[Themaintainers] readings for a 100-level course on maintenance?

[Juris Milestone]

Andy and Ann, et al,  You might have to dig for what you seek, but check out Dominic Boyer’s http://culturesofenergy.com  They have a nice collection of syllabi and the blog has lots of stuff too.


Juris Milestone
Department of Anthropology
Temple University
juris at temple.edu





> On Nov 20, 2017, at 7:22 AM, James Risk <james.r.risk at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Andrew,
> 
> For innovation, perhaps Jon Gertner, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, (New York: Peguin Books, 2013). Gertner also has a NY Times article "True Innovation" from February 25, 2012 that might be useful. It can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opinion/sunday/innovation-and-the-bell-labs-miracle.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opinion/sunday/innovation-and-the-bell-labs-miracle.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&>.
> 
> Best,
> 
> James
> 
> On Sun, Nov 19, 2017 at 8:15 PM, Andrew Russell <arussell at arussell.org <mailto:arussell at arussell.org>> wrote:
> Hi everyone -
> 
> Help!
> 
> In Spring 18 I’ll be teaching a 100-level course on Science, Technology, and Human Values, offered by my college's program in Interdisciplinary Studies.  We treat the course as a special topics course: in past semesters faculty have focused on themes of food & public health, but in Spring 18 I’m organizing the course around innovation and maintenance.  I’ll have no more than 24 students, maybe as few as a dozen, and I expect that all will be taking it because it satisfies a general education humanities requirement.  I’m guessing a good chunk of the students will be computer science majors. A small but significant detail is that courses on my campus are 4 credits, which means class runs twice weekly for 1 hour & 50 minutes.
> 
> My questions for you all have to do with readings, assignments, projects, and so on.  I’ve got some ideas, but I’m hoping you can help me with a few things.  My provisional semester outline starts by tracing some history of “innovation”; then turn to readings on maintenance (drawing heavily from the Maintainers conference papers); perhaps assign the book “Shop Class as Soulcraft”; and spend significant time on group projects that will be ethnographies of maintenance (inspired by Henke’s “Mechanics of Workplace Order").
> 
> Questions:
> 
> First, have you or anyone you know taught a course with these themes?  Clearly there are many STHV syllabi out there, and those are helpful, but it’s the innovation/maintenance angle where I need the most help.  I know there is a genre of “innovation studies” courses that I plan to explore, although I don’t have high expectations (to be honest).  I’d be curious to see syllabi recommended by this group.
> 
> Second, do you have any readings/materials (books, essays, movies, etc) that you would recommend?  In some ways I think a 100-level non-majors course could be trickier than a advanced undergrad seminar or graduate course, and I want to make sure the readings are engaging and the projects are meaningful.  Rigor is important, of course, but I’m not overly concerned with teaching theory or methods in any particular field.
> 
> I’ll be really happy to hear any suggestions, and I’ll share the syllabus once I’ve got it nailed down…
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Andy
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