Impact of science and technology on society Books
The University of Chicago Press The Third Lens
Book SynopsisAn analysis of the role of metaphor in shaping the work and findings of science, using cell biology as the central case study.
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press The Third Lens
Book SynopsisAn analysis of the role of metaphor in shaping the work and findings of science, using cell biology as the central case study.
£26.00
The University of Chicago Press Dangerous Diagnostics The Social Power of
Book SynopsisA study of the pervasiveness of diagnostic testing and the potential it offers institutions to classify, categorize and ultimately control individuals. The ethical, social and legal implications of technologies that can lead to new forms of discrimination are also included.
£26.00
The University of Chicago Press Hiding Volume 1996 Religion and Postmodernism
Book SynopsisThe age of information, media and virtuality is transforming many aspects of human experience. This is an investigation of the postmodern world which critically examines a wide range of contemporary cultural practices. The author contends that postmodern culture is full of creative possibilities.
£34.20
The University of Chicago Press Evolution and the Machinery of Chance Philosophy
Book SynopsisTrade Review“This book will interest readers looking for the most recent discussions and finer points of current thinking about evolution. Those with a technical background in the mathematics of probability and statistics will find parts of this book especially informative, but those preferring to skip the technicalities will discover plenty that illuminates the ‘machinery of change’ behind evolution without the mathematics. . . . Highly recommended.” * Choice *“Abrams’s exciting new book aims to correct fundamental mistakes that have bedeviled philosophical thinking about evolutionary fitness and natural selection for forty-some years. Using information about the empirical procedures that scientists deploy and focusing on population-environment systems rather than on single organisms, he throws new light on natural selection as a probabilistic and causal influence on evolution.” -- Elliott Sober, author of The Design Argument“Abrams gives an illuminating discussion of fundamental concepts in evolutionary studies from the sometimes opposing views of the philosophy of biology and evolutionary biology. He treats the foundational ideas of probability, fitness, and population with a clearly personal view but with clarity and a command of the literature in both philosophy and biology. I found his introduction of population-environment systems to be both provocative and compelling. The book will have a permanent place on my shelves.” -- Bruce Weir, author of Genetic Data Analysis“A must-read for philosophers of biology who want to continue to participate in debates about the nature of fitness and probability in evolutionary theory. Abrams has accomplished what he set out to do: elaborate and defend a particular way of understanding fitness and probability that illuminates the causal role of natural selection and fitness in evolutionary theory.” -- Christopher Stephens, coeditor of Philosophy of Biology“Marshall Abrams’s erudite analysis of fitness is motivated by his view that philosophy of science enhances understanding by tackling issues that working evolutionary biologists can avoid. Practitioners can avoid the issues because they study specific outcomes that take place among many other possibilities. Abrams generalizes this idea into what he calls population-environment systems based on complex interacting components that can yield various possible outcomes depending on chance. Yet he is sympathetic with everyday researchers who must use imprecise and flexible language to describe things with still inchoate understanding—as evidenced by Barbara McClintock’s once telling me that she knew how transposable elements worked long before she could put it into words.” -- Daniel L. Hartl, coauthor of How Life WorksTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 0. Background on Probability and Evolution Part I. Laying the Foundation 1. Population-Environment Systems 2. Causal Probability and Empirical Practice 3. Irrelevance of Fitness as a Causal Property of Token Organisms 4. Roles of Environmental Variation in Selection Part II. Reconstructing Evolution and Chance 5. Populations in Biological Practice: Pragmatic Yet Real 6. Real Causation in Pragmatic Population-Environment Systems 7. Fitness Concepts in Measurement and Modeling 8. Chance in Population-Environment Systems 9. The Input Measure Problem for MM-CCS Chance 10. Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References Index
£85.00
The University of Chicago Press Evolution and the Machinery of Chance
Book SynopsisAn innovative view of the role of fitness concepts in evolutionary theory. Natural selection is one of the factors responsible for changes in biological populations. Some traits or organisms are fitter than others, and natural selection occurs when there are changes in the distribution of traits in populations because of fitness differences. Many philosophers of biology insist that a trait's fitness should be defined as an average of the fitnesses of individual members of the population that have the trait. Marshall Abrams argues convincingly against this widespread approach. As he shows, it conflicts with the roles that fitness is supposed to play in evolutionary theory and with the ways that evolutionary biologists use fitness concepts in empirical research. The assumption that a causal kind of fitness is fundamentally a property of actual individuals has resulted in unnecessary philosophical puzzles and years of debate. Abrams came to see that the fitnesses of traits that arTrade Review“This book will interest readers looking for the most recent discussions and finer points of current thinking about evolution. Those with a technical background in the mathematics of probability and statistics will find parts of this book especially informative, but those preferring to skip the technicalities will discover plenty that illuminates the ‘machinery of change’ behind evolution without the mathematics. . . . Highly recommended.” * Choice *“Abrams’s exciting new book aims to correct fundamental mistakes that have bedeviled philosophical thinking about evolutionary fitness and natural selection for forty-some years. Using information about the empirical procedures that scientists deploy and focusing on population-environment systems rather than on single organisms, he throws new light on natural selection as a probabilistic and causal influence on evolution.” -- Elliott Sober, author of The Design Argument“Abrams gives an illuminating discussion of fundamental concepts in evolutionary studies from the sometimes opposing views of the philosophy of biology and evolutionary biology. He treats the foundational ideas of probability, fitness, and population with a clearly personal view but with clarity and a command of the literature in both philosophy and biology. I found his introduction of population-environment systems to be both provocative and compelling. The book will have a permanent place on my shelves.” -- Bruce Weir, author of Genetic Data Analysis“Marshall Abrams’s erudite analysis of fitness is motivated by his view that philosophy of science enhances understanding by tackling issues that working evolutionary biologists can avoid. Practitioners can avoid the issues because they study specific outcomes that take place among many other possibilities. Abrams generalizes this idea into what he calls population-environment systems based on complex interacting components that can yield various possible outcomes depending on chance. Yet he is sympathetic with everyday researchers who must use imprecise and flexible language to describe things with still inchoate understanding—as evidenced by Barbara McClintock’s once telling me that she knew how transposable elements worked long before she could put it into words.” -- Daniel L. Hartl, coauthor of How Life WorksTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 0. Background on Probability and Evolution Part I. Laying the Foundation 1. Population-Environment Systems 2. Causal Probability and Empirical Practice 3. Irrelevance of Fitness as a Causal Property of Token Organisms 4. Roles of Environmental Variation in Selection Part II. Reconstructing Evolution and Chance 5. Populations in Biological Practice: Pragmatic Yet Real 6. Real Causation in Pragmatic Population-Environment Systems 7. Fitness Concepts in Measurement and Modeling 8. Chance in Population-Environment Systems 9. The Input Measure Problem for MM-CCS Chance 10. Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References Index
£28.00
The University of Chicago Press A Sense of Urgency
Book SynopsisA study of how the climate crisis is changing human communication from a celebrated rhetorician. Why is it difficult to talk about climate change? Debra Hawhee argues that contemporary rhetoric relies on classical assumptions about humanity and history that cannot conceive of the present crisis. How do we talk about an unprecedented future or represent planetary interests without privileging our own species? A Sense of Urgency explores four emerging answers, their sheer novelty a record of both the devastation and possible futures of climate change. In developing the arts of magnitude, presence, witness, and feeling, A Sense of Urgency invites us to imagine new ways of thinking with our imperiled planet.Trade Review“A Sense of Urgency presents four detailed analyses of emerging rhetorical responses to the impact of climate change. . . . But the introduction and conclusion go beyond the case studies by arguing that contemporary environmental concerns now exert pressure on rhetorical scholarship itself.” * Inside Higher Ed *“With inimitable creativity, Hawhee shows that climate change is not immune to comprehension but rather open to wildly curious rhetorical fashioning. She provides a fully embodied account of rhetoric and climate, time and temperature, showing that such supposed abstractions are actually glimmering sensations that blend feeling and knowing in the most intimate ways. This book is a gift.” -- John Durham Peters, Yale University“The unfolding climate crisis poses unprecedented challenges that require not only new scientific diagnostics but also a new social imaginary that reassesses dominant values, ways of knowing, and collective aspirations. One can hope we are all ready to heed this book’s call to reimagine communication—and the world.” -- Phaedra C. Pezzullo, University of Colorado Boulder“A Sense of Urgency compels us to acknowledge that the magnitude of climate change courses through everything—including facts and feelings, information and sensations. Hawhee demonstrates just how intense rhetoric must become to meet these unprecedented challenges. Working with an extinct glacier, youth activists, a multisensory art installation, and more, Hawhee helps us once again consider an approach to rhetoric that we could not before fathom, but now must.” -- Casey Boyle, University of Texas at AustinTable of ContentsList of Figures 1. Introduction: Intensifications 2. Glacial Death: Making Future Memory Present 3. “In a World Full of ‘Ifs’”: The Felt Time of Youth Climate Rhetors 4. Learning Curves: COVID-19, Climate Change, and Mathematical Magnitude 5. Presence and Placement in Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest 6. Epilogue: Fathoming Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press A Sense of Urgency
Book SynopsisA study of how the climate crisis is changing human communication from a celebrated rhetorician. Why is it difficult to talk about climate change? Debra Hawhee argues that contemporary rhetoric relies on classical assumptions about humanity and history that cannot conceive of the present crisis. How do we talk about an unprecedented future or represent planetary interests without privileging our own species? A Sense of Urgency explores four emerging answers, their sheer novelty a record of both the devastation and possible futures of climate change. In developing the arts of magnitude, presence, witness, and feeling, A Sense of Urgency invites us to imagine new ways of thinking with our imperiled planet.Trade Review“A Sense of Urgency presents four detailed analyses of emerging rhetorical responses to the impact of climate change. . . . But the introduction and conclusion go beyond the case studies by arguing that contemporary environmental concerns now exert pressure on rhetorical scholarship itself.” * Inside Higher Ed *“With inimitable creativity, Hawhee shows that climate change is not immune to comprehension but rather open to wildly curious rhetorical fashioning. She provides a fully embodied account of rhetoric and climate, time and temperature, showing that such supposed abstractions are actually glimmering sensations that blend feeling and knowing in the most intimate ways. This book is a gift.” -- John Durham Peters, Yale University“The unfolding climate crisis poses unprecedented challenges that require not only new scientific diagnostics but also a new social imaginary that reassesses dominant values, ways of knowing, and collective aspirations. One can hope we are all ready to heed this book’s call to reimagine communication—and the world.” -- Phaedra C. Pezzullo, University of Colorado Boulder“A Sense of Urgency compels us to acknowledge that the magnitude of climate change courses through everything—including facts and feelings, information and sensations. Hawhee demonstrates just how intense rhetoric must become to meet these unprecedented challenges. Working with an extinct glacier, youth activists, a multisensory art installation, and more, Hawhee helps us once again consider an approach to rhetoric that we could not before fathom, but now must.” -- Casey Boyle, University of Texas at AustinTable of ContentsList of Figures 1. Introduction: Intensifications 2. Glacial Death: Making Future Memory Present 3. “In a World Full of ‘Ifs’”: The Felt Time of Youth Climate Rhetors 4. Learning Curves: COVID-19, Climate Change, and Mathematical Magnitude 5. Presence and Placement in Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest 6. Epilogue: Fathoming Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
£22.00
The University of Chicago Press The Inspiration Machine
Book SynopsisExplores how creative digital technologies and artificial intelligence are embedded in culture and society. In The Inspiration Machine, Eitan Y. Wilf explores the transformative potentials that digital technology opens up for creative practice through three ethnographic cases, two with jazz musicians and one with a group of poets. At times dissatisfied with the limitations of human creativity, these artists do not turn to computerized algorithms merely to execute their preconceived ideas. Rather, they approach them as creative partners, delegating to them different degrees of agentive control and artistic decision-making in the hopes of finding inspiration in their output and thereby expanding their own creative horizons. The algorithms these artists develop and use, however, remain rooted in and haunted by the specific social predicaments and human shortfalls that they were intended to overcome. Experiments in the digital thus hold an important lesson: although Wilf's interlocTrade Review“In this moment when generative AI is being declared the successor to human creativity, Wilf offers us a vital counternarrative. His nuanced ethnographic investigations challenge myths of autonomy in either creative practitioners or computational machines while insisting on the cultural/historical embeddedness and situated practices of meaning-making. This book should become an obligatory reference for anyone speaking about computational creativity.” * Lucy Suchman, author of Human-Machine Reconfigurations *“The Inspiration Machine powerfully unsettles both commonplace imaginaries and banal critiques of how digital technology shapes and reshapes contemporary art-making. Along the way it clearly establishes Wilf as anthropology’s leading theorist of modernity’s vexed relationship to creative practice.” * Steven Feld, VoxLox Media Arts *“The Inspiration Machine is itself a model and an inspiration, a highly original and ethnographically rich exploration of digital art-making. Drawing upon three revelatory case studies—and on a broad and subtle engagement with contemporary theory—Wilf illuminates the complex mutual entanglement of machinic creativity with human practices, aesthetics, and sociality. This is a singular study of emergent relationalities in unexpected places and practices and wonderful to think with.” * Don Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Toward an Anthropology of Computational Creativity PART I Jazz: Mimicry, Originality, Sociality 1 “I Prefer Playing with It to Playing with Most People”: The Computer as a Musical Conversation Partner 2 An Island of Interactivity in an Ocean of Nonreactivity: The Trade-Offs of a Made-to-Order Artificial Musical World 3 “A Device That Would Generate New Musical Ideas”: The Computer as a Source of Musical Inspiration 4 Separating Noise from Signal: The Ethnomethodological Uncanny as Aesthetic Pleasure in Human-Machine Interaction PART II Poetry: Indeterminacy, Potentiality, Intentionality 5 Computer-Generated Poetry and Some of Its Aesthetic and Technical Dimensions 6 “I Randomize, Therefore I Think”: Computational Indeterminacy and the Tensions of American Liberal Subjectivity 7 Analog Precursors and Their Digital Logical End: The Oulipo 8 Crosscurrents and Opposing Perspectives Conclusion: Neither Our Doom nor Our Salvation: Open-Ended Digital Systems and Cultural Critique Notes References Index
£84.00
University of Chicago Press Waiting for Robots
Book Synopsis
£87.40
The University of Chicago Press SuperVision An Introduction to the Surveillance
Book SynopsisBeginning with a look at the activities and technologies that connect most people to the surveillance matrix, from Facebook to identification cards to GPS devices in our cars, the authors invite readers to critically explore surveillance as it relates to issues of law, power, freedom, and inequality.Trade Review"With SuperVision, John Gilliom and Torin Monahan meld deep knowledge with extensive teaching experience to offer a richly grounded look at the ubiquity of surveillance in everyday, contemporary life - from the tracking and tracing of cell phones to the post-9/11 hyperextension of airport security. Surveillance studies is rapidly gaining importance across the social sciences, and Gilliom and Monahan's book provides a first-rate introduction to this burgeoning field." (Michael Musheno, University of California, Berkeley)"
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press SuperVision
Book SynopsisBeginning with a look at the activities and technologies that connect most people to the surveillance matrix, from Facebook to identification cards to GPS devices in our cars, the authors invite readers to critically explore surveillance as it relates to issues of law, power, freedom, and inequality.Trade Review"With SuperVision, John Gilliom and Torin Monahan meld deep knowledge with extensive teaching experience to offer a richly grounded look at the ubiquity of surveillance in everyday, contemporary life - from the tracking and tracing of cell phones to the post-9/11 hyperextension of airport security. Surveillance studies is rapidly gaining importance across the social sciences, and Gilliom and Monahan's book provides a first-rate introduction to this burgeoning field." (Michael Musheno, University of California, Berkeley)"
£23.00
Columbia University Press The Power of the Internet in China
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA boundary-breaking book... A snap review of some of the hottest issues in front of the Chinese public today. -- Daniel Little Understanding Society Mr. Yang's work is essential reading. -- Rebecca MacKinnon Far Eastern Economic Review This work represents a major advancement in scholarly research... unquestionably, it should be on reading lists for courses related to social and political development in China... it is highly recommended to all. -- Jonathan Sullivan The China Quarterly Of interest to sociologists and students of mass communications... Recommended. Choice Essential reading for all those seeking a more nuanced account of the power of the internet in China than that provided by international media and human rights organizations. -- Colin Hawes The China Journal Yang develops a lens that centers on concrete issues and situations that are both empirical-practical and conceptual-theoretical. -- Peter Marolt International Journal of Communication The Power of the Internet in China by Yang Guobin is destined to be classic and obligatory reading for anyone interested in understanding the role of the internet in people's struggle for freedom, justice, and democracy in China. -- Lokman Tsui China Information The Power of the Internet in China offers us not only a rich study of Chineseonline activism but also raises significant questions about China's civil society. -- Ming-Cheng Miriam Lo Contemporary SociologyTable of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Online Activism in an Age of Contention 2. The Politics of Digital Contention 3. The Rituals and Genres of Contention 4. The Changing Style of Contention 5. The Business of Digital Contention 6. Civic Associations Online 7. Utopian Realism in Online Communities 8. Transnational Activism Online Conclusion: China's Long Revolution Notes Bibliography Index
£79.20
Columbia University Press The Wheel
Book SynopsisA visually rich, analytical history of the key cycles in a revolutionary technology.Trade ReviewThis is a wonderful book, brimming at once with fascinating tales and with fundamental insights into the nature of invention. -- Patrick Manning, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History, University of Pittsburgh A fascinating book. New Scientist This concise and well-executed work is technology history at its best... Simply excellent, this work will appeal not just to history readers but also to those interested in the social and cultural developments that both fuel and are fueled by technical changes. Library Journal (starred review) A deft narrative. Nature A fine contribution to the history of transport. Journal of Interdisciplinary History Bulliet brings a fresh view to a story that interests many: the invention of the wheel, providing new and interesting details about when and why the wheel was first adopted. -- Hermione Giffard History TodayTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Wheel Versus Wheel 2. Why Invent the Wheel? 3. A Square Peg in a Round Wheel 4. Home on the Range 5. Wheels for Show 6. The Rise and Demise of the Charioteer 7. The Princess Ride 8. The Carriage Revolution 9. Four Wheels in China 10. Rickshaw Cities 11. The Third Wheel Notes Glossary Further Reading Index
£19.80
Columbia University Press Sociophobia
Book SynopsisCésar Rendueles argues that technology has caused us to lower our expectations for personal relationships and political action. Sociophobia questions the cyber-fetishist dogma that lulls us into inflating the virtues of our passive relationship with technology in an ambitious reassessment of political theory.Trade ReviewThe enthralling Sociophobia urges us to critically rethink certain fundamental terms of our times, such as cooperation, compromise, community, and participation, and it reminds us of the extent to which we are only partially rational beings-fragile, and wholly codependent. -- Lucia del Moral Espin Revista Redes Rendueles's book transcends the national context in which it was written, and, without exaggeration, goes to the heart of the contemporary problem of political organization, as it concerns radical protest and resistance movements. The refreshing aspect of Sociophobia is its sober approach to the role of new media in fomenting alternative political structures. -- Michael Marder, IKERBASQUE Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country and professor at large in the Humanities Institute at the University of Diego Portales Sociophobia is already a landmark book in the Spanish-language world. With his contrarian perspective on the emancipatory capability of social networks, copyleft, and other forms of activism in the digital era, Rendueles will have a major impact on global debates about technology and postcapitalism. -- Ignacio Sanchez Prado, Washington University in St. LouisTable of ContentsForeword: Culture Industry 2.0, or the End of Digital Utopias in the Era of Participation Culture, by Roberto Simanowski Ground Zero: Sociophobia 1. Digital Utopia 2. After Capitalism Coda: 1989 Notes Index
£66.50
Columbia University Press Sociophobia
Book SynopsisCésar Rendueles argues that technology has caused us to lower our expectations for personal relationships and political action. Sociophobia questions the cyber-fetishist dogma that lulls us into inflating the virtues of our passive relationship with technology in an ambitious reassessment of political theory.Trade ReviewThe enthralling Sociophobia urges us to critically rethink certain fundamental terms of our times, such as cooperation, compromise, community, and participation, and it reminds us of the extent to which we are only partially rational beings-fragile, and wholly codependent. -- Lucia del Moral Espin Revista Redes Rendueles's book transcends the national context in which it was written, and, without exaggeration, goes to the heart of the contemporary problem of political organization, as it concerns radical protest and resistance movements. The refreshing aspect of Sociophobia is its sober approach to the role of new media in fomenting alternative political structures. -- Michael Marder, IKERBASQUE Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country and professor at large in the Humanities Institute at the University of Diego Portales Sociophobia is already a landmark book in the Spanish-language world. With his contrarian perspective on the emancipatory capability of social networks, copyleft, and other forms of activism in the digital era, Rendueles will have a major impact on global debates about technology and postcapitalism. -- Ignacio Sanchez Prado, Washington University in St. LouisTable of ContentsForeword: Culture Industry 2.0, or the End of Digital Utopias in the Era of Participation Culture, by Roberto Simanowski Ground Zero: Sociophobia 1. Digital Utopia 2. After Capitalism Coda: 1989 Notes Index
£19.80
Columbia University Press Data Love
Book SynopsisData Love considers the changes big data has brought to the human condition from a philosophical standpoint. Roberto Simanowski explores our entanglements with algorithmic analysis and data mining, as we contribute to the amassing of ever more data about our lives, leading to the statistical evaluation and individual profiling of our selves.Trade ReviewDigital interactive space is not only a technical condition: it mobilizes larger ecologies of meaning that cannot be captured by an exclusive focus on those technical features. Roberto Simanowski gives us a brilliant exploration of one such ecology, an ironic and critical take on contemporary society's ambivalent relationship with data. -- Saskia Sassen, author of ExpulsionsWith the advent of the Web, digital technologies seem to contain alternatives to the consumerist models implemented by the culture industry as described by Adorno and Hockheimer. Simanowski shows how data economy turns this dream into a nightmare of hyperconsumption founded on hypercontrol. -- Bernard Stiegler, author of States of Shock: Stupidity and Knowledge in the 21st CenturyWith this book, Simanowski joins Evgeny Morozov as an indispensable critic of our obsession with big data. What sets Data Love apart from other accounts is its determined shift of attention away from the sinister machinations of government agencies to the impact of seemingly harmless commercial data-service providers, as well as its informed historical focus, which ties modern data mining to the venerable project of enlightenment. Seek and you will find, a famous text promised two millennia ago. Search engines such as Google have renewed the pledge, but Simanowski leaves no doubt that the digital platform supporting this promise is turning it into a threat: Seek and you will be found. -- Geoffrey Winthrop-Young, author of Kittler and the MediaSimanowski proffers a much more profound history and theoretical basis to the debate, a contribution unparalleled in its findings and with conclusions that are neither too radical nor too conservative. Without question, Data Love is the most comprehensive and philosophically rich contribution on this subject that I have read. -- Creston Davis, Global Center for Advanced StudiesCompelling. . . . Simanowski makes an excellent case that the most essential struggle is not with the NSA or Facebook but with ourselves. -- Jennifer Howard * Times Literary Supplement *Recommended. * Choice *Data Love dares us to reflect on the progression of our relationship with data, to think where zealous data mining might be leading, and then to solemnly answer the question: does data love us back? -- David R. Gruber * Information, Communication & Society *A splendid and beautiful book about our society, our relationship with technologies, but most important, governments' relationship with them. . . . Highly recommended to everyone. * Articles and more *Table of ContentsPrefacePart I. Beyond the NSA Debate1. Intelligence Agency Logic2. Double Indifference3. Self-Tracking and Smart Things4. Ecological Data Disaster5. Cold Civil WarPart II. Paradigm Change6. Data-Mining Business7. Social Engineers Without a Cause8. Silent Revolution9. Algorithms10. Absence of TheoryPart III. The Joy of Numbers11. Compulsive Measuring12. The Phenomenology of the Numerable13. Digital Humanities14. Lessing's RejoinderPart IV. Resistances15. God's Eye16. Data Hacks17. On the Right Life in the Wrong OneEpiloguePostfaceNotesIndex
£17.09
Columbia University Press Modern Things on Trial Islams Global and Material
Book SynopsisLeor Halevi tells the story of the Islamic trials of technological and commercial innovations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Shedding light on culture, commerce, and consumption in Cairo and other colonial cities, Modern Things on Trial is a groundbreaking account of Islam's material transformation in a globalizing era.Trade ReviewLeor Halevi's original study offers important perspectives on turn of the twentieth-century Islamic reformist thought in the context of changing relations between law and material history. He matches up instructive readings in legal opinions delivered in Cairo by Rashid Rida with innovative background research on the new products and technologies that prompted questions to him from around the Muslim world. -- Brinkley Messick, author of Sharīʿa Scripts: A Historical AnthropologyThis nuanced, meticulously researched, yet accessible study illuminates how significant early-twentieth-century debates on Islamic law often revolved around some surprisingly ordinary objects and how local anxieties and input shaped a reformist Islam with transregional appeal. Halevi's focus on the material dimensions of modern Islamic thought adds a very welcome and promising dimension to the scholarship in this field. -- Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of Islam in Pakistan: A HistoryBy tracing the evolution of 'laissez-faire Salafism' in response to consumer concerns about the religious status of new commodities and technologies, Halevi positions Islam's modern reformation as driven more by materialist than ideational forces. This is a highly original rethinking of the old question of religion and modernity by looking at the material transformations—the 'modern things'—that Muslims acquired from the industrializing West. -- Nile Green, Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History, University of California, Los AngelesThis is a remarkable intervention by a pioneering scholar of Islamic law and material culture. Focusing on Rashid Rida, a leading light of modern Islamic reform, it highlights the material entanglements that catalyzed his legal rulings on novel commodities, technologies, and financial instruments. In place of dogmatism and idealism, what emerges is a riveting narrative of pragmatic and materialist accommodations in a period marked by the impact of capitalism, consumerism, and colonialism. This is revisionist history in the best sense. -- Finbarr Barry Flood, director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories, New York UniversityAn outstanding work that sets a new standard for the writing of modern Islamic intellectual history...this book will prove of enduring interest to researchers in Islamic law and modern Islamic thought, historians of the late imperial and early nation-state Muslim worlds, and students of the processes of globalization more generally. * American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences *Halevi sheds light on Islam’s relationship with modernity by offering an account of how Islamic revivalists first responded to modern transformations through religious and legal rulings. * Middle East Journal *This excellent book is paradigm shifting. . . Essential. * Choice *Halevi’s work contributes to the larger understanding of how Islamic reform in this period was often driven through thehistorical narrative of Riḍā as a reformer, illustrating a bottom-up process. * Arab Studies Quarterly *A fresh, lively, and materialist intervention against reductive readings of modern Islam. * Jadaliyya *By rejecting abstractions like “Westernization” and turning instead to how tangible things were weighed on the moral scale of sharia, Leor Halevi presents a bold and lucid new analysis of the making of modern Islam. * Los Angeles Review of Books *Halevi’s book charts the way for other scholars of law and history to write history grounded in an eclectic mix of materials in several languages from various archives around the world. * Law and Social Inquiry *Halevi’s compelling monograph is relevant to a large audience and should interest global historians and historians of empire as much as scholars of modern Islam. * American Historical Review *He not only weaves intellectual and economic history together but comes forth with a contribution that is as ground breaking and original regarding the development of a consumer culture as it is concerning legal reform. * Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies *The writing is clear, engaging, and accessible. In addition to classes on Islam, the arguments advanced heremay be pertinent to courses on theory in religious studies. * International Journal of Middle East Studies *It is a new way of looking at the issue of religion and modernity. Among other things, this book would be an excellent focus for graduates reading law and change in the modern Muslim world. * Technology and Culture *Table of ContentsList of Maps and FiguresAcknowledgmentsPrologue: The Parable of the Montgolfière and the Translation of Haleby’s CorpseIntroduction: Good Things Made Lawful: Euro-Muslim Objects and Laissez-Faire Fatwas1. The Toilet Paper Fatwa: Hygienic Innovation and the Sacred Law in the Late Imperial Era2. Fatwas for the Partners’ Club: A Global Mufti’s Enterprise3. In a Material World: European Expansion from Tripoli to Cairo4. Paper Money and Consummate Men: Capitalism and the Rise of Laissez-Faire Salafism5. The Qurʾan in the Gramophone: Sounds of Islamic Modernity from Cairo to Kazan6. Telegraphs, Photographs, Railways, Law Codes: Tools of Empire, Tools of Islam7. Arabian Slippers: The Turn to Nationalistic Consumption8. Lottery Tickets, Luxury Hotels, and Christian Experts: Economic Liberalism Versus Islamic Exclusivism in a Territorial FrameworkConclusionsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex
£91.52
Columbia University Press Modern Things on Trial Islams Global and
Book SynopsisLeor Halevi tells the story of the Islamic trials of technological and commercial innovations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Shedding light on culture, commerce, and consumption in Cairo and other colonial cities, Modern Things on Trial is a groundbreaking account of Islam’s material transformation in a globalizing era.Trade ReviewLeor Halevi's original study offers important perspectives on turn of the twentieth-century Islamic reformist thought in the context of changing relations between law and material history. He matches up instructive readings in legal opinions delivered in Cairo by Rashid Rida with innovative background research on the new products and technologies that prompted questions to him from around the Muslim world. -- Brinkley Messick, author of Sharīʿa Scripts: A Historical AnthropologyThis nuanced, meticulously researched, yet accessible study illuminates how significant early-twentieth-century debates on Islamic law often revolved around some surprisingly ordinary objects and how local anxieties and input shaped a reformist Islam with transregional appeal. Halevi's focus on the material dimensions of modern Islamic thought adds a very welcome and promising dimension to the scholarship in this field. -- Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of Islam in Pakistan: A HistoryBy tracing the evolution of 'laissez-faire Salafism' in response to consumer concerns about the religious status of new commodities and technologies, Halevi positions Islam's modern reformation as driven more by materialist than ideational forces. This is a highly original rethinking of the old question of religion and modernity by looking at the material transformations—the 'modern things'—that Muslims acquired from the industrializing West. -- Nile Green, Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History, University of California, Los AngelesThis is a remarkable intervention by a pioneering scholar of Islamic law and material culture. Focusing on Rashid Rida, a leading light of modern Islamic reform, it highlights the material entanglements that catalyzed his legal rulings on novel commodities, technologies, and financial instruments. In place of dogmatism and idealism, what emerges is a riveting narrative of pragmatic and materialist accommodations in a period marked by the impact of capitalism, consumerism, and colonialism. This is revisionist history in the best sense. -- Finbarr Barry Flood, director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories, New York UniversityAn outstanding work that sets a new standard for the writing of modern Islamic intellectual history...this book will prove of enduring interest to researchers in Islamic law and modern Islamic thought, historians of the late imperial and early nation-state Muslim worlds, and students of the processes of globalization more generally. * American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences *Halevi sheds light on Islam’s relationship with modernity by offering an account of how Islamic revivalists first responded to modern transformations through religious and legal rulings. * Middle East Journal *This excellent book is paradigm shifting. . . Essential. * Choice *Halevi’s work contributes to the larger understanding of how Islamic reform in this period was often driven through thehistorical narrative of Riḍā as a reformer, illustrating a bottom-up process. * Arab Studies Quarterly *A fresh, lively, and materialist intervention against reductive readings of modern Islam. * Jadaliyya *By rejecting abstractions like “Westernization” and turning instead to how tangible things were weighed on the moral scale of sharia, Leor Halevi presents a bold and lucid new analysis of the making of modern Islam. * Los Angeles Review of Books *Halevi’s book charts the way for other scholars of law and history to write history grounded in an eclectic mix of materials in several languages from various archives around the world. * Law and Social Inquiry *Halevi’s compelling monograph is relevant to a large audience and should interest global historians and historians of empire as much as scholars of modern Islam. * American Historical Review *He not only weaves intellectual and economic history together but comes forth with a contribution that is as ground breaking and original regarding the development of a consumer culture as it is concerning legal reform. * Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies *The writing is clear, engaging, and accessible. In addition to classes on Islam, the arguments advanced heremay be pertinent to courses on theory in religious studies. * International Journal of Middle East Studies *It is a new way of looking at the issue of religion and modernity. Among other things, this book would be an excellent focus for graduates reading law and change in the modern Muslim world. * Technology and Culture *Table of ContentsList of Maps and FiguresAcknowledgmentsPrologue: The Parable of the Montgolfière and the Translation of Haleby’s CorpseIntroduction: Good Things Made Lawful: Euro-Muslim Objects and Laissez-Faire Fatwas1. The Toilet Paper Fatwa: Hygienic Innovation and the Sacred Law in the Late Imperial Era2. Fatwas for the Partners’ Club: A Global Mufti’s Enterprise3. In a Material World: European Expansion from Tripoli to Cairo4. Paper Money and Consummate Men: Capitalism and the Rise of Laissez-Faire Salafism5. The Qurʾan in the Gramophone: Sounds of Islamic Modernity from Cairo to Kazan6. Telegraphs, Photographs, Railways, Law Codes: Tools of Empire, Tools of Islam7. Arabian Slippers: The Turn to Nationalistic Consumption8. Lottery Tickets, Luxury Hotels, and Christian Experts: Economic Liberalism Versus Islamic Exclusivism in a Territorial FrameworkConclusionsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex
£23.75
Columbia University Press Critical Approaches to Science and Religion
Book SynopsisThis book offers a new direction for scholarship on science and religion that centers social, political, and ecological concerns. Featuring a diverse array of contributors, it draws on three vital schools of thought: critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and postcolonial theory.Trade ReviewCritical Approaches to Science and Religion is a marvelous advance of interdisciplinary scholarship that charts foundational themes for interpreting the cultural dimensions of science and religion. The authors elucidate epistemological tensions and methodological resonances to inform future scholarship. This is essential reading for scholars across multiple disciplines. -- Sylvester A. Johnson, coeditor of Religion and US Empire: Critical New HistoriesI will return repeatedly to this volume to think with these diverse authors. Their disciplinary languages are not mine although they attentively converse with my discipline of Critical Indigenous Studies, among others. I am eager for vital conversations that I and others will have with these ideas that feed my radical hope for the implosion of the white and settler supremacist worldview. In order to live better with one another in this world, we need this conversation. -- Kim TallBear, author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic ScienceWith its inclusion of vital perspectives from critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and postcolonial and Indigenous studies, this volume transforms the conversation about religion and science by making issues of difference central to these discussions. These essays are invaluable. -- Randall Styers, author of Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern WorldA joyful intellectual exercise. I highly recommend this book. You likely won’t agree with all of it—perhaps even none of it. But you will nevertheless be changed by the experience of reading it. * Reviews in Science, Religion, and Theology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed RagabPart I. ValuesIntroduction, by Terence Keel, Ahmed Ragab, and Myrna Perez Sheldon1. Scripture of False Smiles: Scholarship and Lying with Erving Goffman, by Kathryn Lofton2. Nihilism, Race, and the Critical Study of Science and Religion, by Terence Keel3. A Feminist Theology of Abortion, by Myrna Perez Sheldon4. Can Originalism Save Bioethics?, by Osagie K. ObasogiePart II. BoundariesIntroduction, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed Ragab5. Spiriting the Johnstons: Producing Science and Religion Under Settler Colonial Rule, by Tisa Wenger6. Dark Gods in the Age of Light: The Lightbulb, the Japanese Deification of Thomas Edison, and the Entangled Constructions of Religion and Science, by Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm7. Questioning the Sacred Cow: Science, Religion, and Race in the United States and India, by Cassie Adcock8. “And God Knows Best”: Knowledge, Expertise, and Trust in the Postcolonial Web-Sphere, by Ahmed RagabPart III. NarrativesIntroduction, by Ahmed Ragab, Terence Keel, and Myrna Perez Sheldon9. Secular Grace in the Age of Environmentalism, by Erika Lorraine Milam10. Performing Polygenism: Science, Religion, and Race in the Enlightenment, by Suman Seth11. Out of Africa: Where Faith, Race, and Science Collide, by Joseph Graves Jr.Part IV. CoherenceIntroduction, by Ahmed Ragab, Terence Keel, and Myrna Perez Sheldon12. Kānaka Maoli Voyaging Technology and Geography Beyond Colonial Difference, by Eli Nelson13. Speculation Is Not a Metaphor: More than Varieties of Cryobiological Experience, by Joanna Radin14. Maroon Science: Knowledge, Secrecy, and Crime in Jamaica, by Katharine Gerbner15. Obeah Simplified? Scientism, Magic, and the Problem of Universals, by J. Brent CrossonConclusion, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed RagabIndex
£93.60
Columbia University Press Critical Approaches to Science and Religion
Book SynopsisThis book offers a new direction for scholarship on science and religion that centers social, political, and ecological concerns. Featuring a diverse array of contributors, it draws on three vital schools of thought: critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and postcolonial theory.Trade ReviewCritical Approaches to Science and Religion is a marvelous advance of interdisciplinary scholarship that charts foundational themes for interpreting the cultural dimensions of science and religion. The authors elucidate epistemological tensions and methodological resonances to inform future scholarship. This is essential reading for scholars across multiple disciplines. -- Sylvester A. Johnson, coeditor of Religion and US Empire: Critical New HistoriesI will return repeatedly to this volume to think with these diverse authors. Their disciplinary languages are not mine although they attentively converse with my discipline of Critical Indigenous Studies, among others. I am eager for vital conversations that I and others will have with these ideas that feed my radical hope for the implosion of the white and settler supremacist worldview. In order to live better with one another in this world, we need this conversation. -- Kim TallBear, author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic ScienceWith its inclusion of vital perspectives from critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and postcolonial and Indigenous studies, this volume transforms the conversation about religion and science by making issues of difference central to these discussions. These essays are invaluable. -- Randall Styers, author of Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern WorldA joyful intellectual exercise. I highly recommend this book. You likely won’t agree with all of it—perhaps even none of it. But you will nevertheless be changed by the experience of reading it. * Reviews in Science, Religion, and Theology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed RagabPart I. ValuesIntroduction, by Terence Keel, Ahmed Ragab, and Myrna Perez Sheldon1. Scripture of False Smiles: Scholarship and Lying with Erving Goffman, by Kathryn Lofton2. Nihilism, Race, and the Critical Study of Science and Religion, by Terence Keel3. A Feminist Theology of Abortion, by Myrna Perez Sheldon4. Can Originalism Save Bioethics?, by Osagie K. ObasogiePart II. BoundariesIntroduction, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed Ragab5. Spiriting the Johnstons: Producing Science and Religion Under Settler Colonial Rule, by Tisa Wenger6. Dark Gods in the Age of Light: The Lightbulb, the Japanese Deification of Thomas Edison, and the Entangled Constructions of Religion and Science, by Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm7. Questioning the Sacred Cow: Science, Religion, and Race in the United States and India, by Cassie Adcock8. “And God Knows Best”: Knowledge, Expertise, and Trust in the Postcolonial Web-Sphere, by Ahmed RagabPart III. NarrativesIntroduction, by Ahmed Ragab, Terence Keel, and Myrna Perez Sheldon9. Secular Grace in the Age of Environmentalism, by Erika Lorraine Milam10. Performing Polygenism: Science, Religion, and Race in the Enlightenment, by Suman Seth11. Out of Africa: Where Faith, Race, and Science Collide, by Joseph Graves Jr.Part IV. CoherenceIntroduction, by Ahmed Ragab, Terence Keel, and Myrna Perez Sheldon12. Kānaka Maoli Voyaging Technology and Geography Beyond Colonial Difference, by Eli Nelson13. Speculation Is Not a Metaphor: More than Varieties of Cryobiological Experience, by Joanna Radin14. Maroon Science: Knowledge, Secrecy, and Crime in Jamaica, by Katharine Gerbner15. Obeah Simplified? Scientism, Magic, and the Problem of Universals, by J. Brent CrossonConclusion, by Myrna Perez Sheldon, Terence Keel, and Ahmed RagabIndex
£27.00
Columbia University Press Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet
Book SynopsisAlgorithmic Culture Before the Internet is a history of how culture and computation came to be entangled.Trade ReviewAlgorithmic Culture Before the Internet tackles a too-often neglected aspect of our computer world: the cultural dimensions of algorithmic certainty. Ted Striphas shifts our critical gaze away from the supposed historically and technologically unique features of digital mechanisms to construct a sweeping tale of terminology, logic, and instrumentality. He has written an essential study that is by equal measure surprising, convincing, and engaging. -- Charles R. Acland, author of American Blockbuster: Movies, Technology, and WonderTed Striphas writes engagingly about the history of the entanglement of the concepts of “culture” and “algorithm” by rethinking the cultural work of the humble keyword. This is the book—and the histories—we need to help us understand what is at stake in the prevailing articulation of culture, technology, and power. -- Anne Balsamo, author of Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at WorkMasterful and fascinating. Each chapter, grappling with a keyword and uncovering its fraught construction, took me somewhere I didn’t expect to go. This is the book we need to advance the study of algorithms as part of the history of culture. -- Tarleton Gillespie, author of Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social MediaThis prehistory of algorithmic culture steps back from the relentless novelty of much writing about computing, helping us realize that algorithms, culture, and the relationship between them are stranger and older than we might have thought. -- Nick Seaver, author of Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music RecommendationThis book takes readers to unexpected places, making brilliant and original connections across vast bodies of knowledge. It is sure to enhance the historical understanding of anyone interested in computers, social media, and the culture of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. -- Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines DemocracyRecommended. * Choice Reviews *This book provides much food for thought to those who study the intersection of technology and media . . . Striphas’s account is bold in its independence, finding precedents in unexpected places. * Technology and Culture *[This book] would appeal especially to those readers with an interest in intellectual history following the1960s. * H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Welcome to the Machine1. Key-Words2. Algorithm3. Culture4. Algorithmic CultureEpilogue: Coming to TermsNotesIndex
£90.00
Columbia University Press Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet
Book SynopsisAlgorithmic Culture Before the Internet is a history of how culture and computation came to be entangled.Trade ReviewAlgorithmic Culture Before the Internet tackles a too-often neglected aspect of our computer world: the cultural dimensions of algorithmic certainty. Ted Striphas shifts our critical gaze away from the supposed historically and technologically unique features of digital mechanisms to construct a sweeping tale of terminology, logic, and instrumentality. He has written an essential study that is by equal measure surprising, convincing, and engaging. -- Charles R. Acland, author of American Blockbuster: Movies, Technology, and WonderTed Striphas writes engagingly about the history of the entanglement of the concepts of “culture” and “algorithm” by rethinking the cultural work of the humble keyword. This is the book—and the histories—we need to help us understand what is at stake in the prevailing articulation of culture, technology, and power. -- Anne Balsamo, author of Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at WorkMasterful and fascinating. Each chapter, grappling with a keyword and uncovering its fraught construction, took me somewhere I didn’t expect to go. This is the book we need to advance the study of algorithms as part of the history of culture. -- Tarleton Gillespie, author of Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social MediaThis prehistory of algorithmic culture steps back from the relentless novelty of much writing about computing, helping us realize that algorithms, culture, and the relationship between them are stranger and older than we might have thought. -- Nick Seaver, author of Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music RecommendationThis book takes readers to unexpected places, making brilliant and original connections across vast bodies of knowledge. It is sure to enhance the historical understanding of anyone interested in computers, social media, and the culture of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. -- Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines DemocracyRecommended. * Choice Reviews *This book provides much food for thought to those who study the intersection of technology and media . . . Striphas’s account is bold in its independence, finding precedents in unexpected places. * Technology and Culture *[This book] would appeal especially to those readers with an interest in intellectual history following the1960s. * H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Welcome to the Machine1. Key-Words2. Algorithm3. Culture4. Algorithmic CultureEpilogue: Coming to TermsNotesIndex
£23.75
Columbia University Press The Biomimicry Revolution
Book SynopsisHenry Dicks explores the philosophical significance of biomimicry, the application and adaptation of strategies found in nature to the development of artificial products and systems. He argues that biomimicry can serve as the basis for a new environmental philosophy that radically alters how we understand and relate to the natural world.Trade Review[The Biomimicry Revolution] provides not only an understanding of the theory and practice of biomimicry, but also a detailed and in-depth analysis of philosophy, classification, and problematization. These features enable the reader to understand that biomimicry is a coherent new entity and philosophy. This book can be used as a quality addition to the literature on a comprehensive philosophical analysis of biomimicry. * Regional Science Policy & Practice *This is an exciting and intellectually invigorating study into the underlying philosophy of biomimicry. Building upon the three principles central to biomimicry—nature as model, nature as measure, nature as mentor—Dicks creates a new philosophical framework structured by technics, ethics, and epistemology. What follows is a lively and groundbreaking ontological inquiry into ‘the nature of nature’ and what we can learn from nature about sustainably inhabiting the earth. -- Adrian Parr, author of Earthlings: Imaginative Encounters with the Natural WorldThe book, rooted in the continental tradition of philosophy, takes a fairly liberal approach to semantics and association, but is written in a very clear manner, and is well structured and relatively easy to follow. * Quarterly Review of Biology *In many instances, Dicks demonstrates a remarkable ability to navigate unexplored conceptual terrains, which have not been thoroughly examined, guided primarily by his biomimetic principles. * Journal of Ecohumanism *Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Biomimicry as a New Philosophy1. Nature as Physis: An Ontology for Biomimicry2. Nature as Model: Biomimetic Technics3. Nature as Measure: Biomimetic Ethics4. Nature as Mentor: Biomimetic EpistemologyConclusion: Toward a New EnlightenmentNotesBibliographyIndex
£93.60
University of Illinois Press Science and Social Inequality
Book SynopsisMakes the argument that the philosophy and practices of Western science, contrary to its enlightenment mission, work to insure that more science will only worsen the gaps between the best and worst off around the world.Trade Review"Harding has for decades set the terms of liberatory science studies that have moved the dialogues forward in substantial ways, and she continues to do so in her latest book."--Signs"[Harding] continues to be one of very few philosophers who has worked consistently and courageously to make science live up to both its epistemic and its emancipatory potential."--Philosophy in Review"Science and Social Inequality, a collection of foundational and innovative work from a leading thinker in feminist science studies, is valuable in many ways: as a reference work, as an historical overview of crucial debates in feminist science studies, and as a powerful contribution to current efforts to push those debates forward into new and vital territories."--NWSA Journal"This is a book we all need. We are now at a watershed where critical, scholarly thinking about science is concerned. Conventional views about the nature and authority of science have been challenged from a number of directions in the last thirty years. . . . The time has come to compare the insights offered by these diverse lines of analysis and take stock of the lessons they offer, not just for purposes of appraising scholarly and popular views of science, but in order to chart a way forward--both for the sciences themselves and for the conjoint disciplines of science studies."--Alison Wylie, author of Thinking from Things: Essays in the Philosophy of Archaeology"Reading Science and Social Inequality deepens the clarity and constancy of Harding's particular feminist vision. That this book has the courage to raise macro issues rather than follow the crowd says she is still raising the stakes."--Hilary Rose, author of Love, Power and Knowledge
£17.09
Indiana University Press Doing Physics Second Edition How Physicists Take
Book SynopsisMakes concepts of physics easier to grasp by relating them to everyday knowledgeTrade ReviewKrieger . . . excellently tells those in our human society outside the physics world how physicists think, plan, and go about understanding nature. * Choice *This book is a cultural phenomenology of doing physics. It describes the ways physicists actually do their work—their motives, and their ways of making sense of the world—so that outsiders can understand it. * good reads *This is an important and provocative book, timely and full of insight. Fail to read it, and you may miss out on the physics of the future. -- John Gribbin * New Scientist *This unusual book introduces 'the moves, the rituals, the incantations' physicists invoke as they go about conceptualizing Nature. The lucid-but-loaded writing makes quite complex ideas accessible to the mathless reader. . . . The rewards are a better understanding of how physics is done. * Whole Earth Millennial Catalog *An excellent [and innovative] book. * Isis *Table of ContentsPreface Degrees of Freedom; A Note to the Reader; A Note for the Scholars; This Second Edition; Acknowledgments1. The Division of Labor: The Factory Nature as a Factory; Handles and Stories. What Everyday Walls Must Do; Walls for a Factory; Walls as Providential. Particles, Objects, and Workers; What Particles Must Be Like; Intuitions of Walls and Particles. What Fields Must Be Like.2. Taking Apart and Putting Together: The Clockworks, The Calculus, and the Computer The Right Degrees of Freedom; The Clockworks and The Calculus. Parts Are Strategies; Independence and Randomness; Dependence, Spreadsheets, and Differential Equations; Additivity and The Calculus; Disjoint Functionality and Interpretability: Bureaucracy, Flow Processing Plants, and Object-Oriented Programming; Sequence and Procedure. Parts Are Commitments.3. Freedom and Necessity: Family and Kinship Recapitulation and Prospect; Kinship, Exchange, and Plenitude; Systematics in the Field; The Problem of "Quite Rarely"; Markets and Fetishes; Taking the Rules Seriously; Structure and System.4. The Vacuum and The Creation: Setting a Stage So Far, an Epitome; Sweeping Up the Vacuum; Symmetry and Order. The Empty Stage; Of Nothing, Something, and the Vacuum. Setting Up the Stage; Ideologies for a Vacuum; The Dialectic of Finding a Good Vacuum; The Analogy of Substance, Once More. Fluctuations in a Vacuum. Annealing the World.5. Handles, Probes, and Tools: A Rhetoric of Nature A Craft of Science; Some Handles onto the World (Particles, Crystals, Gasses; Analogy; Phase Transitions; Knowledge Is Handling). Probes; Objectivity and Inelasticity; Probes and Handles. Tools and Toolkits; A Physicist's Toolkit; So Far.6. Production Machinery: Mathematics for Analysis and Description Philosophical Analysis and Phenomenological Description; Machinery and Production Processes; Naming and Modeling the World; Demonstrations and Proofs as Strategies of Explanation; Understanding "The Physics"; Analogy and Syzygy; The Mathematics and The Physics7. An EpitomeNotesIndex
£18.04
Indiana University Press Delimitations
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewDelimitations offers both an excellent entry into [Sallis's] thought and a strong example of where the tasks of philosophy may yet be found at the closure of metaphysics. * American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly *
£25.19
MH - Indiana University Press Removing Barriers
Book SynopsisMovement into academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has been slow for women and minorities. This book examines reasons for the persistence of barriers that block the full participation and advancement of underrepresented groups in the sciences.Trade ReviewThis book reviews current barriers to opportunities for participation in the sciences and discusses how academia can address possible solutions, important for academic deans to consider when hiring new faculty. . . . For women's studies and academic departments interested in diversifying their academic units in STEM areas. An excellent, thought-provoking read. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *. . . an interesting and thought-provoking addition to the literature on gender in science.Vol. 114.4 January 2009 -- Catherine Riegle-Crumb * University of Texas, Austin *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Jill M. Bystydzienski and Sharon R. BirdPart I. History of Women in STEM Fields1. Sustaining Gains: Reflections on Women in Science and Technology in the Twentieth-Century United States Sally Gregory Kohlstedt2. From "Engineeresses" to "Girl Engineers" to "Good Engineers": A History of Women's U.S. Engineering Education Amy Sue BixPart II. Institutional and Cultural Barriers for Women in STEM3. Using POWRE to ADVANCE: Institutional Barriers Identified by Women Scientists and Engineers Sue V. Rosser4. Telling Stories about Engineering: Group Dynamics and Resistance to Diversity Cynthia Burack and Suzanne E. Franks5. The Gender Gap in Information Technology Mo-Yin S. Tam and Gilbert W. Bassett, Jr.6. African American Women in Science: Experiences from High School through the Post-secondary Years and Beyond Sandra L. Hanson7. African Women Pursuing Graduate Studies in the Sciences: Racism, Gender Bias, and Third World Marginality Josephine Beoku-Betts8. Gendered Experiences in the Science Classroom Molly J. DingelPart III. Feminist Study of Scientific Practice9. The Construction of Sexual Bimorphism and Heterosexuality in the Animal Kingdom Kirsten Smilla Ebeling10. Feminism and Science: Mechanism without Reductionism Carla Fehr11. Across the Language Barrier: Gender in Plant Biology and Feminist Theory Dana A. Dudle and Meryl AltmanPart IV. Remedies and Change12. The Graduate Experience of Women in STEM and How It Could Be Improved Anne J. MacLachlan13. How Can Women and Students of Color Come to Belong in Graduate Mathematics? Abbe H. Herzig14. Designing Gender-Sensitive Computer Games to Close the Gender Gap in Technology Anna M. Martinson15. Making Sense of Retention: An Examination of Undergraduate Women's Participation in Physics Courses Heidi Fencl and Karen R. Scheel16. Creating Academic Career Opportunities for Women in Science: Lessons from Liberal Arts Colleges Neal B. Abraham17. Beyond Gender Schemas: Improving the Advancement of Women in Academia Virginia ValianSelected ReadingsContributorsIndex
£21.59
Indiana University Press Everyday Quantum Reality
Book SynopsisQuantum puzzles in everyday lifeTrade Review"Far from being completely counterintuitive and beyond our experience, the findings of quantum physics have many analogs in everyday life, which we have simply not seen because of the grip of the classical worldview on our thinking.... Everyday Quantum Reality makes an important and original argument." —Alexander Wendt, author of Social Theory of International PoliticsTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Quantum Uncertainty2. Wave-Particle Duality3. Two Everyday Analogues4. The Double-Slit Experiment5. Double-Slit Analogues6. Everyday Superposition7. The Witness of Music8. Everyday Relationality9. Observer-Created Reality10. Wide-Open Reality11. Nonlocality12. Quantum Play, Quantum SorrowNotesBibliographyIndex
£18.04
Indiana University Press Technology and the Politics of Knowledge
Book SynopsisThe challenges of technology are analyzed by philosophers and social scientists.Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsI. Technology as Ideology 1. Subversive Rationalization: Technology, Power, and Democracy/Andrew Feenberg 2. New Science, New Nature: The Habermas-Marcuse Debate Revisited/Steven Vogel 3. On the Notion of Technology as Ideology/Robert B. PippinII. Technology and the Moral Order 4. Citizen Virtues in a Technological Order/Langdon Winner 5. The Moral Significance of the Material Culture/Albert BorgmannIII. The Question of Heidegger 6. Heidegger on Gaining a Free Relation to Technology/Hubert L. Dreyfus 7. Heidegger and the Design of Computer Systems/Terry Winograd 8. Heidegger on Technology and Democracy/Tom RockmoreIV. Media Theories: The Politics of Seeing 9. Image Technologies and Traditional Culture/Don Ihde 10. Technology and the Civil Epistemology of Drmocracy/Yaron EzrahiV. Feminist Perspectives: Knowledge and Bodies 11. Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective/Donna Haraway 12. Knowledge, Bodies, and Values: Reproductive Technologies and Their Scientific Context/Helen E. LonginoVI. Eccentric Positions 13. Sade, the Mechanization of the Libertine Body, and the Crisis of Reason/Marcel Henaff 14. The Archimedean Point and Eccentricity: Hannah Arendt's Philosophy of Science and Technology/Pieter TijmesVII. The Human and the Non-Human 15. Gilbert Simondon's Plea for a Philosophy of Technology/Paul Dumouchel 16. A Door Must Either Be Open or Shut: A Little Philosophy of Techniques/Bruno LatourContributorsIndex
£25.64
University of Notre Dame Press Newton on Matter and Activity
Book SynopsisNewton on Matter and Activity shows persuasively that while the Principia remains within the first two stages of inquiry (mathematical and physical) into nature, Newton spent the next forty years of his life making a philosophical analysis of matter, force, and transmission of force. Close attention is paid to methodological issues, especially Newton''s move beyond inductivism and toward a reproductive theoretical schema of interpretation required to treat of attraction, hardness, and impenetrability. Cross CurrentsTrade Review"While McMullin's study is indebted to the work of contemporary Newton scholars, his arguments are frequently original and he tackles tangled topics with circumspection and admirable clarity. This closely argued book is an up-to-date and judicious study of Newton's natural philosophy, providing a critical survey of a convoluted area of scholarship. In clarifying Newton's ontology, McMullin has made a valuable contribution to Newtonian studies." —International Studies in Philosophy"In this delightfully brief and trenchant book Ernan McMullin elevates several current problems in Newtonian scholarship to a new level of sophistication." —Eighteenth-Century Studies"A major contribution to the growing literature on Newton. . . . Drawing upon both Newton's published and unpublished writings, McMullin explores the more metaphysical side of Newton's physics--questions regarding the nature of matter, force, aether, spirit, and the void--rather than the mathematical and more positivistic side." —Choice
£20.69
University of Notre Dame Press Setting Aside All Authority
Book SynopsisSetting Aside All Authority is an important account and analysis of seventeenth-century scientific arguments against the Copernican system. Christopher M. Graney challenges the long-standing ideas that opponents of the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus and Galileo were primarily motivated by religion or devotion to an outdated intellectual tradition, and that they were in continual retreat in the face of telescopic discoveries. Graney calls on newly translated works by anti-Copernican writers of the time to demonstrate that science, not religion, played an important, and arguably predominant, role in the opposition to the Copernican system. Anti-Copernicans, building on the work of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, were in fact able to build an increasingly strong scientific case against the heliocentric system at least through the middle of the seventeenth century, several decades after the advent of the telescope. The scientific case reached its apogee, Graney arguesTrade Review"The most exciting history of science book so far this century, Graney’s brilliant portrait of Riccioli and his science—amiable but punchy, rigorous but accessible—ought to stimulate a complete revision of what we thought we knew about the Copernican Revolution. Rarely have scientific analysis, historical scholarship, and writerly flair come together with such force." —Dennis Danielson, author of Paradise Lost and the Cosmological Revolution“Christopher Graney’s recent monograph is best described by one word: scientific. It is a book about knowledge, process, and context. If only more history was like this.” —Paragon"Graney's book is a first-class addition to the literature on the history of astronomy in the seventeenth century and an absolute must read for anyone claiming serious interest in the topic." —The Renaissance Mathematicus blog“Christopher Graney relates this story of the testing of a profoundly important scientific theory in a uniquely engaging style. This accessible presentation of science and history makes this book ideal for undergraduates and recommended for academic libraries.” —Catholic Library World“Though Riccioli was one of the most important and widely-known astronomers in the Society of Jesus of the seventeenth century, he has received relatively little attention from historians of science. . . . Ultimately, he [Graney] has managed a rare feat: taking his own expertise and passion for physics and applying them to sources and contents rarely encountered in the college classroom.” —Journal of Jesuit Studies“[A] valuable contribution to the current debate about the science and religion conflict thesis. . . . Graney’s analysis of New Amalgest, aided by his (and Christina Graney’s) careful reading and translation of Riccioli’s difficult Latin prose, stunningly disproves Riccioli’s critics. . . . Graney’s writing is also clear and succinct and is accompanied by some effective illustrations and diagrams, all helping to make the book accessible and enjoyable for undergraduate students of all levels.” —European History Quarterly“Graney’s lucid account of Riccioli’s arguments in their historical context complemented by ample helpful diagrams will inform and entertain specialist and nonspecialist alike. A scientist turned energetic historian, Graney offers compelling grounds for a complete revision of what we thought we knew about the Copernican Revolution." —The Historian“Graney’s deep knowledge of the era’s astronomical debates partly derives from his own translations of writings by Riccioli and others from their original Latin, which highlight some of the technical discussions among astronomers at the time. The Latin and English translations of these writings are included as appendices, making Setting Aside All Authority a valuable read for scholars and armchair historians alike.” —Earth Magazine“Christopher M. Graney’s Setting Aside All Authority makes a fine contribution to the history of science and especially the history of astronomy. The case Graney presents for the rationality of denying Copernicanism, as late as the mid seventeenth century, is cogent, and he presents a good deal of novel historical material that urges a reevaluation of a major figure—Riccioli. The book will interest not only historians but also philosophers of science, and scientists in the relevant specialties (astronomy, physics) together with their students at both the undergraduate and graduate level.” —Peter Barker, University of Oklahoma“Graney’s snapshot of anti-Copernican science proves false the anachronistic claim that religion and science have always been enemies in an uncomplicated sense, and he invites those who think they know the truth of Galileo’s travails and secular martyrdom to rethink.” – The Journal of Religion“Setting Aside All Authority is a fascinating book that outlines the strength of opposing arguments at the time of gravity problem’s emergence and the scientific limitations of all sides. It makes the victory of heliocentrism far more scientifically interesting than the conventional history suggests.” – America Magazine
£20.69
University of Notre Dame Press Minding the Modern
Book SynopsisIn this brilliant study, Thomas Pfau argues that the loss of foundational concepts in classical and medieval Aristotelian philosophy caused a fateful separation between reason and will in European thought. Pfau traces the evolution and eventual deterioration of key concepts of human agencywill, person, judgment, actionfrom antiquity through Scholasticism and on to eighteenth-century moral theory and its critical revision in the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Featuring extended critical discussions of Aristotle, Gnosticism, Augustine, Aquinas, Ockham, Hobbes, Shaftesbury, Mandeville, Hutcheson, Hume, Adam Smith, and Coleridge, this study contends that the humanistic concepts these writers seek to elucidate acquire meaning and significance only inasmuch as we are prepared positively to engage (rather than historicize) their previous usages. Beginning with the rise of theological (and, eventually, secular) voluntarism, modern thought appears increasingly reluctant and, in time, unabTrade Review"By returning the concerns of the 'big books' to literary studies, Pfau hopes to deliver the humanities in general from the methodological dead ends of historicism and reductionist approaches imported from the hard sciences. . . . Whether sympathetic or hostile to Pfau's arguments, readers will find them a useful provocation. The ensuing debate, and the intellectual traditions it will engage, could help restore seriousness and urgency to the humanities." —The Hedgehog Review". . . like Charles Taylor (A Secular Age) and Brad Gregory (The Unintended Reformation), Pfau is a man equipped for the enormous cartographic task of remapping the rise of modernity. . . . Minding the Modern is not history, nor is Pfau a historian. Instead, it is an extended, historically grounded close reading of texts that an accomplished literature professor is well equipped to provide. . . . Pfau focuses his wide-ranging account by choosing the (admittedly enormous) category of human personhood, and its corollaries of will and agency, as the vehicle in which he takes his tour of the ages. His express aim is 'to capture the intrinsic idea of will and person through a series of forensic readings of representative arguments.'" —Books & Culture“Thomas Pfau’s Minding the Modern offers its readers one of the most substantial historical discussions now available on the relationship between human will, intellect and reason.” —The Immanent Frame"Pfau's book is rich and deserving a look. . . . Anyone interested in the history of philosophy or teaching in a humanities program should have this book on their shelves to help build their lectures, giving them a perspective to share with students that provides opportunities for questioning some of our key humanistic terms." —Augustinian Studies"Minding the Modern is an immensely rich genealogy and critique of modernity. For years to come, its innovative phenomenological approach promises to be at the center of debates in theology, philosophy, and other humanistic disciplines about what it means to be human and about the direction the humanities themselves should take." —The Review of Metaphysics“. . . Minding the Modern is highly stimulating, methodologically self-aware and admirably audacious . . . . Part One offers a brilliant methodological reflection on the commitments and aims of the book. The seventy pages of these Prolegomena count among the most original and inspiring parts of the book and hopefully find a wide readership . . . . Minding the Modern will rightfully be seen as a serious, lucid contribution to the search of a new method for the humanities after modernity.” —Reviews in Religion and Theology“Thomas Pfau’s Minding the Modern, a groundbreaking work that may aptly be compared to studies by Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre, develops a sustained argument about the concept of human agency from Aristotle to the present day. Against the loss of deliberative agency, Pfau persuasively demonstrates why the idea of the person remains indispensable to humanistic inquiry today.” —Journal of Theological Studies"Thomas Pfau’s argument is bold: concepts of personhood—rationality, consciousness, judgment, responsibility, and will—have, since the thirteenth century, been so shorn of their distinction and truth value that they have crippled all modern formulations of human agency. More than a decline narrative, Minding the Modern is a thick narration of the systematic forgetting of the hard-won content of these concepts, counterilluminated by a few resilient thinkers who refused to participate in modernity’s collective amnesia. . . . the consequent depth and richness of the interpretation of these canonical texts—nimbly supported with scholarly citation and counterinterpretation—will not fail to impress and, I think, consistently persuade." —The Journal of Religion“As with many cartographies of modernity, Pfau covers enormous intellectual ground here. But by limiting his scope to the metamorphosis affecting the relationship between the will and the intellect, he sheds much needed light on how the once indissoluble, metaphysical link between human agency and responsible knowledge gradually became severed. . . . This is, above all, a scholarly work of remembering: both what it once meant to be human and how those ancient possibilities might revitalize a contemporary area of decay.” —Religious Studies Review“The sheer depth of Pfau’s scholarship must deter criticism. His philosophical claims are underwritten by his dazzling erudite close readings, and he traverses with ease a vast intellectual terrain. . . . The case that Pfau makes is compelling, and its urgency . . . is hardly over-stated.” —European Romantic Review"This brilliantly written and concise work examines the cost of forfeiting the past for modernity, and offers a historical account for how the human will and intellect were understood from Greek antiquity until the modern era. Pfau argues that, from Plato to Aquinas, the human will and intellect were essentially subordinated to a divine form of reason that pervaded the cosmos." —History of European Ideas"Minding the Modern is a refreshing and timely book that offers a sharp focus on the unity of reason and will. Thomas Pfau advances his argument on intellectual history not by lacing big ideas together, but through close readings of exemplary texts." —The Thomist
£105.40
University of Notre Dame Press Setting Aside All Authority
Book SynopsisSetting Aside All Authority is an important account and analysis of seventeenth-century scientific arguments against the Copernican system. Christopher M. Graney challenges the long-standing ideas that opponents of the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus and Galileo were primarily motivated by religion or devotion to an outdated intellectual tradition, and that they were in continual retreat in the face of telescopic discoveries. Graney calls on newly translated works by anti-Copernican writers of the time to demonstrate that science, not religion, played an important, and arguably predominant, role in the opposition to the Copernican system. Anti-Copernicans, building on the work of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, were in fact able to build an increasingly strong scientific case against the heliocentric system at least through the middle of the seventeenth century, several decades after the advent of the telescope. The scientific case reached its apogee, Graney arguesTrade Review"The most exciting history of science book so far this century, Graney’s brilliant portrait of Riccioli and his science—amiable but punchy, rigorous but accessible—ought to stimulate a complete revision of what we thought we knew about the Copernican Revolution. Rarely have scientific analysis, historical scholarship, and writerly flair come together with such force." —Dennis Danielson, author of Paradise Lost and the Cosmological Revolution“Christopher Graney’s recent monograph is best described by one word: scientific. It is a book about knowledge, process, and context. If only more history was like this.” —Paragon"Graney's book is a first-class addition to the literature on the history of astronomy in the seventeenth century and an absolute must read for anyone claiming serious interest in the topic." —The Renaissance Mathematicus blog“Christopher Graney relates this story of the testing of a profoundly important scientific theory in a uniquely engaging style. This accessible presentation of science and history makes this book ideal for undergraduates and recommended for academic libraries.” —Catholic Library World“Though Riccioli was one of the most important and widely-known astronomers in the Society of Jesus of the seventeenth century, he has received relatively little attention from historians of science. . . . Ultimately, he [Graney] has managed a rare feat: taking his own expertise and passion for physics and applying them to sources and contents rarely encountered in the college classroom.” —Journal of Jesuit Studies“[A] valuable contribution to the current debate about the science and religion conflict thesis. . . . Graney’s analysis of New Amalgest, aided by his (and Christina Graney’s) careful reading and translation of Riccioli’s difficult Latin prose, stunningly disproves Riccioli’s critics. . . . Graney’s writing is also clear and succinct and is accompanied by some effective illustrations and diagrams, all helping to make the book accessible and enjoyable for undergraduate students of all levels.” —European History Quarterly“Graney’s lucid account of Riccioli’s arguments in their historical context complemented by ample helpful diagrams will inform and entertain specialist and nonspecialist alike. A scientist turned energetic historian, Graney offers compelling grounds for a complete revision of what we thought we knew about the Copernican Revolution." —The Historian“Graney’s deep knowledge of the era’s astronomical debates partly derives from his own translations of writings by Riccioli and others from their original Latin, which highlight some of the technical discussions among astronomers at the time. The Latin and English translations of these writings are included as appendices, making Setting Aside All Authority a valuable read for scholars and armchair historians alike.” —Earth Magazine“Christopher M. Graney’s Setting Aside All Authority makes a fine contribution to the history of science and especially the history of astronomy. The case Graney presents for the rationality of denying Copernicanism, as late as the mid seventeenth century, is cogent, and he presents a good deal of novel historical material that urges a reevaluation of a major figure—Riccioli. The book will interest not only historians but also philosophers of science, and scientists in the relevant specialties (astronomy, physics) together with their students at both the undergraduate and graduate level.” —Peter Barker, University of Oklahoma“Graney’s snapshot of anti-Copernican science proves false the anachronistic claim that religion and science have always been enemies in an uncomplicated sense, and he invites those who think they know the truth of Galileo’s travails and secular martyrdom to rethink.” – The Journal of Religion“Setting Aside All Authority is a fascinating book that outlines the strength of opposing arguments at the time of gravity problem’s emergence and the scientific limitations of all sides. It makes the victory of heliocentrism far more scientifically interesting than the conventional history suggests.” – America Magazine
£70.55
University of Washington Press Molecular Feminisms
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A timely and welcome intervention is Deboleena Roy's book, Molecular Feminisms: Biology, Becomings, and Life in the Lab. Thinking about the connections and potential created between molecular biology and feminism, and philosophy and science, Roy thinks with philosophy [and] situates her work, which she names molecular feminisms, in the ontological and ethical reorientations made possible by thinking matter, ethics, and knowledge-making practices together." * Hypatia Reviews Online *
£110.48
University of Washington Press Hacking the Underground
Book Synopsis
£110.48
University of Wisconsin Press Electrifying Indonesia Technology and Social
Book SynopsisTells the story of the entanglement of politics and technology during Indonesia’s rapid post-World War II development. In this innovative volume, Anto Mohsin brings Indonesian studies together with science and technology studies to understand a crucial period in modern Indonesian history.Trade ReviewA groundbreaking study of electrification as nation building in postcolonial Indonesia. Mohsin sheds light on how electrification became bound up with negotiations about the meanings of social justice and the hopes of postcolonial Indonesian society. This book is a welcome addition to the growing STS literature on Southeast Asia." - Suzanne Moon, author of Technology in Southeast Asian HistoryTable of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial Electrification 2 The New Order’s Patrimonial Technopolitics 3 The Electric Bureaucracy 4 Java-Centrism and the Two Grid Systems 5 Social Knowledge of Rural Life and Energy Uses 6 Rural Electric Cooperatives Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index
£56.95
Yale University Press The Power of Knowledge
Book SynopsisA thought-provoking analysis of how the acquisition and utilization of information has determined the course of history over the past five centuries and shaped the world as we know it today Information is power. For more than five hundred years the success or failure of nations has been determined by a country's ability to acquire knowledge and technical skill and transform them into strength and prosperity. Leading historian Jeremy Black approaches global history from a distinctive perspective, focusing on the relationship between information and society and demonstrating how the understanding and use of information have been the primary factors in the development and character of the modern age.Black suggests that the West's ascension was a direct result of its institutions and social practices for acquiring, employing, and retaining information and the technology that was ultimately produced. His cogent and well-reasoned analysis looks at cartography and the hardware of communicatio
£26.92
Yale University Press The Global War for Internet Governance
Book Synopsis
£22.50
Yale University Press Science and the Good The Tragic Quest for the
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Science and the Good is a closely argued, always accessible riposte to those who think scientific study can explain, improve or even supersede morality [. . .] A generous and thoughtful critique”—Simon Ings, The Daily Telegraph“Well worth reading”—Marcus Arvan, Metascience"Science and the Good is a compelling critique of half-baked ideas that have acquired pervasive and unwarranted influence in Anglophone public discourse today. One could not ask for a more timely and incisive contribution to contemporary cultural debate."—Jackson Lears, Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History, Rutgers University"Science and the Good provides an incisive and timely analysis of the pressing question: can science demonstrate what morality is and how we should live? Hunter and Nedelisky carefully expose the inadequacies and dangers of ‘the new science of morality.’"—Peter Harrison, author of The Territories of Science and Religion
£16.99
Yale University Press The Voice Catchers
Book SynopsisYour voice as biometric data, and how marketers are using it to manipulate youTrade Review“[Dr. Turow ] is encouraging policymakers and the public to do something I wish we did more often: Be careful and considerate about how we use a powerful technology before it might be used for consequential decisions.”—Shira Ovide, New York Times“If you think your voice belongs to you, think again. Joseph Turow performs a critical public service, exposing in all its slimy detail this latest frontier of exploitation, where our voices are plundered for analysis, prediction, behavioral manipulation, and profit.”—Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism“A ground-breaking exploration of the new frontier of surveillance—the voice. With clarity and nuance, Joseph Turow reveals the stakes for democracies and liberty.”—Danielle Citron, author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace“In this forward-thinking and original book, Joseph Turow explores how our voices are the next frontier for technology companies and marketers, connecting the dots in a way that no one else yet has.”—Mara Einstein, author of Black Ops Advertising: Native Ads, Content Marketing and the Covert World of the Digital Sell“In this well-researched call to action, Joseph Turow explains why we need to protect the human voice to shield our thoughts and emotions.”—Chris Jay Hoofnagle, University of California, Berkeley“The Voice Catchers is compelling, thoroughly researched, and filled with jaw-dropping revelations. It gives readers a fascinating peek under the hood of the companies exploiting our voices, as well as reasons to hold them accountable.”—Woodrow Hartzog, Northeastern University
£14.00
WW Norton & Co Colliding Worlds
Book SynopsisA dazzling look at the artists working on the frontiers of science.Trade Review"[An] encyclopedic survey… Dr. Miller’s grasp of the scene is impressive." -- Jascha Hoffman - New York Times Book Review"[Arthur I. Miller] deftly demonstrates in this survey of what he calls "artsci" [that] both artists and scientists…have probed the porous borders between art and science, creating aesthetic objects that incorporate scientific ideas… Miller eloquently chronicles the story of artsci in brief vignettes of the lives and works of the individuals working at the intersections of these disciplines." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Arthur I. Miller understands the intersection of art and science better than anyone writing today. In Colliding Worlds, he brilliantly helps us expand our definitions of art and science while encouraging us to appreciate how both involve an intuitive feel for the beauty of the unseen." -- Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs"Arthur I. Miller explores what happens when the brainwaves, objectivity and logic of science spark off the inspiration, subjectivity and wildness of art, and vice versa. After tracing out the contacts between these spheres of endeavor, Miller goes even further, suggesting that the boundaries between them are breaking down: science is redefining contemporary art to seed a third culture." -- Roger Highfield, director of external affairs, Science Museum, London"Arthur I. Miller’s Colliding Worlds answers the age-old question of whether art and science can find common ground with a resounding YES! From the foundations of Cubism to bacterial radios, fluorescent rabbits, and musical hyper-instruments, Miller’s easygoing, anecdotal, and wide-ranging narrative shows how artists exploit cutting-edge advances in science and technology to alter dramatically the palette of artistic invention." -- Mark Pagel, author of Wired for Culture"Arthur I. Miller has the rare intellectual range to address the ways modern scientific discoveries have nourished the creativity of artists—and that’s what he’s done in this fine book." -- Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and author of From Here to Infinity"Illuminating… [A] philosophically rich study of creativity and aesthetics." -- Grace Labatt - Santa Fe New Mexican
£25.19
WW Norton & Co Utopia Is Creepy
Book SynopsisA freewheeling, sharp-shooting indictment of a tech-besotted culture.Trade Review"The prescient Nicholas Carr punches a hole in Silicon Valley hubris." -- Rana Foroohar - Time"Carr, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, takes on modern life’s short attention spans and worship of the superficial in a . . . rapid-fire volley of ideas deceptively designed to engage at a depth greater than 140 characters. By turns wry and revelatory, and occasionally maddening, Carr succeeds at shaking the reader out of screen-zombie complacency." -- Discover Magazine"[F]ull of wry vignettes and articles lampooning the motivated enthusiasm and game-changing promises of Silicon Valley’s tech bro elite… by turns cute, funny or chilling. And it’s more than the sum of its parts." -- Sally Adee - New Scientist"Carr’s best hits for those who missed the last decade of his stream of thoughtful commentary about our love affair with technology and its effect on our relationships." -- Richard Cytowic - New York Journal of Books"Bright, fun, telling. . . . A collection that reminds us that critical thinking is the best way to view the mixed blessings of rampant technology. A treat for Carr fans." -- Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)"This highly browsable collection will hold great appeal for anyone interested in the social aspects of technology, from tech lovers to pre-Internet nostalgists." -- Library Journal
£19.94
WW Norton & Co Utopia Is Creepy
Book SynopsisTrenchant writing from a Pulitzer Prize finalist that dissects our obsession with technological utopia and looks towards a smarter future.Trade Review"[F]ull of wry vignettes and articles lampooning the motivated enthusiasm and game-changing promises of Silicon Valley’s tech bro elite… by turns cute, funny or chilling. And it’s more than the sum of its parts." -- Sally Adee - New Scientist
£12.34
John Wiley & Sons Inc The Science and Ethics of Engineering the Human
Book SynopsisWith implications that go to the core of what it means to be human, the issues raised by genetic manipulation especially cloning have sparked a passionate debate among governmental, religious, and scientific quarters, as well as the media and the general public. This work covers this topic.Trade Review"...will help us engage in a sensible and productive discussion to decide collectively the role genetic technologies should play in our future." (The Quarterly Review of Biology, December 2004) "Academic, hospital, and corporate health sciences libraries would welcome this title as an asset to their collections." (E-STREAMS, July 2004) "...an essential and accessible guide to these important subjects. Dr. Gordon and John-Wiley Corporation jointly deserve a pat in the back for producing a beneficial and 'eye-opening' book." (Annals of Biomedical Engineering, August 2004) “...elucidates the background of genetic manipulation for the layman...recommended...” (Choice, Vol. 41, No. 8, April 2004) “...this book succeeds in demystifying many of the issues surrounding germline genetic manipulations...” (Science Books & Films, April 2004) "This powerful ethical message, combined with Gordon's scientific acumen, make for a simultaneously accessible and thoughtful book." (Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, July 2003)Table of ContentsPreface. Acknowledgments. PART I. 1. Setting the Table. 2. Building a Living Organism from Inanimate Parts. 3. Molecular Biology and Recombinant DNA Technology. 4. Transmitting the Genetic Information to Future Generations. 5. Developmental Biology. 6. Reproductive Biology and Assisted Reproductive Technologies. 7. Methods and Strategies for Gene Transfer and Engineering of the Germ Line. PART II. 8. Introduction to the Ethics of Reproductive Genetic Technologies. 9. Future Developments and Applications of Genetic Engineering Technology. 10. What If? Ethical and Legal Aspects of Germ Line Genetic Manipulation. A Brief Epilogue: Understanding Our Biases. Index.
£91.76
LUP - University of Michigan Press Prometheus Reimagined
Book SynopsisInstead of treating technology, health, and the environment as discrete issues, Albert C. Lin argues that laws must acknowledge their fundamental relationship, anticipating both future technological developments and their potential adverse effects. Laws should encourage international cooperation and the development of common global standards, while allowing for flexibility and reassessment.Trade ReviewWhat this book contributes is a detailed look at potential governance mechanisms in a historical perspective, and a close legal analysis of existing and potential regulatory structures for a particular group of emerging technologies. The biggest strength is the legal analysis of how U.S. regulation applies and does not apply to emerging technologies, and some good policy ideas for generating new governance."" - David Winickoff, University of California, Berkeley, College of Natural Resources
£27.50
LUP - University of Michigan Press Stephanie Dinkins
Book SynopsisBrings together renowned curators and theorists who draw from methodologies of art criticism, social practice, new media theory, and critical studies to offer an in-depth analysis of key installations in Stephanie Dinkins’s survey exhibition. The book also includes an important essay by Stephanie Dinkins on her concept of Afro-now-ism.Table of Contents Foreword On Love & Data by Salome Asega Artistic Framework Afro-now-ism by Stephanie Dinkins Essays Radical Love & Data Justice — The Empowering Art of Stephanie Dinkins Srimoyee Mitra The Data that Gives Christiane Paul Secret Garden Shari Frilot Who Are Your People?”: Stephanie Dinkins’ Afro-Now-ism as Algorithmic Abundance by Lisa Nakamura Works in the Exhibition Artist’s Biography Contributors’ Biographies About Stamps Gallery Acknowledgements
£23.70
LUP - University of Michigan Press Electoral Campaigns Media and the New World of
Book SynopsisToday, political leaders and candidates for office must campaign in a multi-media world not only through the traditional media forums, but also through new digital media, particularly social media. This volume chronicles how Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, email, and memes are used successfully and unsuccessfully to influence elections.Table of Contents Introduction - David Taras Chapter 1: Owning Identity: Struggles to Align Voters during the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina; Shannon McGregor, University of Utah; and Regina Lawrence, University of Oregon Chapter 2: Trending Politics: How the Internet has Changed Political News Coverage Kevin Wagner, Florida Atlantic University, and Jason Gainous, University of Louisville Chapter 3: Feminism, Social Media and Political Campaigns: Justin Trudeau and Sadiq Khan Kaitlyn Mendes, University of Leicester and Diretman Dikwal-Bot, De Montfort University Chapter 4: A Women’s Place is in the (U.S. ) House: An analysis of issues women candidates discussed on Twitter in 2016 and 2018 Congressional elections Heather K. Evans, University of Virginia’s College at Wise Chapter 5: Two Different Worlds; The gap between the interests of voters and the media in Canada in the 2019 Federal Election Chris Waddell, Carleton University Chapter 6: The Agenda building power of Facebook and Twitter: The Case of the 2018 Italian General Election Sara Bentivegna, University of Rome, Rita Marchetti and Anna Stanziano, University of Perugia Chapter 7: “Many thanks for your support”: Email Populism and the People’s Party of Canada Brian Budd and Tamara Small, University of Guelph Chapter 8: Benjamin Netanyahu and online campaigning in Israel’s 2019 and 2020 elections Michael Keren, University of Calgary Chapter 9: Stabbed democracy: How social media and home views made a populist president in Brazil Francisco Brandao, University of Brasilia Chapter 10: Memes; a New emerging logic: Evidence from the 2019 British General Election Rosalynd Southern, The University of Liverpool Chapter 11: Populists and social media campaigning in Ukraine: The Election of Volodymyr Zelensky Larisa Doroshenko, Northeastern University Chapter 12: The changing face of political campaigning in Kenya Martin Ndlela, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences Chapter 13: Social media as strategic campaign tool: Austrian political parties use of social media over time Uta Russman, FH Wien University of Applied Sciences Chapter 14: “Many thanks for your support”: Email Populism and the People’s Party of Canada Chris Wells, Blake Wertz, Li Zhang, and Rebecca Auger, Boston University Conclusion - Richard Davis
£69.30
