Research Ethics: Ethics of Technology, 3–5 cr

The course aims to provide insight and frameworks for understanding various ethical challenges related to designing new technologies and methods that can help direct technological development towards ethically sustainable futures.

The course discusses concepts and frameworks for analyzing, reconsidering and, when necessary, regulating the development of new technologies and their use. While the lectures focus on the ethics of information and communication technology (e.g., digitalization, AI, social media, data economy), the students’ assignments can be about other types of technology and relate to their own research interests in this broad theme. The practical assignments aim to cross-pollinate different ways of thinking, preconceptions, and theoretical frameworks across different scientific disciplines, allowing the students to reflect their own work and the fields they represent. The course aims to be both critical and constructive, which is increasingly important in the new multidisciplinary Tampere university.

The course is intended for doctoral researchers in any field. No particular prerequisite knowledge or courses are required. The purpose is to bring together scholars from different fields to discuss different viewpoints and theoretical frameworks regarding the course topic.