STS @ ITU (2000-2006): Topics

The topic of the Second Semester Specialisation Program was “Building and Maintaining Life in Development Process” and the program offered the following courses in modules:

1. Module: Non -Western Modernities

(İştar Gözaydın and Christoph K.Neumann)

The concept of modernity; Agricultural and industrial revolutions, their impacts on the non-Western world: comparing the cases of Anatolia and Egypt; Constitutionalism, secularism, and nationalism: India and Turkey; the 19th century reforms of the education system; Reactions to the “new” science, technology and the law from the 19th century Ottoman perspective; Non-Western modernity: a gendered issue?; The emergence of the “modern” Turkish Republic, the European community and the legal systems of peripheral countries. 

2. Module: Technology Management & Innovation in the Newly-Industrialising Country Environment

(Hacer Ansal and Dilek Çetindamar-Sabancı University)

From Tradition to Modernity: a critical assessment of the ideas and ideologies associated with “development”, “modernisation” and “underdevelopment”; Technology and Late Industrialisation; Concept of Technology Follower Environment, Technology Transfer & Diffusion of Innovations, Building Indigenous Technological Capabilities; New Technologies: Opportunities & Threads, Innovative Cultures and Adaptive Organisations; Industrial Innovation, Size of Firm, Market Structure and Innovation; Building an Innovation Culture; National Organisational and Strategic Factors Associated with Success in Systems of Innovation.

3.Module: (Selective)

3.a) Environmental Issues in the Development Process

(Fatoş Germirli Babuna and Barbara Pusch)

Fundamentals of ecology; Population increase, food and hunger; Energy alternatives and the environment; Mineral resources; Impact of human activities on the environment; Global change and ecological crisis; Environmental sociology; Ecological risks and modern society; The environmental issue in developing countries; Environmental movements; Environmental ethics; Environmental law; Environmental politics.

3.b.) Social and Environmental Impact of Biotechnology

(Benan Dinçtürk, Fatoş Germirli Babuna, Fatma Artemis Karaali, Ayşe Gözen)

Applications of biotechnology in environmental pollution control; Application of biotechnology in food sciences; Genetically modified agricultural commodities; Genetically modified food ingredients, consumer concerns; Ethical discussion of gene cloning, human genome project, and gene therapy; Biotechnology and international law.

3.c.) Disasters, Science, Technology, and Society

(Engin Yıldırım-Sakarya University)

Concepts of reflexive modernization and risk society developed by Beck,Giddens and Lash; Major theoretical approaches in the field of disaster studies: technological determinism and vulnerability; Within this framework, disasters as a social phenomena, human attitudes and behaviour in the face of disasters, Interaction between, human, nature and society; Scientific and traditional mentality in the interpretation of disasters; Examining Chernobyl disaster, Lisbon and Marmara earthquakes as case studies.

3.d.) Housing, Technology, and Society

(Yıldız Sey, Şule Özüekren)

Interdisciplinism, housing, and social theory; Epistemological grounds of housing studies; What is a housing problem?; Political science and housing research; The convergence thesis in comparative housing research; Housing and comparative welfare research; Economics of the housing; Social structures and housing; The social construction of housing; Residence as a socio-spatial focus; Housing culture and technology; Historical perspective of housing development in western and non-western countries.