Digital Government 1: Information Technology and Democratic Politics, Winter 2009

Abstract:: Course is the first in a two-part sequence exploring contemporary practices, challenges, and opportunities at the intersection of information technology and democratic governance. Whereas the second course focuses on challenges and innovations in democratic administration, this first course focuses on theories and practices of democratic politics and the shifting role of information technologies in supporting, transforming, and understanding these. The first half of the course seeks to ground contemporary discussion around IT and politics in various flavors of democratic and political theory. The second half builds on this foundation to explore ways in which information and information technologies have come to support, constrain, and otherwise inflect a range of contemporary democratic practices.

No Strings Attached

Digital Government 2: Information Technology and Democratic Administration, Winter 2009

Abstract:: Course is the second of a two-part sequence exploring contemporary practices, challenges, and opportunities at the intersection of information technology and democratic governance. Whereas the first course (SI 532) focuses on tensions and innovations in democratic politics, this course takes on emerging directions in democratic administration and the shifting role of information technologies in supporting, transforming, and understanding these. The first part of the course sets contemporary discussions of digital or "E-government" against a richer backdrop of administrative, bureaucratic, and organizational theory. The second part of the course explores a range of cases in which emergent informational forms and practices have entered -- and in some cases, begun to alter -- the traditional art and practice of government Drawing on examples from local, state, federal, and international experience, students are encouraged to adopt a practical and appropriately critical take on the practice, problems, and possibilities for democratic administration in an increasingly IT-saturated age.

No Strings Attached

Abstract:: This seven-week course is the second in a two-part sequence exploring contemporary practices, challenges, and opportunities at the intersection of information technology and democratic governance. This second half of the course takes on emerging directions in democratic administration – and the shifting role of information technologies in supporting, transforming, and understanding these. The course locates recent and emerging digital or e-government initiatives in historical, institutional, and comparative context. Throughout, we will explore a range of local, national, and international cases in which new informational forms and practices have met with – and in some cases, begun to alter – the traditional art and practice of democratic administration.