This course will explore how changes in technology, economy, ecology, culture, and other factors shape how individual lives and social relations tend to unfold. Much of the research and theory that social scientists have produced on the “life course” has focused on how historical events and trends, such as war, economic depression, and trends in family-life have re-shaped life transitions and aging. Those latter changes in turn lead to broad social changes that influence subsequent generations in new ways. In this course we will not be solely concerned with changes in and from the past. We will also keep an eye on the future, and ask how technological changes related to bodies, such as genetic engineering and bioelectric implants, might alter the trajectory of lives and social relations of future generations.
This course will explore how changes in technology, economy, ecology, culture, and other factors shape how individual lives and social relations tend to unfold. Much of the research and theory that social scientists have produced on the “life course” has focused on how historical events and trends, such as war, economic depression, and trends in family-life have re-shaped life transitions and aging. Those latter changes in turn lead to broad social changes that influence subsequent generations in new ways. In this course we will not be solely concerned with changes in and from the past. We will also keep an eye on the future, and ask how technological changes related to bodies, such as genetic engineering and bioelectric implants, might alter the trajectory of lives and social relations of future generations.
