PS 545 FALL 2010

AMERICAN POLITICALTHOUGHT

MWF 1-1:50PM CB 201INTRODUCTION:

Are you a pirate?Do you avoid using Peer-to-Peer technologies for fear of a late night visit and a hefty fine from the RIAA?Why do we even have copyright anyway?PS 545 American Political Thought explores contemporary American political thought, its formation andthe ways in which it is involved in major problems of culture, political economy, ideology, community andidentity. This semester, we will be exploring these issues through the politics of copyright, patent law andDigital Rights Management (DRM). During the semester we will engage around several themes in order tohelp us better understand this area within American political theory, including:

•

Exploring the History of Intellectual Property, Copyright & Patent in American Political Thought

•

Understanding the Legal, Political, Cultural & Technological Dimensions of Sharing

•

DRM, DMCRA and Other Architectural Barriers to Peer Production and the construction of anintellectual commons

•

The Political Economy of Property and the Commons

•

The Future(s) of the Internet – why Net Neutrality and the Generative Internet are more importantthan you may realize

•

The Politics of DIY, Maker Culture and the Political Economy of Commons-Based PeerProductionMany of the issues we will discuss will involve some controversy, and will require you to approach themwith an open mind. The goal of this course is not to indoctrinate you or to force a set of beliefs aboutpolitics, economics and copyright/patent upon you. Quite the opposite – I want to help you to build thecritical political theoretical tools with which to engage this central issue in American political thought. Theresults are up to you. I hope you will join with us this semester in what I hope will prove to be anenlightening, engaging and provocative exploration of contemporary American political thought.Welcome to the course!

INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION:

Instructor:

Dr. Christopher S. Rice

Twitter:

@ricetopher

Office:

122 McVey Hall

Email:

christopher.rice@uky.edu

Office Hours:

By Appointment

Telephone:

859.948.5390

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Grades and Examinations:

Your final course grade will be based on

three (3)components

•

Class Preparation & Participation

–

30%

•

Working Journal – 30%

•

Term Paper – 40%

Course Readings

The following texts are required reading for this course:

•

James Boyle, The Public Domain. ISBN: 978-0-300-13740-8

•

Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture. ISBN: 978-0143034650.

•

Cory Doctorow, Content. ISBN: 978-1892391810

•

Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet. ISBN: 978-0300151244

•

Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks. ISBN: 978-0300125771

•

Cory Doctorow, Makers. ISBN: 978-0765312815 (pbk), 978-0765312792 (HC)All of the reading in this syllabus is

REQUIRED

. You should read all of the assigned material before theclass period for which it is assigned and be prepared to discuss it in class. All course texts are availableas free, Creative Commons-licenses PDF downloads, the links to which may be found on the coursewebsite. You are encouraged to download these texts and bring them to class on your computer, tablet,cellphone or other e-reader device. Since class time will be largely spent engaging with the assignedreading for the day, you must bring each day

s reading(s) to class period for which it is assigned.

Class Preparation & Participation:

Because this course is designed around acollaborative research and learning approach, attendance is absolutely necessary to your success, aswell as to that of the course. You will be expected to come to each class session having completed allreadings assigned for that class period and to have prepared a brief (approximately 1 page, bullet pointsoptional) set of key points for that day

s readings with a few questions or provocative points to guide ourday

s discussion. You must post this preparatory work to your working journal no later than 1 hour beforeeach class session. Furthermore, we will be using Twitter as a “backchannel” both during and outside ofclass. While you are not required to Tweet in this class, you are encouraged to bring your phones orlaptops to class and Tweet out comments or issues raised during the class. You are also encouraged toshare links that you find useful and are placing in your Working Journal, as well as brief reactions to thescheduled course readings, while outside of class. During the semester, please use the “#ps545” hashtagwhen Tweeting for class. Finally, you will be graded on the both the quantity and quality of your in-classcontributions to our exploration of the readings and other course materials. A rubric outlining how in-classparticipation will be graded will be posted on the course Blackboard site by August 30, 2010. In short, youshould come prepared every day to be an active discussant in the course, arguing for your ownperspectives on the course material, listening to the viewpoints and arguments of other class membersand then engaging with them and the instructor in an informed, thoughtful and considerate manner. Classpreparation & participation counts for 30% of your total course grade.

Working Journal:

One of the key tasks for any political theorist is to reflect upon and activelyengage with key texts in their chosen subject of study. For purposes of this class, you will need to keepan ongoing reading and research journal as the home for this informal engagement with the course texts,to be contributed to prior to (and in between) each class session. I expect good grammar and spelling, butI don

t wish you to obsess over such things – this is not to be written as a formal paper. Think of this as aspace to have a “conversation” with the texts and between them, drawing in insightful outside material aswarranted. You might find a few critical or provocative passages from the texts and quote these passageswhile critiquing their arguments or supporting them based on other readings, materials or classdiscussion. The platform we will be using for this assignment, Evernote (see below), makes it easy to pull

in articles or other digital artifacts from the Internet that will contribute to this conversation. Be creativewith your use of the journal, but be rigorous and thoughtful as well. It will be a key lifeline as you engagewith the major course topics and serve as your most valuable resource when preparing for class andconstructing your term paper.I will be checking your Working Journal each Sunday evening for the week

s entries, so you will need tostay up-to-date with your work on this assignment. Your class preparation sheets (see above) must beentered into this journal. This is your place to store links to websites, articles, data sources, pictures,videos, etc. that are relevant to our exploration of the major course topics. You will need to bring in atminimum one outside article or artifact per course session into your Journal that is relevant to the topic ofthat day

s reading(s) and annotate it accordingly. (I also recommend Tweeting these links out as you findthem to add to the class discussion). You should be certain to trace connections between the assignedreadings, our class discussions and articles/artifacts that you find online related to the theoretical focus ofthe readings we are engaged with in class at the time. You are required to start an Evernote account,create a notebook for the course and make it shareable with me (only) by August 30. You must then beginposting your journal entries, research materials and class preparation sheets to your shared Evernotenotebook by Monday, August 30, 2010. I will explain this requirement in full in class on August 25 & 27,and a rubric outlining grading criteria for the journal will be posted to the Blackboard site shortly thereafter.Your journal work will constitute 30% of your total course grade.

Term Paper:

The Term Paper is your opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the course readingsand subject matter, your ability to synthesize and critically engage with them, your ability to incorporatematerial related to the course topics and readings that you have collected and considered in your WorkingJournal, and also to creatively apply the knowledge and skills you gain during the semester in a novelfashion. The Term Paper must be 3500-4000 words and, in contrast to the Working Journal, follow thestyle of a formal paper. Furthermore, you must incorporate references to at least five (5) other sources,which you will have collected in your Journal.

The Term Paper must be completed, uploaded andplaced in the appropriate digital dropbox in our Blackboard site by 3pm, December 17, 2010.

Latepapers will NOT be accepted. The guiding question for the Term Paper, as well as more specifics for theassignment, will be posted to the Blackboard site by October 1, 2010. The Term Paper will constitute 40%of your course grade.

COURSE POLICIES:

Classroom Standards:

I expect all students to behave in a professional manner during classtime.

This means coming to class on time and being ready to start class at 1pm.

It is disrespectful tome and to your fellow students to come late and disrupt class, so be on time. I will not tolerate chronictardiness, and if you arrive to class more than 5 minutes late, you may be asked to turn around and leave.Also, unless you have obtained prior approval from me, you may not leave class early. Furthermore, I donot tolerate rude and disruptive classroom behavior. During class, refrain from engaging in non-relevantand distracting side-conversations, reading a newspaper, doing crosswords, sudoku or otherpuzzles/games, sleeping, non-course-related text messaging or similar cellphone use, or listening to youriPod or other .mp3 players.

Laptops and other internet access devices ARE STRONGLYENCOURAGED

in class for accessing your textbooks, taking notes and looking up material relevant tothat day

s work on the internet. Please do not abuse this privilege by using your Internet access device toFacebook, do email, shop online or play games. I reserve the right to dismiss from class any student inviolation of these policies.

Grading:

All course assignments will be graded on a 0-100 point scale. The grading scale for theexams and papers, as well as the final course grade for undergraduate students is as follows: A = 90-