Editing Organizing and Governance in Online Communities (UW COM597 Winter 2025) (section)

== Overview and Learning Objectives ==

The internet and other new communication technologies have led to new forms of organizations, groups, and communities. Online organizations shape communication, work, play, learning, socialization, and more. They also raise new challenges, threaten our well-being, and undermine critical social institutions and the integrity of public discourse. How should scholars best understand online organizations? How should these types of groups be managed and governed?

Although there is a wealth of research in organizational studies in the social and behavioral sciences and management, applying this research can be challenging because online organizing looks different from "traditional" and more widely studied forms of organizations. For example, a Q&A forum, a wiki, or an open source software project share many features with clubs, voluntary organizations, social movements, and firms, but they are also different in many ways.

This class will draw from classic texts in organizing and governance from sociology, communication, economics, political science, and beyond. It will try to complement these "classic" texts with more contemporary work that attempts to extend or build on this work in online groups, social media, or other settings mediated by new communication technologies. The course will be seminar-based, and our time together each week will be spent talking through and building an understanding of the classic texts and thinking through how these older theories apply to new communication environments and the new types of organizations that inhabit them.

I will consider the course a complete success if every student can do all of these things at the end of the quarter:

* Identify and speak fluently about a range of central concepts, theories, and classic texts from the study of organization theory and governance.
* Fluently and critically reflect on challenges and opportunities related to using and applying these concepts, theories, and texts in scholarly research projects related to understanding online communities.
* Demonstrate an ability to speak synthetically about the course material, especially with your research interests, settings, and challenges.
* Apply the course material in the context of a specific research project of interest to you.
* Compellingly present your ideas and reflections on the course material in writing and orally.