This week in LIS 201 (week 04)

Week 04: The postindustrial service economy

LECTURE ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

• Depression to deindustrialization

READINGS TO COMPLETE BEFORE DISCUSSION

• Isaac Asimov, “Visit to the World’s Fair of 2014,” New York Times(16 August 1964).
• Thomas J. Sugrue, "'The damning mark of false prosperities': The deindustrialization of Detroit," in The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (1996).
• Laurence Veysey, "A postmortem on Daniel Bell's postindustrialism," American Quarterly 34:1 (1982). 
• Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano [chapters 1-3] (1952).

HOMEWORK TO COMPLETE BEFORE DISCUSSION

• If it's your week to write a 500-word article critique, you must post this to your section blog before your section meets.
• If it's your week to give a speech, prepare and practice!  Otherwise, prepare for a possible extemporaneous speech response.
• Complete your peer reviews of your fellow students' paper #1 drafts, posted as comments on their pages of the discussion section wiki.

DISCUSSION MEETING

• First five minutes: QUIZ on reading terms
• Two student presentations (#5 and #6) on the readings (and two student extemporaneous responses).
• Discuss this week's lecture and required readings.

ONLINE OVER THE WEEKEND

This week you'll explore the Prelinger Archives, which contains thousands fantastic vintage educational and corporate promotional films, some of which deal with information and communication technology. Many of these films are in color with sound, and most are short (15 or 20 minutes).

• Search the Prelinger Archives for the most interesting vintage film for a 21st century class on the "information society" that you can.
• Please note: Within each discussion section, every student needs to find a different film to post! This means you need to see what's already been posted in your section to avoid duplication! (Students who do this assignment earlier might have an easier time of it.)
• Post a link to your film on your discussion section blog and make an argument about why this film is useful to students of our modern information infrastructure -- what can we learn from the film you found?
• Watch at least one of your fellow students' suggested films and post a comment with your reaction.
• You must finish this online activity before next week's lecture.