; Marc Berg, Rationalizing Medical Work
6. Primary sources: Robert Boguslaw, The New Utopians; Charles Haar, Between
the Idea and the Reality; Aaron Wildavsky, Speaking Truth to Power
7. Non-US examples: Timothy Mitchell, Rules of Experts; Eden Medina, Cybernetic
Revolutionaries; Ananya Roy, Poverty Capitalism
8. Specific fields such as social work, or specific technological tools: Andrew Polsky,
The Rise of the Therapeutic State; Roy Lubove, The Professional Altruist; Steven
Diner, Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School
9. Physical/Natural Science analogies in social science and social policy, Philip
Mirowski, Machine Dreams; Donald McKenzie, An Engine Not a Camera; Brent
Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter
10. Big picture books: James Scott, Seeing like a State; Alice O’Connor, Poverty
Knowledge; Graham, Toward a Planned Society
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