Digital Politics

POL SCI 191A-S1

Professor Davide Panagia
Bunche 4345
1265
davidepanagia@ucla.edu
Office Hours: M 1-3 pm

Spring 2015
Bunche
W 2-4:50 pm

Course Description
The Topic: This seminar explores the political theory of digital politics.
The Seminar: THIS IS A READING AND WRITING INTENSIVE COURSE.
A seminar is an experimental setting for the elaboration, discussion, and
critical engagement of ideas. Presumably, many of you have not yet had a
seminar experience, and this will be your first. Crucial to that experience is
preparation. This, because in the seminar you are expected to talk,
participate, and bounce ideas off one another. It will be the best time and
place to work out your thoughts on your assignments, and also to try out
what does and does not work. This implies that the seminar is a time and
space for potential creative flops as well as successes; and as we all know,
the potential for a failed experiment is part of university inquiry. We
should not be afraid of this, but should welcome experimentation with ideas
and creative explorations of insights and criticisms. This is what happens in
a seminar class.
The Challenge: The question we will pursue in our seminar is the
following: What is digital politics? And we begin with the idea that no one
has an answer to this question quite yet. The task of this class is for each
and every one of you to develop your own individual and researched political
theory answers to this question. But, also, to develop other questions that
arise alongside your political theory inquiries. For instance: What do we
mean when we say digital? Is this a tool (smartphones?), a time (21 st
century?), a place (the internet?)? Or all of the above? What does political
theory have to do with digital politics? Is there even such a thing as digital
politics? Nothing must be taken from granted, and the purpose of this
course is to begin from scratch. Hence our mantra that we do not yet have a
political theory answer to the question: What is digital politics?
All of the readings and the assignments are oriented to developing potential
answers to our seminar query. Hence the need for you to be fully prepared,
having done all the readings and all the assignments every week.
Grade Breakdown:

Digital Politics
POL SCI 191A-S1

Assignment 1: Detailed Outline of Final Essay= 10% (Due Week 4: April

22)
Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography of Final Essay = 10% (Due Week
6: May 6)
Assignment 3: First draft of Final Essay= 20% (Due Week 10: MAY 31 @
MIDNIGHT)
Assignment 4: Submission of Final Essay= 30% (Due Week 11, JUNE 10 TH
@ MIDNIGHT)
Participation = 30%

Assignments:
All of the assignments are pieces of a puzzle that will help you compose and
build your unique and individual research essay. That essay will explore and
provide a political theory answer to the question: What is digital politics?
1. Detailed Outline: A detailed outline involves the formulation of your
topic, and a an argument. It requires an introductory paragraph that
states the purpose of your essay (i.e., the topic), the argument you will
develop throughout (i.e., the thesis), and how you will develop it (i.e.,
the method). Keep in mind that this is a class in political theory, and
that we are interested in elaborating the political theory of digital
politics.
The outline will present a breakdown of your subsections, and a 250
word summary for each section on how you will develop the themes of
the section, and how that section ties into the overall argument of
your essay. The summaries must be written in complete sentences
with correct grammar and punctuation. If you cite a text, author, or
idea, that citation must be documented according to the Chicago
Manual of Style, as specified by the American Political Science
Association Style Manual available here:
http://www.apsanet.org/files/APSAStyleManual2006.pdf
Each of you are expected to present your Detailed Outline in class,
during class time, as part of your grade.
DUE DATE: April 22, 2015 During class.
2. Annotated Bibliography of Final Essay: An annotated bibliography
summarizes the central theme and scope of each source in a
bibliography.
You are required to provide at least FIVE (5) sources either book,
research article, www entry, or multi-media source. You are not
allowed more than 2 web entries, the others must be alternate media
sources.

Digital Politics
POL SCI 191A-S1

Each annotation should include:

CITATION: a complete citation for each work included, according to
the Chicago Manual of Style, as specified by the American Political
Science Association Style Manual.
SUMMARY: a sentence or two summarizing the authors main point.
EVALUATION: a) a statement about the type of source (e.g., a
scholarly research article, an editorial from a professional magazine, a
feature newspaper article, a chapter from a popular book, a U.S.
government website); b) a short evaluation of the authority of the
author to write about the topic, quality of the source, objectivity, etc.
YOUR NOTES: Your own thoughts on why this is relevant for you in
the context of your research paper, and how you will use this source.
Each of you are expected to present your Annotated Bibliography in
class, during class time, as part of your Participation Grade.
DUE DATE: May 6, 2015 During class.
3. First Draft of Final Essay: You will submit your first, rough draft of
your final essay paper (MAXIMUM LENGTH: 3500 words, including
notes). This version will be circulated for all classmates and myself to
read.
A rough draft does not mean notes or rambling thoughts. It means a
COMPLETE ESSAY with all the formalities (including grammar,
punctuation, citation references, etc.). Indeed, you should consider
this a finished and polished version. You submit this version in order
to get what, in the university research world, we call peer review
comments. These are comments by other readers in your field who
offer constructive criticism on how to improve your ideas, your
formulations, and your insights. For the purposes of this class, all of
your classmates are your peer reviewers, and you will submit your
work to our Moodle web site for EVERYONE to read and comment.
During Class time, we will discuss all the essays as part of your
Participation Grade.
DUE DATE: Sunday, MAY 31, 2015 @ MIDNIGHT (upload to our
class Moodle Site).
4. Submission of your Final Essay: After you receive comments and
criticisms from your classmates and myself, you will be expected to
judge which comments and criticisms you wish to address and revise
your essay accordingly.
DUE DATE: JUNE 10, 2015 @ MIDNIGHT (upload to our class
Moodle Site).
PLEASE NOTE:

Digital Politics
POL SCI 191A-S1

NO accommodations (save medical justification or OSD) will be made for

incompletions, late submissions, or absences.
Incompletions will receive an automatic grade of zero (0).
A late submissions will be docked one percentage point of your
assignment grade for every hour it is late.
Absences will be docked 10 percentage points of your participation
grade for each absence.
Plagiarism: Though plagiarism might be difficult given the nature of the
assignments, it is nonetheless NOT tolerated in this class. Please familiarize
yourself with the Universitys Code of Conduct on Academic Integrity
(http://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/StudentGuide.pdf), (as well as
www.library.ucla.edu/bruinsuccess) particularly as these relate to
plagiarism, which includes:

The submission of material authored by another person but

represented as the student's own work, whether that material is
paraphrased or copied verbatim or near verbatim form.
Improper or lack of acknowledgement of sources (including websites)
in essays or papers.
Best practice is to cite any outside material that you consult, even if
you do not use it verbatim or paraphrase.

Seminar Etiquette: Students are expected to attend all sessions, be

attentive, and be respectful during class sessions. As in all similar scenarios,
there are certain rules. Please adhere to the following policies:
You are expected to bring the weeks reading materials to class in
hard copy.
No use of computers or tablets during class sessions without
instructor consent.
No reading of materials unrelated to our class or prolonged private
conversations.
Just like in movie theaters, TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONES.
Avoid getting up during class sessions unless absolutely necessary.
This is not only disruptive but shows a lack of respect for me and
others in the class.
Please be on time for class.
Readings
Week 1: April 1, 2015
Introduction Video
Black Mirror - White Bear Episode
Week 2: April 8, 2015
Manuel Lima: Visualizing Complexity, pages 15-71.
Richard Grusin: Radical Mediation (Moodle).
John Guillory: Genesis of the Media Concept (Moodle).

Digital Politics
POL SCI 191A-S1

Week 3: April 15, 2015

Jonathan Sterne: MP3: The Meaning of a Format, pages 1-60.
Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command, pages 199-239.
Week 4: April 22, 2015
Assignment 1 is due in class.
Please make sure you bring copies of your work for everyone in the class,
including myself.
Week 5: April 29, 2015
Louise Amoore: The Politics of Possibility, pages 1-76.
Week 6: May 6, 2015
Assignment 2 is due in class.
Please make sure you bring copies of your work for everyone in the class,
including myself.
Week 7: May 13, 2015
Orit Halpern: Beautiful Data, pages 1-38; 199-238.
May 19, 2015, 4: 30 pm Special Event Data Episteme Workshop
with Davide Panagia, Orit Halpern, & Rita Raley. Royce Hall, 306.
Program in Experimental Critical Theory.
ALL WELCOME
Week 8: May 20, 2015
Rita Raley: Dataveillance and Countervailance (Moodle).
Roger Clarke: Information Technology and Dataveillance (Moodle).
Philip Agre: Surveillance and Capture (Moodle).
Haggerty & Ericson: The Surveillant Assemblage (Moodle).
Week 9: May 27, 2015
Grgoire Chamayou: A Theory of the Drone, 1-21, 153-229.
MAY 31, 2015 @ MIDNIGHT ASSIGNMENT 3 DUE
Week 10: June 3, 2015
Assignment 3 in class discussions.
Final essay due: JUNE 10, 2015 @ MIDNIGHT