Digital technology and social change In the epilogue to Twitter and Tear Gas, Zeynep Tufekci sums up her thinking about technology and social change in this way:  Attached files are previous works for reference

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Digital technology and social change
In the epilogue to Twitter and Tear Gas, Zeynep Tufekci sums up her thinking about technology and social change in this way:

Attached files are previous works for reference

One key lesson from the past is that our familiarity with a new and rapidly spreading technologies is often superficial, and the full ramifications of these technologies are far from worked out. Another lesson is that what appears to empower one group can also empower its adversaries, and introduce novel twists to many dynamics.

Historian Melvin Kranzberg’s famous dictum holds true: “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.” Neither are technology’s effects static; everything evolves as people invent, innovate, and appropriate technologies for their purposes. This dynamism does not mean that technology provides a level playing field, where each side is equally empowered and equally able to appropriate technologies for its purposes. Not only social forces determine the transformation—features and characteristics of technologies are relevant and these affordances are sometimes beyond the control of these technologies’ designers. Any analysis must necessarily embrace this complexity and try to avoid the false dichotomies: optimists versus pessimists; utopians versus dystopians; humans versus technology. I am not arguing for some sort of “technological centrism,” but simply for understanding the complex and at times contradictory relationship between different effects of digital technologies. (p. 263)

For your final memo, again choose a digital platform, app, or other contemporary technology that people use collectively and socially in some way. This time, in a 500-600 word memo, analyze the big-picture, macro-level social changes that might be associated with the adoption of that technology.

Think broadly and sociologically about your topic—explain the changes we’ve seen already, and then predict how this technology and society might develop together in the future. Describe the collective groups that might be transformed by adopting this technology— communities, social movements, political campaigns, government agencies, or private corporations. Give particular attention to the role of data and information in social change.

Be sure to think through change as a complex, dynamic, and dialectical process. If everyone adopts this technology, then what? How might different actors innovate or adapt, and how might others respond?

Finally, think back to the beginning of this course. Reflect on how your own thinking about the relationship between technology and society has changed. Draw on (and cite!) any concepts and examples from the class and the readings that are helpful to you in making your own arguments about social and technological change.

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Getting to Work

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“Getting to Work” with Reasonable Accommodation Jeanette Colwell was hired as a part-time retail clerk at a Rite Aid store in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. She worked various shifts, including 5 pm to 9 pm, and she earned supervisors’ recognition for good performance. A few months after being hired, Colwell was diagnosed with “retinal vein occlusion and glaucoma in her left eye,” and eventually she became blind in that eye. Colwell informed her supervisor, Susan Chapman, that her partial blindness made it dangerous and difficult for her to drive to work at night. She asked to be assigned to day shifts only so that she would be able to get to work. (Bus service stopped at 6 pm, and there were no taxis serving the area where the store was located.) Chapman refused the request because it “wouldn’t be fair” to other workers, and she continued to schedule Colwell for a mix of day and evening shifts. Colwell later sent Chapman a doctor’s note recommending that Colwell not drive at night, but Chapman was still unwilling to assign Colwell to day shifts only. Colwell resigned and brought an ADA claim against Rite Aid. The federal trial court ruled that Rite Aid had no duty to accommodate Colwell because she was able to perform all her work duties at the store; Colwell appealed. Questions 1. Is Colwell an “individual with a disability” under the ADA? Explain. 2. How should Chapman have responded to Colwell’s request? Explain. 3. A part-time retail clerk who is unable to drive because he is “legally blind” requests a late arrival to his shift due to a long bus commute. The store manager refuses his request, and subsequently terminates him for being late to work on a number of occasions. The clerk brings an ADA claim against his former employer. Decide. Explain.

Instructions Project: Selecting the Appropriate Hazardous Waste Treatment Technology This project will give you an appreciation of the challenges of selecting a hazardous waste treatment technology. Decisions are dependent on having a set of criteria for evaluating and working through treatment options.

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Instructions
Project: Selecting the Appropriate Hazardous Waste Treatment Technology
This project will give you an appreciation of the challenges of selecting a hazardous waste treatment technology. Decisions are dependent on having a set of criteria for evaluating and working through treatment options.
The new manager of the hazardous waste facility is having difficulty choosing between using deep well injection or incineration to treat used oil containing PCBs. You are asked to put together a treatment recommendation and give your reasons for the choice that you put forward. You are required to list the decision criteria used in making your selection and to evaluate each technology against these criteria. You need to use tables when making your evaluations. Ensure you include your math and scientific calculations and processes for your evaluations. The analysis should include a comparison between your decision criteria and each technology. This analysis should lead to you making a defendable recommendation to senior management at the facility.
Your project assignment needs to be a minimum of three pages, not counting your title and references pages. Use at least two outside sources, such as Environmental Protection Agency websites, besides your textbook. Please ensure that all outside sources, including your textbook, are cited and referenced using correct APA-style formatting.
Course Book is Waste Management Practices, John Pichtel, 2014

The post Instructions Project: Selecting the Appropriate Hazardous Waste Treatment Technology This project will give you an appreciation of the challenges of selecting a hazardous waste treatment technology. Decisions are dependent on having a set of criteria for evaluating and working through treatment options. appeared first on Infinitessays.org.

Based on what you already know about the climate and external factors affecting Heavy WorX, what conditions or organizational needs exist that may provide the impetus for a large-scale organizational development or planned change program?

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10–12 PowerPoint slides with 200–250 words of speaker notes per slideOne of the most difficult tasks that leaders can face is initiating organizational change. As a leader, you need to be sensitive to the ever-changing internal climate and external environment. For example, changes in the market, products, and competition may all be factors that lead to a need for change. Applying organizational development (OD) techniques to management problems is an essential skill because the primary task of leadership is to manage change; however, before a change can be implemented, the organization must anticipate the need.
To date, the executive team has been reactive to the situations affecting their department and is unfamiliar with a systems approach to OD. Based on what you already know about the climate and external factors affecting Heavy WorX, what conditions or organizational needs exist that may provide the impetus for a large-scale organizational development or planned change program?

Develop a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate to the executive leadership team some potential problems at Heavy WorX that could be changed using OD principles.
Define and describe what it means to use a systems-based approach to change, such as social-technical systems theory, and discuss the benefits of such an approach.
What OD steps or planned change models would you follow at Heavy WorX?
How will you modify these steps or phases to tailor them to the specific needs of Heavy WorX?