The Impact of Materials on Society
(SOCY 391 and PHYS 391)
Fall 2015
Tuesday // Thursday, 11:00am - 12:15pm, Oliver Hall 1024
Professor:
Dexian Ye, PhD
Department of Physics
701 West Grace St, Office 2104
E-mail: dye2@vcu.edu
Office Hours: W 9:00am-11:00am and by appt.
Professor:
Jesse Goldstein, PhD
Founders Hall, 827 West Franklin St, Office 205
E-mail: jgoldstein2@vcu.edu
Office Hours: W 3:00pm-5:00pm and by appt.
Teaching Asst:
Sean Doody
Founders Hall, 827 West Franklin St, Office 202
E-mail: doodyst@vcu.edu
Office Hours: Thursday 2-4pm
COURSE WEBSITE: http://rampages.us/materials
Course Overview:
This interdisciplinary course will offer a critical evaluation of material society. Your two
instructors for the course come from very different backgrounds. Dexian Ye is a material
scientist, and teaches in the physics department. Jesse Goldstein is an environmental
sociologist. Whereas Dexian’s work has to do with making materials, Jesse’s work is
largely focused on how those materials factor into complex social, economic, political
and environmental dynamics. We’ve designed this class to try and compliment one
another’s work – and the two of us hope to learn from one another along with all of our
students. Over the course of the semester, you will be introduced to a number of critical
materials that lay the foundations for our modern world. We will learn what makes them
unique, where they come from, and how they are used. Building upon this work, we will
then explore a “sociology of stuff.” In other words, we will focus our sociological
investigation on the ways in which specific materials, in specific ways, help shape social
relationships, and are in turn shaped by them. As you will see, this will connect our class
with interesting discussions in environmental sociology, consumer and cultural
sociology, and science and technology studies.
If you are entering into this class with little background in physical science – don’t be
alarmed. We are not expecting you to begin the class with any sophisticated knowledge
of chemistry or physics (or sociology!). This class is really meant to be an open and
generative conversation where any of us who are willing to put in the time and be open to
new ideas and new ways of thinking, can contribute and thrive.
Technology Policy
Unless you are told otherwise (by me) my general policy is to keep the classroom free
from devices. All of them. I will ask you to respect this rule - as I do it for the benefit of
our shared classroom experience. Not adhering to this rule will negatively affect your
class participation grade.
Readings:
All of the course readings will be available via the course website.
Assignments:
Class Participation (20 Points)
Class participation represents a substantial part of your grade for the term. While your
class participation grade takes a few things into consideration, it is ultimately a subjective
evaluation. Factors that will impact this score: do you regularly attend and pay attention
during class? Do you regularly contribute to class discussions? If you are shy in general
class discussion, do you contribute in other ways (in small group discussions, as an active
contributor to your research group, as an active contributor on the course blog)?
Be forewarned: If you miss more than 3 sessions over the course of the term, I reserve the
right to give you a 0 for this grade. Class participation starts to be counted after Aug. 26th.
Reading Response Quizzes (up to 30 points)
At our discretion, up to 6 times over the course of the term, we will begin class with a
free writing session where I ask you to briefly respond to one or two questions about the
reading. This will be a five minute (or less) exercise meant to both get everyone thinking
and ready for our course discussion, and to make sure that you are all doing the reading.
Each free writing assignment will be worth 5 points.
Photo Journal (60 points)
As this course is about materials in society – we want you to begin looking around you
and thinking about the materials that make up your world. For this assignment, you can
either choose one material and document all of the different places that you can find it, or
one technology, and then focus on the different materials that go into the technology’s
production.
So for instance, you might choose “windows” as your technology – and then take pictures
of a number of different windows, house windows, car windows, storm windows, etc. and
then as part of your analysis you will talk about why different windows are made out of
different materials.
Or you might choose a material – like copper – and then take pictures of a number of
different technologies that use copper like batteries and water pipes. In your analysis you
would focus on how the different properties of copper lend it to being used in each of
these different ways.
All together, you should take at least 5 original photographs. You will create a blog post
on the course site where these photos should eventually be stored, along with your essay
about the materials/technologies you’ve chosen. You will write between 500 and 1000
words about your photos, answering some combination of the following questions:
-What are the unique properties of the materials in question? What makes them best
suited for the applications you are documenting?
-What is the history of this material’s use? Has it been around for a long time? Or is it
relatively new?
-Where does this material come from? Is it scarce or abundant? What materials and
products go into its extraction and production? Are there important by-products of this
extraction and production process? What are some of the social and political issues
involved with its global production?
-Are there any health or environmental implications to the manufacture or use of these
materials and these technologies? If so, where – at the point of production, consumption,
or disposal?
-Are there better alternatives to the materials or technologies that you’ve chosen (be
creative here!) If so, explain what they are and why you think they are better.
While you may not answer all of these questions – make sure that you address material,
technological and social issues in some form or another. You will be graded as follows:
Photos: 10 points
Material analysis: 10 points
Technological analysis: 10 points
Social analysis: 20 points
Overall formatting, style and punctuality: 10 points
Please start to think about your photo essay as early as possible in this class. This
assignment is due in September!
Reflection Blog Posts (30 points)
Over the term, you will each sign-up to create two blog posts. For each blog post, you
will need to reflect on something happening in the world that relates to a theme from our
class. In your blog post, you will show us your sources and summarize any relevant
material, explaining how it relates to themes from our course.
We will discuss what makes for a good blog post in class — these should be engaging,
relatively brief, well referenced and illustrated (if possible), and written in an open-ended
fashion that invites constructive commenting. A good blog post will be anywhere from
500 to 1200 words and incorporate a few images, links or other media besides just text.
Writing these two posts is only part of the assignment. You will also be expected to
constructively comment on two posts written by other students, and to reply to comments
made on your post (when appropriate). We are interested in seeing a productive dialogue
emerging out of the analysis that our posts initiate. For comments, you need to contribute
something new to the discussion (you cannot just reiterate what has already been said).
This may mean finding a different commentary about the same issue and explaining how
it differs, or finding a different news article that also relates to the issues in the post (and
explaining the connections). Or if neither of these things, your comment might provide
additional background information that is relevant to the issues at hand, or a different
interpretation of the analysis your classmate presented.
Most importantly though, you will have to ask yourself: How can I engage without
coming across like a know-it-all? How can I help clarify important points or raise
interesting questions/implications? In other words, I want to see you constructively
engage in conversations with your peers.
This assignment is worth 30 points. We will divide the term into two halves, and you will
write one post and one comment in each. Each post is worth 10 points, each comment is
worth 5 points.
Digital Society Blog Post (40 points)
Towards the end of the semester we will be focusing on the politics of technology, and
specifically, the ways in which digital technologies are shaping our lives. We will be
asking you to work in small groups to find an interesting issue to analyze and share with
the class. For this assignment, your group will identify a current event or issue that is
somehow related to digital technology. You will then also find some critical
commentaries and analysis about this issue. This can include some popular commentary
from the internet – but you will also have to find academic work that is dealing with
some of the concepts related to your issue. Your blog post will include:
-A brief presentation of the issue you’ve chosen, along with a brief summary of
some of the key sociological issues that it raises.
-Some discussion of the materials related to this issue, and how they might help
shape our understanding of what is going on.
-Discussion questions that you want to pose to the class. We will be able to
discuss a number of these in class, and others we will discuss virtually, through our blog.
-A well formatted bibliography of recent critical scholarship that has to do with
your topic. Minimum of 10 citations. Up to 3 citations can be from materials science
literature, the rest need to be from critical social science sources.
In addition to this, each of you individually will be expected to comment on at least two
of the posts that your group did not create, and to reply to some of the comments made on
your group’s post. As with the other blog assignment, your comments will be graded
based on the substantive contribution that they make to the discussion at hand.
Summary and Analysis: 10 points
Discussion Questions: 5 points
Bibliography: 10 points
Overall formatting, style and punctuality: 5 points
Comments: 10 points
Final project: Poster Presentation (100 points)
Your final project for this class will be a professional poster that focuses on one
dimension of the impacts that materials have on society. We hope that you will be
interested in continuing to develop the material that you’ve begun to work on with your
photo journal – but it is not required that you do so. This poster is an opportunity for you
to reflect upon your own personal learning about the ways you see social sciences and
material sciences connecting. You will integrate what you’ve learned over the course
through a sustained analysis of one material or technology (for a description of the types
of questions you should be asking, review the description for the photo journal
assignment). Specifically though – your poster needs to address:
Material science: 20 points
Technological development: 20 points
Historical dimensions of the materials/technologies in question: 20 points
Social/Cultural/Environmental/Political dimensions of the materials/technologies in
question: 20 points
Overall presentation and punctuality: 20 points
Homework Assignments
Occasionally, we will assign homework to you based on the discussion of material or
technology in class. This will entail answering a few simple, mainly in the format of
multiple choices, or simple calculations to work with. You may also be assigned to watch
videos on selected topics and answer questions based on these videos. Each homework
assignment counts for 10 points. (Total points are to be determined.)
Class participation
This is a course that will require your active participation. That not only means regular
attendance, and completing assignments in a timely fashion, but also coming to class
ready and willing to participate. Your grade for class participation will be a reflection of
the energy and effort that you put into the class, as subjectively assessed by us. If you are
ever worried about your class participation grade, please feel free to email one of us.
Attendance Policy:
We expect you to attend class regularly, though we understand when other obligations get
in the way. Please let us know ahead of time if you are unable to make it to class. Missing
two or less class sessions won’t negatively affect your grade. Missing between 3 and 5
sessions is likely to drop your participation grade significantly. If you miss more than 5
sessions without talking to us prior, we reserve the right to fail you in the class.
Grading: DEX this is how I’ve done grading in the past – but it’s a bit complicated
and specific. We should talk about how we want to do this so we have one standard
to work with.
Each assignment is worth a different amount of points, but here is a general description of
the grading scale that I use. For a 20 point assignment just multiply this scale by two, for
a 30 point assignment multiply it by 3.
IMPORTANT: Though much of your work is going to be done in groups, you will still
receive an individual grade for group work.
3-4 points out of 10 = D
The assignment was handed in, most formal obligations met, but the work shows clear
conceptual gaps, flaws and or omissions. There is an overall lack of comprehension,
clarity and depth to the work. It is possible that this assignment is totally off-target or
basically just paraphrases material found on the internet, without adding much of one’s
own analysis or synthesis.
5-6 points out of 10 = C
The assignment was completed, all formal obligations met, but the work lacks depth,
clarity, and/or a demonstration of comprehension. Grasp of conceptual material and core
arguments is not clearly on display, and there may even be a few mis-interpretations of
key ideas. Research and preparation are either insufficient, or insufficiently integrated
into the final product, which does not display much original analysis or synthesis of the
ideas presented.
7-8 points out of 10 = B
The assignment was completed, all formal obligations met. The work shows a decent
grasp of core concepts and is clearly presented. The author(s) begin to develop their own
perspective on the material in question, and is/are able to articulate their ideas, and make
it clear that not only have they done a fair amount of research and preparation, but that
this work is on display in the final product.
9-10 out of 10 = A
Not only was the assignment completed, with all formal obligations met, but there is a
sophisticated engagement with core concepts that is clearly articulated. The author(s)
is/are able to demonstrate critical and creative insights through their work. To get an A,
the author(s) will show that they are able and willing to take risks with the assignment
and with their ideas – pushing themselves to draw their own informed conclusions and to
develop their own critical analyses, building off a nuanced understanding of the materials
we discuss in class, and the additional research they conduct.
Total points available: 350
A: 315 points or higher
B: 275 points or higher
C: 225 points or higher
D: 175 points or higher
IMPORTANT PEASE NOTE: If you got all “3’s” on your assignments (which I’ve
classified as “D” above - you would not get enough points to pass this course. In order to
pass you need to have a minimum average of “5” over all the assignments – which would
total 175 points). That means you cannot just get by with mediocre work and still pass
this class – at some point, on at least one or two assignments, you will have had to have
done at least average or above average work.
Technology Policy
Unless you are told otherwise (by us) our general policy is to keep the classroom free
from devices. All of them. We will ask you to respect this rule - as we do it for the benefit
of our shared classroom experience. Not adhering to this rule will negatively affect your
class participation grade.
Course Schedule
1a.) Thursday August 20 (First Class)
Introduction to journaling assignment
Introduction to reading response assignment
Introduction to the class
2a.) Tuesday August 25: Clay
Human-thing entanglement – Ian Hodder, Stanford University
“Intro” Stuff Matters.
2b.) Thursday August 27: Cellphones, Blood Minerals and E-Waste
Introduction to course blog and photo journal assignment
Minerals that Cause War (watch short video clips as well)
Nicole Aschoff. “The Smartphone Society” Jacobin #17
3a.) Tuesday Sept 1: Nanotechnology: impact vs production science
Kenneth Gould. “Impact vs Production Science and the Nanotechnology Treadmill of
Production.” Environmental Sociology.
3b.) Thursday Sept 3: Money and Precious Metals
John Browne. “Gold” Seven Elements.
Karl Marx. 1844 Manuscripts (excerpt)
4a.) Tuesday Sept 8: Iron and Concrete
“Concrete” Stuff Matters
John Browne. “Iron” Seven Elements.
4b.) Thursday Sept 10: Re-enforced Concrete
WORKSHOP DAY
5a.) Tuesday Sept 15: Glass
“Glass” Stuff Matters
John Browne. “Glass” Seven Elements.
5b.) Thursday Sept 17: The Built Environment: Suburbia
Reading TBD
6a.) Tuesday Sept 22- BIKE RACE
6b.) Thursday Sept 24 – BIKE RACE
7a.) Tuesday Sept 29: The Material Effects of Financial Crisis
Introduction to Poster Assignment
>>>DUE: Photo Essay Writeup<<<
Reading TBD
7b.) Thursday Oct 1: Greening the Built Environment
Brian Milani. Designing the Green Economy. Ch7
8a.) Tuesday Oct 6: Steel
Guest Lecture: Ibrahim Guiven
“Steel” Stuff Matters
8b.) Thursday Oct 8: Aluminum
8b.) Tuesday Oct 13: Disposability
Heather Rogers: Gone Tomorrow
9a.) Thursday Oct 15: Carbon
9b.) Tuesday Oct 20: FLEX
TBD
10a.) Thursday Oct 22: Climate Change
Ray Scanlon. “Learning how to die the Anthropocene” NYTimes
Bill McKibben. “???” Rolling Stone
Keep the oil in the soil (TBD)
10b.) Tuesday Oct 27: Plastic
Introduce digital society blog post assignment
Plastic. Intro, Ch1
11a.) Thursday Oct 29: Plastic and Petroleum
Plastic. Ch3
11b.) Tuesday Nov 3: Plastic and Environmental Health
Movie: The Human Experiment
Plastic. Ch4
12a.) Thursday Nov 5: Plastic, recycling and green alternatives
Plastic. Ch7, Ch8
Brian Milani. Designing the Green Economy (pp133-154)
12b.) Tuesday Nov 10: Semi-Conductors
John Browne. “Silicon” Seven Elements.
13a.) Thursday Nov 12: Digital Society
>>>Due: Digital Society Blog Posts Due<<<
In class: Student Presentations
13b.) Tuesday Nov 17: Nuclear Power
Readings TBD
14a.) Thursday Nov 19: Politics of Technology and Innovation
Readings TBD
14b.) Tuesday Nov 24: FLEX
TBD
15a.) Thursday Nov 26 – NO CLASS
15b.) Tuesday Dec 1: Poster Presentations
16a.) Thursday Dec 3 – Poster Presentations
>>>DUE: Final draft of poster and group self-evaluation survey<<<
16b.) Dec 7 - Dec 12: final exams week
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*Content Last updated July 2014