Impact of science and technology on society Books
University of Texas Press Misinformation and Mass Audiences
Book SynopsisAddressing one of the most important but least-reported aspects of mass communication, this timely volume considers both the perils of misinformation and the possibilities for remedying its detrimental effects.Trade ReviewMisinformation and Mass Audiences is well worth reading...It represents a timely foray into the analysis of public misinformation, with a broad vista, providing a number of valuable insights into the phenomenon and often using examples from science communication. * Public Understanding of Science *Readers will find Misinformation and Mass Audiences helpful in developing a better understanding of the current environment and identifying areas for further study. Thoughtful communication practitioners will also benefit from this volume by forcing them to think deeply about the consequences, intended or not, of their work...Misinformation and Mass Audiences would be a good basis for an overall study of misinformation, but students in journalism, political science, public relations, or advertising will also find this collection valuable. * Communication Booknotes Quarterly *[A] robust primer for anyone looking for a social science perspective on misinformation...accessible to broad audiences looking to correct their misinformation about misinformation. * Choice Reviews *[O]ne of the first attempts to systematically analyze how misinformation functions in the modern age. * Vox *A valuable resource for laymen as well as scholars and journalists, [Misinformation and Mass Audiences] is a well-documented book and significant contribution toward understanding the complexity and diversity of misinformation in our lives. * Communications *This book is a clear and concise introduction to many of the important themes in misinformation studies. It is a valuable contribution to the new research agenda taking shape in political communication research. * International Journal of Press/Politics *Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Misinformation among Mass Audiences as a Focus for Inquiry (Brian G. Southwell, Emily A. Thorson, and Laura Sheble) Part I. Dimensions of Audience Awareness of Misinformation Chapter 1. Believing Things That Are Not True: A Cognitive Science Perspective on Misinformation (Elizabeth J. Marsh and Brenda W. Yang) Chapter 2. Awareness of Misinformation in Health-Related Advertising: A Narrative Review of the Literature (Vanessa Boudewyns, Brian G. Southwell, Kevin R. Betts, Catherine Slota Gupta, Ryan S. Paquin, Amie C. O’Donoghue, and Natasha Vazquez) Chapter 3. The Importance of Measuring Knowledge in the Age of Misinformation and Challenges in the Tobacco Domain (Joseph N. Cappella, Yotam Ophir, and Jazmyne Sutton) Chapter 4. Measuring Perceptions of Shares of Groups (Douglas J. Ahler and Gaurav Sood) Chapter 5. Dimensions of Visual Misinformation in the Emerging Media Landscape (Jeff Hemsley and Jaime Snyder) Part II. Theoretical Effects and Consequences of Misinformation Chapter 6. The Effects of False Information in News Stories (Melanie C. Green and John K. Donahue) Chapter 7. Can Satire and Irony Constitute Misinformation? (Dannagal G. Young) Chapter 8. Media and Political Misperceptions (Brian E. Weeks) Chapter 9. Misinformation and Science: Emergence, Diffusion, and Persistence (Laura Sheble) Chapter 10. Doing the Wrong Things for the Right Reasons: How Environmental Misinformation Affects Environmental Behavior (Alexander Maki, Amanda R. Carrico, and Michael P. Vandenbergh) Part III. Solutions and Remedies for Misinformation Chapter 11. Misinformation and Its Correction: Cognitive Mechanisms and Recommendations for Mass Communication (Briony Swire and Ullrich Ecker) Chapter 12. How to Counteract Consumer Product Misinformation (Graham Bullock) Chapter 13. A History of Fact Checking in U.S. Politics and Election Contexts (Shannon Poulsen and Dannagal G. Young) Chapter 14. Comparing Approaches to Journalistic Fact Checking (Emily A. Thorson) Chapter 15. The Role of Middle-Level Gatekeepers in the Propagation and Longevity of Misinformation (Jeff Hemsley) Chapter 16. Encouraging Information Search to Counteract Misinformation: Providing "Balanced" Information about Vaccines (Samantha Kaplan) Conclusion: An Agenda for Misinformation Research (Emily A. Thorson, Laura Sheble, and Brian G. Southwell) Contributors Index
£62.90
Duke University Press Infrahumanisms
Book SynopsisMegan H. Glick considers how twentieth-century conversations surrounding nonhuman life have impacted a broad range of attitudes toward forms of human difference such as race, sexuality, and health, showing how efforts to define a universal humanity create the means with which to reinforce various forms of social inequality.Trade Review“Infrahumanisms is an ambitious book that shows the applicability of the term ‘infrahuman’ to a wide range of historical contexts and highlights how these relate to constructions of sexual, racial, gender, and bodily difference…. Offering analyses of an impressive range of twentieth-century scientific and cultural phenomena, from the emergence of primatology to extraterrestrial sightings in the postwar era and contemporary xenotransplantation, Infrahumanisms will be of interest to scholars working in the history of sexuality, critical race studies, animal studies, medical humanities, and science studies.” -- Ina Linge * Journal of the History of Sexuality *“It is a rare work that can bring together topics as disparate as childhood, nonhuman primates, aliens, xenotransplantation, and AIDS…. Full of surprising connections and intriguing insights, Infrahumanisms is a rich and stimulating contribution to the literature on eugenics, biomedicalization, and biopolitics in general.” -- Rose Trappes * Metascience *“The scholarly discussions in both human-animal studies and posthuman theory have been insufficiently attentive to race and colonial histories, and Glick’s work is a welcome addition to these conversations, showing gaps in previous ways of thinking about the ideological functions of the animal/human boundary.” -- Sherryl Vint * Catalyst *“Infrahumanisms shows how beliefs about species categories, species relations, and species hierarchies form the ground from which ideas about biological essentialism, humane behavior, and dehumanization often grow…. Glick’s methods and style in Infrahumanisms are bold and refreshing…. Readers will find this book to be generous, opening up lines of inquiry that may be taken up elsewhere.” -- Rebecah Pulsifer * Women's Studies Quarterly *“Glick presents a new focus on the history of dehumanization and devaluation, of cultural and political exclusion based on differential conditions of embodiment including race, gender, sexuality, disability, and disease status…. A dense yet rewarding read. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.” -- J. A. Kegley * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Toward a Theory of Infrahumanity 1 Part I. Bioexpansionism, 1900s-1930s 1. Brief Histories of Time: Nature, Culture, and the Making of Modern Childhood 29 2. Ocular Anthropomorphisms:Eugenics and Primatology at the Threshold of the "Almost Human" 56 Part II. Extraterrestriality, 1940s-1970s 3. On Alien Ground: Extraterrestrial Sightings, Atomic Warfare, and the Undoing of the Human Body 85 4. Inner and Outer Spaces: Exobiology, Human Genetics, and the Disembodiment of Corporeal Difference 110 Part III. Interiority, 1980s-2010s 5. Of Sodomy and Cannibalism: Disgust, Dehumanization, and the Rhetorics of Same-Sex and Cross-Species Contagion 139 6. Everything except the Squeal: Porcine Hybridity in the Obesity Epidemic and Xenotransplantation Research 159 Conclusion. The Plurality Is Near: Techniques of Symbiotic Re-speciation 196 Notes 209 Bibliography 247 Index 263
£98.60
Duke University Press Surrogate Humanity
Book SynopsisIn Surrogate Humanity Neda Atanasoski and Kalindi Vora trace the ways in which robots, artificial intelligence, and other technologies serve as surrogates for human workers within a labor system entrenched in racial capitalism and patriarchy. Analyzing myriad technologies, from sex robots and military drones to sharing-economy platforms, Atanasoski and Vora show how liberal structures of antiblackness, settler colonialism, and patriarchy are fundamental to human---machine interactions, as well as the very definition of the human. While these new technologies and engineering projects promise a revolutionary new future, they replicate and reinforce racialized and gendered ideas about devalued work, exploitation, dispossession, and capitalist accumulation. Yet, even as engineers design robots to be more perfect versions of the human—more rational killers, more efficient workers, and tireless companions—the potential exists to develop alternative modes of engineerinTrade Review“By bringing a much more nuanced reading of race, gender, and difference to science and technology studies, Atanasoski and Vora provoke us to think more deeply about how our imagined technological futures always already serve to reproduce our most problematic pasts—and what forms or processes can disrupt and transcend these. This is a vital project that should speak to us all.” -- Barbara Herr Harthorn * American Ethnologist *“Surrogate Humanity...confirm[s] that the human is a contingent concept.... The authors also spotlight how contemporary discourses concerning automation, in particular, alternately promise liberation and threaten debasement while eliding the roles of racialized and colonial subjects in producing the technologies and materials on which automation relies.” -- Rebecah Pulsifer * Women's Studies Quarterly *“...Surrogate Humanity usefully provides examples from literary, artistic, engineering, and scientific projects that critique or outright refuse technoliberalism’s frame for recognizing full humanity. These rebellious acts of imagination show us that the potential exists to develop alternative designs and trajectories for technological development ... in ways that prioritize equity and justice.” -- Anita Lam * Surveillance & Society *“Surrogate Humanity is a fascinating and important book that provides a much-needed counter narrative to prevailing approaches in science and technology studies.... Complemented by their mode of collaborative writing as a radical feminist act, the book is thus certain to inspire scholars and activists alike....” -- Sibille Merz * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“Atanasoski and Vora’s major intervention in the automation debate is their argument that automation imaginaries are shaped by liberal humanism and the racial hierarchies embedded in it.... One strength of Surrogate Humanity is the range of technological discourses, objects, and processes in which the authors elucidate the logics of technoliberalism.” -- J. Jesse Ramírez * American Quarterly *“Atanasoski andVora write with thoughtful scholarship and careful word selection.... [Surrogate Humanity] also provides a generative grounding in relevant science and technology studies and race theory literatures.... [I]t should be required reading in any sociology course on colonization and empire.” -- Laurel Smith-Doerr * Contemporary Sociology *“Surrogate Humanity questions what it means to be human at all, and is an incredibly useful analysis for anyone interested in shifting from thinking about robots within a tool-using paradigm, to an ethics paradigm.” -- Lindsay Balfour * Cultural Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: The Surrogate Human Effects of Technoliberalism 1 1. Technoliberalism and Automation: Racial Imaginaries of a Postlabor World 27 2. Sharing, Collaboration, and the Commons in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Appropriative Techniques of Technoliberal Capitalism 54 3. Automation and the Invisible Service Function: Toward an "Artificial Artificial Intelligence" 87 4. The Surrogate Human Affect: The Racial Programming of Robot Emotion 108 5. Machine Autonomy and the Unmanned Spacetime of Technoliberal Warfare 134 6. Killer Robots: Feeling Human in the Field of War 163 Epilogue: On Technoliberal Desire, Or Why There Is No Such Thing as a Feminist A1 188 Notes 197 Bibliography 225 Index 233
£72.25
Duke University Press Captivating Technology
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Captivating Technology examine how carceral technologies such as electronic ankle monitors and predictive-policing algorithms are being deployed to classify and coerce specific populations and whether these innovations can be appropriated and reimagined for more liberatory ends.Trade Review"The book comes at a timely moment, contributing to pressing contemporary conversations about predictive algorithms, bias in AI, new modes of surveillance, and the myriad ways our increasingly technologically mediated lives are experienced unequally along lines of race, class, and gender. . . . Captivating Technology offers a meaningful contribution to public and scholarly discussions of technological (in)justice." -- Naomi Zucker * Somatosphere *"Benjamin presents a rich and original contribution to critical studies of race and technoscience." -- Clara Hick * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“Captivating Technology is a powerful and deeply creative text that excavates suppressed histories just as much as it works towards building new futures.” -- Susila Gurusami * Surveillance & Society *“Captivating Technology...is an excellent collection that is compelling both in rich individual chapters and in the synthetic whole.... One of the strengths of this collective volume is its deliberate use of literary technologies.” -- Vivette García-Deister and Anne Pollock * BioSocieties *“[Captivating Technology] is an ideal in action; unfettered by carceral imaginations, scholars can invent different worlds that replace—and not merely, through reform, extend—the discriminatory societies we have made together.” -- David Theodore * Technology and Culture *Table of ContentsForeword / Troy Duster xi Acknowledgments / Ruha Benjamin xv Part I. Carceral Techniques from Plantation to Prison 1. Naturalizing Coercion: The Tuskegee Experiments and the Laboratory Life of the Plantation / Britt Rusert 25 2. Consumed by Disease: Medical Archives, Latino Fictions, and Carceral Health Imaginaries / Christopher Perreira 50 3. Billions Served: Prison Food Regimes, Nutritional Punishment, and Gastronomical Resistance / Anthony Ryan Hatch 67 4. Shadows of War, Traces of Policing: The Weaponization of Space and the Sensible Preemption / Andrea Miller 85 5. This Is Not Minority Report: Predictive Policing and Population Racism / R. Joshua Scannell 107 Part II. Surveillance Systems from Facebook to Fast Fashion 6. Racialized Surveillance in the Digital Service Economy / Winifred Poster 133 7. Digital Character in "The Scored Society": FICO, Social Networks, and the Competing Measurements of Creditworthimess / Tamara K. Nopper 170 8. Deception by Design: Digital Skin, Racial Matter, and the New Policing of Child Sexual Exploitation / Mitali Thakor 188 9. Employing the Carceral Imaginary: An Ethnography of Worker Surveillance in the Retail Industry / Madison Van Oort 209 Part III. Retooling Liberation from Abolitionists to Afrofuturists 10. Anti-Racist Technoscience: A Generative Tradition / Ron Eglash 227 11. Techo-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation across the African Diaspora and Global South / Nettrice R. Gaskins 252 12. Making Skin Visible through Liberatory Design / Lorna Roth 275 13. Scratch a Theory, You Find a Biography: A Conversation with Troy Duster 308 14. Reimagining Race, Resistance, and Technoscience: A Conversation with Dorothy Roberts 328 Bibliography 349 Contributors 389 Index 393
£80.75
Duke University Press Virulent Zones
Book SynopsisScientists have identified southern China as a likely epicenter for viral pandemics, a place where new viruses emerge out of intensively farmed landscapes and human--animal interactions. In Virulent Zones, Lyle Fearnley documents the global plans to stop the next influenza pandemic at its source, accompanying virologists and veterinarians as they track lethal viruses to China''s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake. Revealing how scientific research and expert agency operate outside the laboratory, he shows that the search for origins is less a linear process of discovery than a constant displacement toward new questions about cause and context. As scientists strive to understand the environments from which the influenza virus emerges, the unexpected scale of duck farming systems and unusual practices such as breeding wild geese unsettle research objects, push scientific inquiry in new directions, and throw expert authority into question. Drawing on fieldwork with global health Trade Review“Readers will come away with a newly visceral understanding of the phrase One Health, as they journey with scientists and epidemiologists through the bodies and ecologies of animal viruses in China. This is a book that rearranges one's sense of scale and time, with a slow and massive build to the sharpness of crisis and the paradoxical enormous scale of the microscopic at play in every scene.” -- Hannah Landecker, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles“Virulent Zones tells an intricate story about ways the sciences interlace with geopolitics, with profound impacts on public health at many scales. Lyle Fearnley also provides new perspective on how the sciences advance, both geographically and conceptually, through displacement rather than discovery. This important book will be of critical interest to anthropologists and historians of science, scientists, and those working to build transnational scientific and governance capacity.” -- Kim Fortun, author of * Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders *“Lyle Fearnley’s Virulent Zones offers a gripping anthropological account of the search for the origins of influenza pandemics in China…. Virulent Zones is an outstanding scholarly work as it unmasks the mechanism of virus hunting and disease control in China at a time of marketization and globalization. It allows for an alternative understanding of the interplay of science and everyday life. It is highly recommended reading not only for anthropologists but also for anyone interested in public health in contemporary China.” -- Qiliang He * East Asian Science, Technology and Society *"[A] compelling argument for the move away from older microevolutionary theories of pathogenesis, based on competition of hosts and parasites, toward a more systemic and rigorous reckoning—a dynamic configuration—of how environments and animal populations (human and nonhuman) connect up to promote viral innovation. . . . We can read [it] with profit to learn more about our current predicament, to see how historical perceptions and responses are repeated or modified as we come to terms with the pandemic that confronts us today." -- Warwick Anderson * Public Books *“Virulent Zones reads like a detective novel uncanny in its timeliness to collective conditions today, as it follows the travails of scientists across continents, trying to locate the origins of viral pandemics.” -- Emily Ng * Somatosphere *“Virulent Zones would make an excellent addition to any course covering topics in global health, medical anthropology, the production of scientific knowledge, networks, and expertise, or the history of medicine and public health.... Those who want to know more about pandemic planning and viral surveillance in the wake of COVID-19 will also find this an invaluable resource.” -- Theresa MacPhail * Medical Anthropology Quarterly *“Virulent Zones shows how science and geopolitics intersect and how this has an important impact on global health. As such, it is a key text for medical anthropologists and sociologists, historians of science, STS researchers, and those working in global health.” -- Giulia De Togni * New Genetics and Society *“Lyle Fearnley’s Virulent Zones . . . is a timely and reflexive ethnographic account of global focus on China as the ‘epicenter’ of new zoonotic diseases. . . . This book kicks off an important and enthusiastic discussion about global health and China.” -- Shao-hua Liu * Journal of Anthropological Research *“Virulent Zones is an impressively timely book. . . . [Some remaining] questions indicate the rich potential of the ideas articulated so lucidly by Fearnley in this excellent book.” -- Mary Augusta Brazelton * Journal of Asian Studies *“Virulent Zones is an excellent, informative book that serves as a welcome and valuable addition to the growing literature on the anthropology of epidemics. . . . It also serves as an important contribution to the anthropology of science, human-animal interactions, the environment, agriculture, and China.” -- Katherine A. Mason * Anthropological Quarterly *“[Fearnley’s] analysis goes beyond a classic medical anthropology approach; he navigates between different areas and topics of social studies (sciences, expertise, international relations, rurality, etc.) to forge alliances between different fields of knowledge, and to work across the classic divisions. This is crucial to address the complexity of emerging diseases.” -- Muriel Figuié * Review Of Agriculatural Food And Environmental Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Part I. Ecology 1. The Origins of Pandemics 27 2. Pathogenic Reservoirs 48 Part II. Landscape 3. Livestock Revolutions 65 4. Wild-Goose Chase 97 Part III. Territory 5. Affinity and Access 125 6. Office Vets and Duck Doctors 156 Conclusion. Vanishing Points 191 Notes 213 Bibliography 249 Index 271
£72.25
Duke University Press Unsettled Borders
Book SynopsisIn Unsettled Borders Felicity Amaya Schaeffer examines the ongoing settler colonial war over the US-Mexico border from the perspective of Apache, Tohono O’odham, and Maya who fight to protect their sacred land. Schaeffer traces the scientific and technological development of militarized border surveillance across time and space from Spanish colonial lookout points in Arizona and Mexico to the Indian wars, when the US cavalry hired Native scouts to track Apache fleeing into Mexico, to the occupation of the Tohono O’odham reservation and the recent launch of robotic bee swarms. Labeled “Optics Valley,” Arizona builds on a global history of violent dispossession and containment of Native peoples and migrants by branding itself as a profitable hub for surveillance. Schaeffer reverses the logic of borders by turning to Indigenous sacredsciences: ancestral land-based practices that are critical to reversing the ecological and social violence of surveillance, exTrade Review“[Unsettled Borders] includes an impressively documented bibliography. The text ultimately succeeds in telling a story of violence against Indigenous peoples and their cultures, perpetrated in the name of border security, and documenting the use of surveillance technology, which has permanently altered the landscape. Recommended.” -- G. Christensen * Choice *"Unsettled Borders makes an outstanding contribution to replacing some of the missing pieces while incorporating neocolonialism and interethnic borders into state border studies. Its author, Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, builds a great basis for a problem that is gaining greater visibility, exposing an equal criminalization of migrant people and indigenous communities." -- Tania Porcaro * Journal of Borderlands Studies *"I loved the big picture and provocative ideas that expanded my own understanding of topics I have studied for many years. . . . The book centers Indigenous perspectives to demonstrate not only the contributions Indigenous science has made to (or rather, been appropriated by) the military-industrial/border-security complex, but also the ways that Indigenous scholarship contributes to our understanding of this dynamic from a critical thinking perspective. The primary focus of the book is U.S. borders and Arizona features prominently therein, but the lessons go well beyond this geography as approaches to border security have become globalized." -- Kenneth D. Madsen * Indigenous Religious Traditions *"Unsettled Borders is a rich and skillful analysis of military discourse, settler technoscience, and ethnographic materials primarily devoted to events in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands, but with resonances across other settler colonial spaces (within and beyond the United States)." -- Iván Chaar López * Postcolonial Studies *Table of ContentsPreface. TimeSpaces of Dispossession to the Forging of Indigenous Relations with Land ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction. Tracking Footprints: Settler Surveillance across Unsettled Borders 1 1. “The Eyes of the Army”: Indian Scouts and the Rise of Military Innovation during the Apache Wars 29 2. Occupation on Sacred Land: Colliding Sovereignties on the Tohono O’odham Reservation 55 3. Automated Border Control: Criminalizing the “Hidden Intent” of Migrant/Native Embodiment 81 4. From the Eyes of the Bees: Biorobotic Border Security and the Resurgence of Bee Collectives in the Yucatán 104 Conclusion. Wild versus Sacred: The Ongoing Border War against Indigenous Peoples 139 Notes 153 Bibliography 185 Index 201
£72.25
Duke University Press Genomics with Care
Book SynopsisIn Genomics with Care Mike Fortun presents an experimental ethnography of contemporary genomics, analyzing science as a complex amalgam of cognition and affect, formal logics and tacit knowledge, statistics, and ethics. Fortun examines genomics in terms of care—a dense composite of affective and cognitive forces that drive scientists and the relations they form with their objects of research, data, knowledge, and community. Reading genomics with care shows how each resists definition yet is so entangled as to become indistinguishable. Fortun analyzes four patterns of genomic care—curation, scrupulousness, solicitude, and friendship—seen in the conceptual, technological, social, and methodological changes that transpired as the genetics of the 1980s became the genomics of the 1990s, and then the “post-genomics” of the 2000s. By tracing the dense patterns made where care binds to science, Fortun shows how these patterns mark where scientists are driveTrade Review“Genomics with Care is an inventive, generous, funny, rigorous, and path-opening contribution to the anthropology of science that teaches readers new methods of understanding science as a vocation. Mike Fortun deftly fuses attention to the social affects and effects that accompany research in today’s molecular biology. This utterly splendid book reminds us what science and science studies are for.” -- Stefan Helmreich, author of * A Book of Waves *“This brilliant and much-needed intervention into science and technology studies provides an affecting model for reading not just genomics, but the sciences in general. It opens a new path for thinking and writing differently in relation to the natural sciences. Indeed, it is a superb model for scholars and students who wish to read any text, community, or epistemology in a caring and critical way.” -- Elizabeth A. Wilson, author of * Gut Feminism *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Poem-Like Tolls 1: A Prelude 1 Part I. Genomics, Double Binds, Affects 1. Fors 13 2. Labyrinth Life: Affect Excess Infrastructure 42 3. Double Binds of Science 80 Poem-Like Tolls 2: An Interlude Part II. Minding the Infrastructure of Genomics 4. Curation: Of Data’s Limits 111 5. Scrupulousness: Of Experiment’s Limit 141 6. Solicitude: Of Science’s Limit 183 7. Friendship: Of Community’s Limits 221 Poem-Like Tolls 3: An Appendix 253 Postscript 259 Notes 277 Works Cited 311 Index 337
£81.90
Duke University Press Virgin Mary and the Neutrino
Book SynopsisIn Virgin Mary and the Neutrino, first published in French in 2006 and here appearing in English for the first time, Isabelle Stengers experiments with the possibility of addressing modern practices not as a block but through their divergence from each other. Drawing on thinkers ranging from John Dewey to Gilles Deleuze, she develops what she calls an “ecology of practices” into a capacious and heterogeneous perspective that is inclusive of cultural and political forces but not reducible to them. Stengers first advocates for an approach to sciences that would emphasize the way each should be situated by the kind of relationships demanded by what it attempts to address. This approach turns away from the disabling scientific/nonscientific binary—like the opposition between the neutrino and the Virgin Mary. An ecology of practices instead stimulates an appetite for thinking reality not as an arbiter but as what we can relate to through the generation of diverging Trade Review“Virgin Mary and the Neutrino is an extraordinary exploration of the events that have shaped the relationship between scientific practices and the public—the devastating effects of which we see today, especially in ecological situations. It is also the best introduction to Isabelle Stengers’s body of work, which is undoubtedly one of the most important and original in contemporary thought.” -- Didier Debaise, author of * Nature as Event: The Lure of the Possible *“Virgin Mary and the Neutrino counts among the contemporary classics written by one of the most creative and boldest philosophers of science. Isabelle Stengers’s proposals have the inevitable quality of inducing thought. This book will initiate anyone, no matter the stage of their career, who wants to become familiar with Stengers’s inspiring brilliance.” -- Marisol de la Cadena, author of * Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds *Table of ContentsTranslator’s Preface vii 1. Scientists in Trouble 1 2. The Force of Experimentation 17 3. Dissolving Amalgams 38 4. The Sciences in Their Milieus 61 5.Troubling the Public Order 86 Intermezzo: The Creation of Concepts 111 6. On the Same Plane? 119 7. We Are Not Alone in the World 144 8. Ecology of Practices 169 9. The Cosmopolitical Test 197 Appendix: The First Experimental Apparatus? 207 Notes 217 Bibliography 235 Index 241
£73.95
New York University Press Avidly Reads Screen Time
Book SynopsisWhat happens when screen time is all the time?In the early 1990s, the phrase screen time emerged to scare parents about the dangers of too much TV for kids. Screen time was something to fret over, police, and judge in a low-grade moral panic. Now, screen time has become a metric not only for good parenting, but for our adult lives as well. There's even an app for it! In the streaming eraand with streaming made nearly ubiquitous during COVID-19almost every aspect of our day is mediated by these bright surfaces. Whether it was ever the real villain in the first place, or merely a convenient proxy for unaddressed familial, social, and institutional failures, screen time is now all the time.Avidly Reads Screen Time is a funny, insightful work of cultural criticism and history about how we define screens, and how they now define us. From Mad Men to iCarly, Vine to FaceTime, binge-watching to doom-scrolling, Phillip Maciak leads us on a sometimes heartwarming, sometimes harrowing tour of the media that brings us together and tears us apart.Trade ReviewOriginal and thought-provoking. Maciak’s willingness to defend screen time refreshes. Readers will want to tune in to this. * Publishers Weekly *A witty, intimate meditation on the way we watch now from Phillip Maciak, an author of the celebrated Dear TV column. Hopscotching elegantly from Twin Peaks to bedtime doomscrolling, Zoom school to Vine, Maciak explores the deep paradoxes of ‘screen time,’ the mirror we all gaze into, at once together and alone. * Emily Nussbaum, Pulitzer Prize winning author of I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution *What a timely and important contribution to the study of the present! Maciak beautifully synthesizes scholarship, art, and his personal experiences of the past decades, teasing apart some of the skeins that get knotted together around that ubiquitous modern experience (and source of anxiety), screen time. Maciak puts aside the scolding that haunts today's parents (and scrollers), and instead shows the complex and sometimes even beautiful ways technology has changed the way we learn, play, communicate, fight, create, and connect, reframing our habits and providing some wonderful cultural criticism along the way. An essential text for our streaming, scrolling era. * Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State, A Novel *Alas, we are creatures made of screens! But beheld in Maciak’s shrewd, tender gaze, our relationship with these pulsing surfaces that situate our lives loses the flavor of a diagnosis—in its place, wit, and curiosity. This book offers a roomy haven for working out what it means to live and grow up in a modern age, honoring the tangle of feelings—bad, euphoric—that accompany our most sacred rituals, from appointment television to all that scrolling. It prompted me to continue wondering about the screens we take for granted, what they offer us and why we return. * Lauren Michele Jackson, contributing writer, The New Yorker *Phillip Maciak is one of the best TV critics alive right now, full stop. Whether he’s writing about Girls or Station Eleven or Bluey, his criticism is always characterized by wit, insight, and a remarkable propensity for close-reading. So yes, I was over the moon to learn about his new book of cultural criticism and history, Avidly Reads Screen Time, about how we define screens and how they define us. There are three Mad Men screen caps within the book’s first 30 pages, so, yeah, it’s gonna be ridiculously good. * The Millions *Screen Time is a book about this televisual unconscious, about parenting, about a world that children will consume long before they know what they’re digesting—that formed us when we were still children—and about trying to understand the selves we only belatedly discover ourselves to have already always been. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/phillip-maciaks-avidly-reads-screen-time-a-symposium/ -- Jorge Cotte, Aaron Bady, Lili Loofbourow, Jane Hu * LA Review of Books *The New Republic’s TV critic offers cultural criticism about Succession, Zoom, TikTok and Twin Peaks as well as the many types of screens that demand our attention everywhere, all the time. * The Globe and Mail *
£11.39
New York University Press Antisocial Media
Book SynopsisThe debate surrounding the transformation of work at the hands of digital technology and the anxieties brought forth by automation, the sharing economy, and the exploitation of leisure We have been told that digital technology is now threatening the workplace as we know it, that advances in computing and robotics will soon make human labor obsolete, that the sharing economy, exemplified by Uber and Airbnb, will degrade the few jobs that remain, and that the boundaries between work and play are collapsing as Facebook and Instagram infiltrate our free time.In this timely critique, Greg Goldberg examines the fear that work is being eviscerated by digital technology. He argues that it is not actually the degradation or disappearance of work that is so troubling, but rather the underlying notion that society itself is under attack, and more specifically the bonds of responsibility on which social relations depend. Rather than rushing to the defense of the social, howevTrade ReviewAntisocial Media offers a bold analysis of anxieties about recent transformations in labor--facilitated by the so-called sharing or gig economyas epistemic problems. Rooted in queer theorys critiques of normativity, Goldbergs polemical book has the potential to change the conversations about work in American studies, labor studies, and digital media studies by asking us to question the value of social relations themselves. -- Lucas Hilderbrand, author of Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and CopyrightSmart, perverse, disorientingAntisocial Media resists a desire for 'the social' in pursuit of more surprising, and radical, connections. As a serious theorist and playful sociologist, Goldberg challenges readers to question the normative demand to work, and recognize the anxious affect structuring contemporary critiques of digitally-mediated shifts in labor and leisure. Rarely has queer thought risked being so irresponsible, and so insistently pleasurable. -- Jackie Orr, author of Panic Diaries: A Geneaology of Panic DisorderAntisocial Media presents a timely discussion of the relationship among work, technologies, and sociality...It also challenges the public and researchers to question power relations embedded in critiques of technologies. * International Journal of Communication *It is evident that Goldberg is a superb teacher—when ideas are posited, Goldberg concisely explains their origin and the stakes. Not only is this useful for building interdisciplinary coalitions, but it reads as a work that would be useful for students—at both the undergraduate and graduate level—who would benefit from contextualization in order to advance in the fields with which Goldberg is in conversation: media studies, affect studies, and queer theory, among others. Moreover, it is a book I would recommend to friends and acquaintances who have inquiring minds but bemoan what they consider to be impenetrable academic writing. * Synoptique *Antisocial Media is a useful resource for those seeking a broad strokes overview of the discussions surrounding playbor, automation, and the sharing economy, and the critique can provide some interesting food for thought. * Social Forces *
£20.89
New York University Press Antisocial Media
Book SynopsisThe debate surrounding the transformation of work at the hands of digital technology and the anxieties brought forth by automation, the sharing economy, and the exploitation of leisure We have been told that digital technology is now threatening the workplace as we know it, that advances in computing and robotics will soon make human labor obsolete, that the sharing economy, exemplified by Uber and Airbnb, will degrade the few jobs that remain, and that the boundaries between work and play are collapsing as Facebook and Instagram infiltrate our free time.In this timely critique, Greg Goldberg examines the fear that work is being eviscerated by digital technology. He argues that it is not actually the degradation or disappearance of work that is so troubling, but rather the underlying notion that society itself is under attack, and more specifically the bonds of responsibility on which social relations depend. Rather than rushing to the defense of the social, howevTrade ReviewAntisocial Media offers a bold analysis of anxieties about recent transformations in labor--facilitated by the so-called sharing or gig economyas epistemic problems. Rooted in queer theorys critiques of normativity, Goldbergs polemical book has the potential to change the conversations about work in American studies, labor studies, and digital media studies by asking us to question the value of social relations themselves. -- Lucas Hilderbrand, author of Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and CopyrightSmart, perverse, disorientingAntisocial Media resists a desire for 'the social' in pursuit of more surprising, and radical, connections. As a serious theorist and playful sociologist, Goldberg challenges readers to question the normative demand to work, and recognize the anxious affect structuring contemporary critiques of digitally-mediated shifts in labor and leisure. Rarely has queer thought risked being so irresponsible, and so insistently pleasurable. -- Jackie Orr, author of Panic Diaries: A Geneaology of Panic DisorderAntisocial Media presents a timely discussion of the relationship among work, technologies, and sociality...It also challenges the public and researchers to question power relations embedded in critiques of technologies. * International Journal of Communication *It is evident that Goldberg is a superb teacher—when ideas are posited, Goldberg concisely explains their origin and the stakes. Not only is this useful for building interdisciplinary coalitions, but it reads as a work that would be useful for students—at both the undergraduate and graduate level—who would benefit from contextualization in order to advance in the fields with which Goldberg is in conversation: media studies, affect studies, and queer theory, among others. Moreover, it is a book I would recommend to friends and acquaintances who have inquiring minds but bemoan what they consider to be impenetrable academic writing. * Synoptique *Antisocial Media is a useful resource for those seeking a broad strokes overview of the discussions surrounding playbor, automation, and the sharing economy, and the critique can provide some interesting food for thought. * Social Forces *
£66.60
New York University Press New Media and Society
Book SynopsisA sociological approach to understanding new media's impact on society We use cell phones, computers, and tablets to access the Internet, read the news, watch television, chat with our friends, make our appointments, and post on social networking sites. New media provide the backdrop for most of our encounters. We swim in a technological world yet we rarely think about how new media potentially change the ways in which we interact with one another or shape how we live our lives. In New Media and Society, Deana Rohlinger provides a sociological approach to understanding how new media shape our interactions, our experiences, and our institutions. Using case studies and in-class exercises, Rohlinger explores how new media alter everything from our relationships with friends and family to our experiences in the workplace. Each chapter takes up a different topic our sense of self and our relationships, education, religion, law, work, and politics and assesses how newTrade ReviewNew Media and Society by Deana Rohlinger is one of the most lively and accessible texts on digital media and social life I've read! It's perfect for lower division courses, incisively, approachably, and clearly introducing students to sociology as a discipline, to sociological theory from Durkheim to Goffman to Giddens, and to contemporary issues in America ranging from predictive policing to sexting. Rohlinger gets deep into sociological theory and contemporary research on digital media to unpack the power of sociology for uncovering important social insights and for understanding the role of social institutions and social inequality in society. -- Jennifer Earl,Co-author of Digitally Enabled Social ChangeNew Media and Society is a breath of fresh air. Rohlingers approach manages to be both sophisticated and accessible, providing engaging and insightful analyses of the relationship between new media and key social institutions ranging from religion and work to politics and education. Not only does it fill a gap in many sociological courses on media, it is a fabulous supplement for introduction to sociology courses. This timely text is not to be missed. -- Sarah Sobieraj, Author of Soundbitten: The Perils of Media-Centered Political ActivismThe Internet and social media have changed virtually everything about social life. Rohlinger's indispensable book explains how. Rather than celebrating or lamenting the new world we live in, she shows what's different, how, and why it matters. -- David S. Meyer,Author of The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in AmericaA welcome introduction to the field for new students and inquisitive readers. * Choice *
£22.79
New York University Press New Media and Society
Book SynopsisA sociological approach to understanding new media's impact on society We use cell phones, computers, and tablets to access the Internet, read the news, watch television, chat with our friends, make our appointments, and post on social networking sites. New media provide the backdrop for most of our encounters. We swim in a technological world yet we rarely think about how new media potentially change the ways in which we interact with one another or shape how we live our lives. In New Media and Society, Deana Rohlinger provides a sociological approach to understanding how new media shape our interactions, our experiences, and our institutions. Using case studies and in-class exercises, Rohlinger explores how new media alter everything from our relationships with friends and family to our experiences in the workplace. Each chapter takes up a different topic our sense of self and our relationships, education, religion, law, work, and politics and assesses how newTrade Review"New Media and Society by Deana Rohlinger is one of the most lively and accessible texts on digital media and social life I've read! It's perfect for lower division courses, incisively, approachably, and clearly introducing students to sociology as a discipline, to sociological theory from Durkheim to Goffman to Giddens, and to contemporary issues in America ranging from predictive policing to sexting. Rohlinger gets deep into sociological theory and contemporary research on digital media to unpack the power of sociology for uncovering important social insights and for understanding the role of social institutions and social inequality in society." -- Jennifer Earl,Co-author of Digitally Enabled Social Change"New Media and Society is a breath of fresh air. Rohlingers approach manages to be both sophisticated and accessible, providing engaging and insightful analyses of the relationship between new media and key social institutions ranging from religion and work to politics and education. Not only does it fill a gap in many sociological courses on media, it is a fabulous supplement for introduction to sociology courses. This timely text is not to be missed." -- Sarah Sobieraj, Author of Soundbitten: The Perils of Media-Centered Political Activism"The Internet and social media have changed virtually everything about social life. Rohlinger's indispensable book explains how. Rather than celebrating or lamenting the new world we live in, she shows what's different, how, and why it matters." -- David S. Meyer,Author of The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America"A welcome introduction to the field for new students and inquisitive readers." * Choice *
£66.60
Baylor University Press Growing Down
Book SynopsisExplores the theological and psychological implications of humanity's fascination with technology. Jaco Hamman examines how our virtual relationships with and through tablets and phones, consoles and screens, have become potentially addictive substitutes for real human relationships.Trade ReviewThis book, written from the heart of the pastoral psychotherapeutic tradition in a fresh, contemporary way, invites an embracing of the importanceof any and all healing work that allows human beings to thrive and to be fully alive. Hamman's book pushes us to accept that this work is probably harder than it has ever been, but also to believe that it is still possible, and may just yet save us. -- C. D. Mayer -- Journal of Religion and HealthGrowing Down is an enriching read, inviting reflection about human nature, growth, interpersonal relating, and Christian spirituality. It avoids superficial judgments and polarities; rather, it invites readers to ponder and grapple with the nature of humanness awash in technology, particularly from a Christian perspective. -- Dan Sartor -- Christian Scholar's ReviewThis volume is a rich meditation on formation, technology, and the embodied connections that human beings need in order to flourish. -- Aaron Klink -- Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Self Intelligence: Toward a Theology of Being an "I Am" 2. Relational Intelligence: Toward a Theology of "Being With" 3. Transitional Intelligence: Toward a Theology of Illusion 4. Reparative Intelligence: Toward a Theology of Care 5. Playground Intelligence: Toward a Theology of Play 6. Technological Intelligence: Toward a Theology of Discovery and Devices Conclusion
£35.06
University of Toronto Press The Quantum Revolution
Book SynopsisFocusing on the entanglement of art, technology, and culture, The Quantum Revolution illuminates the contemporary scientific imagination as a new way of understanding everyday life.Table of Contents1.The Quantum Revolution Riders of the Information Storm Theses on the Quantum Revolution Art as Quantum Gateway Rebecca Belmore and the Art of Duality Quantum Vision. Energetic Art Particle Poetics Wave Aesthetics 2. Particle Poetics: Street Scenes from the Quantum Revolution A. Art of the Fourth Dimension B. Blasts of Graffiti for Life on the Run C. Cutaways to Street Memories of the Future D. Dark Matter/Dark Energy E. “The Last Human Being” F. Forensic Architecture and the Empire of Crime G. Gateways to Blue Stragglers H. Hybrid Bodies I. Interference Patterns J. Jet Streams of Gravity Waves K. Kinetics of Atrocity L. Lonesome Cowboys to the Stars: Perseverance Has Landed on Mars M. Macrobursts and Sun Dogs in the Gathering Sky of Global Politics N. Nostalgia for Nostalgia: The Eclipse of Right-Wing Populism O. Open-Source Speed Runners P. Primordial Black Holes Q. Quantum Bodies: From Louise Bourgeois and Abject Bodies to Siren lll R. Scorpio Rising S. Streaming SuperStream T. Trouble in the Global Village U. Undone by Screen Addiction V. Vector Zero Vector W. Baby Algorithms at Warp Speed X. X-Raying Scavenger Culture Y. Yesteryear Futurism Z. Zoom Kids 3. Wave Aesthetics: Art of Resurgence Vectors of Extinction in the Quantum Revolution Fold 1: Ecological Death Ecological Death and Fairy Creek Fold 2: Violent Event Horizons The Pacific Wall of Kienholz/Lyotard Counter-Gradient: Autopsy of the Future: Nadia Myre’s Indian Act & The Scar Project Fold 3: From the Slaughterhouse From the Slaughterhouses to the Butchers to the Tate: Deleuze/Bacon Counter-Gradient: Wolf Girl: Kiki Smith and the Butchered Self Fold 4: The Quantum Citizen TRANS/formers: More than Meets the Eye Duchamp/Lyotard Fold 5: The Vortex of Immaterial Bodies Alberto Giacometti and The Quantum Void Fold 6: Art with the Density of a Black Hole The Gates of Hell: Rodin and the Promised Land Counter-Gradient: The World Screen of the Twenty-First Century: “In the future, everything will be fine” Datamoshing Intimacy and Memory for a Time of Lonesome Remix Identity Time Tunnelling Spinning, Dying Neutron Stars from Deep Space AI Goes Psychic Harvesting the Brain 4D Organs Looping in the Fifth Dimensional Plane Hoping for the Best but Mourning for the Rest From Kathy Acker Neon Dreams When Drones Rain Murder from the Sky Cold War Redux/Drive-Thru Insurgency Fold 7: Cold Blue with Skies the Color of Melancholy Quantum Assassin: Jacques Monory 4. Epilogue: I Stepped into The Future and It Was Now Index
£45.05
University of Toronto Press Things That Art
Book SynopsisLochlann Jain’s debut non-fiction graphic novel, Things That Art, playfully interrogates the order of things. Toying with the relationship between words and images, Jain’s whimsical compositions may seem straightforward. Upon closer inspection, however, the drawings reveal profound and startling paradoxes at the heart of how we make sense of the world. Commentaries by architect and theorist Maria McVarish, poet and naturalist Elizabeth Bradfield, musician and English Professor Drew Daniel, and the author offer further insight into the drawings in this collection. A captivating look at the fundamental absurdities of everyday communication, Things That Art jolts us toward new forms of collation and collaboration. Trade Review"I found this book of juxtapositions, puns and wordplay very entertaining and rewarding to read, I also like the fun style of the drawing, which goes well with the serious matter of linguistics and concepts." -- Sara Boorman * NB Magazine, October 28,2019 *"This is a thinking person’s book, or put more precisely, it draws readers into thinking deeply with its deceptively simple illustrations set side by side and up and down in masterfully designed sets… Things That Art stimulates the mind, the senses, the emotions." -- Alisse Waterston * Anthropology Now *Table of ContentsPreface Various Things (Maria McVarish) Natural Collections (Elizabeth Bradfield) Things That What? (Drew Daniel) What Things Mean (Lochlann Jain)
£22.49
University of Toronto Press Our Debt to the Future
Book SynopsisAT ITS ANNUAL MEETING in 1957, the Royal Society of Canada, celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of its foundation, departed from the accustomed pattern of its meetings. Instead of assembling in separate sections, Fellows from each Section of the Society were asked to contribute to a conspectus, focused by their specialized knowledge and trained discrimination, to reveal to the Society and to others certain trends and tendencies in Canada. Subjects and contributors are: "These Seventy-Five Years" (Presidential Address by W. A. Mackintosh); "The Roles of the Scientist and the Scholar in Canada's Future" (W. A. Mackintosh, David L. Thomson); "The Penalties of Ignorance of Man's Biological Dependence" (E. G. D. Murray, K. W. Neatby, I. McT. Cowan, G. H. Ettinger, R. H. Manske); "The Social Impact of Modern Technology" (N. A. M. MacKenzie, V. W. Bladen, E. W. R. Steacie, W. H. Watson); "Our Economic Potential in the Light of Science" (H. C. Gunning, J. E. Hawley, L. M. Pidgeon, B. S.
£23.39
Cornell University Press The MadeUp State
Book SynopsisIn The Made-Up State, Benjamin Hegarty contends that warias, who compose one of Indonesia''s trans feminine populations, have cultivated a distinctive way of captivating the affective, material, and spatial experiences of belonging to a modern public sphere. Combining historical and ethnographic research, Hegarty traces the participation of warias in visual and bodily technologies, ranging from psychiatry and medical transsexuality to photography and feminine beauty. The concept of development deployed by the modern Indonesian state relies on naturalizing the binary of male and female. As historical brokers between gender as a technological system of classifying human difference and state citizenship, warias shaped the contours of modern selfhood even while being positioned as nonconforming within it. The Made-Up State illuminates warias as part of the social and technological format of state rule, which has given rise to new possibilities fTable of ContentsIntroduction: Making Public Gender 1. Banci, before Waria 2. Jakarta, 1968 3. The Perfect Woman 4. Beauty Experts 5. National Glamour Conclusion: Making Up the State
£97.20
Cornell University Press The MadeUp State
Book SynopsisIn The Made-Up State, Benjamin Hegarty contends that warias, who compose one of Indonesia''s trans feminine populations, have cultivated a distinctive way of captivating the affective, material, and spatial experiences of belonging to a modern public sphere. Combining historical and ethnographic research, Hegarty traces the participation of warias in visual and bodily technologies, ranging from psychiatry and medical transsexuality to photography and feminine beauty. The concept of development deployed by the modern Indonesian state relies on naturalizing the binary of male and female. As historical brokers between gender as a technological system of classifying human difference and state citizenship, warias shaped the contours of modern selfhood even while being positioned as nonconforming within it. The Made-Up State illuminates warias as part of the social and technological format of state rule, which has given rise to new possibilities fTable of ContentsIntroduction: Making Public Gender 1. Banci, before Waria 2. Jakarta, 1968 3. The Perfect Woman 4. Beauty Experts 5. National Glamour Conclusion: Making Up the State
£19.79
Cornell University Press Free Culture and the City
Book SynopsisFree Culture and the City examines how and why free software spread beyond the world of hackers and software engineers and became the basis for an urban movement now heralded by scholars as a model for emulation. By the late 1990s, digital activists embraced a philosophy of free software and free culture in order to take control over their cities and everyday lives. Free culture, previously tethered to the digital realm, was cut loose and used to reclaim and resculpt the city. In Madrid the effects were dramatic. Common sights in the city were abandoned as industrial factories turned into autonomous social centers, urban orchards, guerrilla architectural camps, or community hacklabs. Drawing on two decades of ethnographic and historical work with free culture collectives in Madrid, Free Culture and the City shows how, in its journey from the digital to the urban, the practice of liberating culture required the mobilization of, and alliances
£26.99
Stanford University Press The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing
Book SynopsisJust about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect" through digital means. But this convenience is not free—it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of Connection uncovers this process, this "data colonialism," and its designs for controlling our lives—our ways of knowing; our means of production; our political participation. Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of land, bodies, and natural resources is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the creation of a new social order emerging globally—and it must be challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.Trade Review"A profound exploration of how the ceaseless extraction of information about our intimate lives is remaking both global markets and our very selves. The Costs of Connection represents an enormous step forward in our collective understanding of capitalism's current stage, a stage in which the final colonial input is the raw data of human life. Challenging, urgent, and bracingly original."—Naomi Klein, Gloria Steinem Chair of Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies, Rutgers University"A provocative tour-de-force. A powerful interrogation of the power of data in our networked age. Through an enchanting critique of different aspects of our data soaked society, Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejias invite the reader to reconsider their assumptions about the moral, political, and economic order that makes data-driven technologies possible."—danah boyd, Microsoft Research and founder of Data & Society"There's a land grab occurring right now, and it's for your data and your freedom: companies are not only surveilling you, they're increasingly influencing and controlling your behavior. This paradigm-shifting book explains the new colonialism at the heart of modern computing, and serves as a needed wake-up call to everyone who cares about our future relationship with technology."—Bruce Schneier, author of Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World"Couldry and Mejias have written a profoundly important book, demonstrating the lasting value of social theory to the interpretation (and improvement) of our new digital reality. They deeply understand the nature of platform capitalism. They draw striking and rigorously reasoned parallels between modern tech giants and the firms and governments that exploited colonies in centuries past. And they advance an agenda for decolonizing data that promotes a healthier ecology of online interaction. This book is an essential guide to understanding the depths of the crises in data protection, privacy, and automation that we now face."—Frank Pasquale, Professor of Law, University of Maryland Carey School of Law"Couldry and Mejias show that data colonialism is not a metaphor. It is a process that expands many dark chapters of the past into our shiny new world of smartphones, smart TVs, and smart stores. This book rewards the reader with important historical context, fascinating examples, clear writing, and unexpected insights scattered throughout."—Joseph Turow, University of Pennsylvania"This book is a must-read for those grappling with how the global data economy reproduces long-standing social injustice, and what must be done to counter this phenomenon. With a feast of insights embedded in visceral historical and contemporary illustrations, the authors brilliantly push the reader to rethink the relations between technology, power, and inequality."—Payal Arora, author of The Next Billion Users: Digital Life beyond the West"This is a deeply critical engagement with the systems that enable 'data colonialism' to extend its reach into the past, present and future of human life itself. Couldry and Mejias provide a comprehensive and well-considered challenge to the seeming inevitability of this transformative development in capitalism. Theirs is a giant step forward along the path toward rediscovering the meaning and possibility of self-determination. It is not too late to join in!"—Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., Emeritus Professor, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania"This book is among the most insightful and important contributions to our understanding of the political economy of data and the 'internet of things.' It brings together historical analysis, critical theory, and a trenchant sense of urgency to reveal what's really at stake as we choose to send information through everything and connect our bodies and minds to streams of data."—Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy"Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejias go digging deeply into the digital: its spaces, its layers, its deployments. One of their guiding efforts concerns what it actually takes to have this digital capacity in play. It is not an innocent event: it is in some ways closer to an extractive sector, and this means there is a price we pay for its existence."—Saskia Sassen, author of Expulsions"The authors effectively blend their particular skills: Couldry applies critical theory to the transformation of media, and Mejias concentrates on the failings of social media to affect political change. Those studying political science, information technology, and communications at the undergraduate level will grapple with the authors' arguments about whether data can be colonized and exploited in the same way labor and resources were under traditional forms of colonialism. Highly recommended."—H. L. Katz, CHOICE"In contrast to other recent authors who see this collection of data for profit as a new type of capitalism...Couldry and Mejias argue that what is taking place under data colonialism is merely the extension of capitalism as it has developed over the last two centuries....Where the book shines is in using the theory underpinning the idea of data colonialism to articulate sites of resistance."—Laura Carter, LSE Review of Books"The process of data colonialism is a highly useful analytical framework for understanding the ever-growing role of data in modern life. Couldry and Mejias consider this framework within a truly global scope and provide a highly approachable text that synthesizes economics, history, and media studies scholarship."—Ben Pettis, Critical Studies in Media Communication"In this provocative, consequential book, Couldry and Mejias theorize the dynamics of change in contemporary capitalism as grounded in a new form of data colonialism....[The authors] delineate intriguing parallels between historical processes of colonial expansion by taking over land and other natural resources and contemporary processes of mining personal data as inputs for capitalism."—Sara Schoonmaker, Social Forces"Couldry and Mejias are fitting the internet, in all its 'now-now-now' insistence, into a much broader sweep of history than other commentators on the digital era have attempted."—Wendy M. Grossman, ZDNet"the book shares the core ambition of . . . Shoshana Zuboff's (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Yet, arguably, by advancing the lens of data colonialism and drawing heavily on Marxist social theory, Couldry and Mejias have a more radical critique of capitalism in mind, one that historically ties it to colonialist efforts an appropriating, exploiting and controlling resources, redistributing benefits and spreading specific ideologies. . . . What is instead at stake, argue Couldry and Mejias, is a shift in the raw material that capitalism is appropriating and controlling: it is human life itself. . . . the major strength of the argument lies in a rich theoretically driven narrative that weaves together multiple strands of classic social theory – from Marx and Foucault to decolonial theory – and connects them with contemporary analyses of data justice and the legal-commercial complex regarding personal data."—Stine Lomborg, European Journal of CommunicationTable of ContentsPreface: Colonized by Data 1. The Capitalization of Life without Limit 2. Cloud Empire Interlude: On Colonialism and the Decolonial Turn 3. The Coloniality of Data Relations 4. The Hollowing Out of the Social 5. Data and the Threat to Human Autonomy 6. Decolonizing Data Postscript: Another Path Is Possible
£92.80
Stanford University Press What Is Real?
Book SynopsisEighty years ago, Ettore Majorana, a brilliant student of Enrico Fermi, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while going by ship from Palermo to Naples. How is it possible that the most talented physicist of his generation vanished without leaving a trace? It has long been speculated that Majorana decided to abandon physics, disappearing because he had precociously realized that nuclear fission would inevitably lead to the atomic bomb. This book advances a different hypothesis. Through a careful analysis of Majorana's article "The Value of Statistical Laws in Physics and Social Sciences," which shows how in quantum physics reality is dissolved into probability, and in dialogue with Simone Weil's considerations on the topic, Giorgio Agamben suggests that, by disappearing into thin air, Majorana turned his very person into an exemplary cipher of the status of the real in our probabilistic universe. In so doing, the physicist posed a question to science that is still awaiting an answer: What is Real?
£57.60
Stanford University Press Theory of the Earth
Book SynopsisWe need a new philosophy of the earth. Geological time used to refer to slow and gradual processes, but today we are watching land sink into the sea and forests transform into deserts. We can even see the creation of new geological strata made of plastic, chicken bones, and other waste that could remain in the fossil record for millennia or longer. Crafting a philosophy of geology that rewrites natural and human history from the broader perspective of movement, Thomas Nail provides a new materialist, kinetic ethics of the earth that speaks to this moment. Climate change and other ecological disruptions challenge us to reconsider the deep history of minerals, atmosphere, plants, and animals and to take a more process-oriented perspective that sees humanity as part of the larger cosmic and terrestrial drama of mobility and flow. Building on his earlier work on the philosophy of movement, Nail argues that we should shift our biocentric emphasis from conservation to expenditure, flux, and planetary diversity. Theory of the Earth urges us to rethink our ethical relationship to one another, the planet, and the cosmos at large.Trade Review"One of the most remarkable books I've read in some time. Thomas Nail forges a mode of materialist philosophy in conversation with recent, cross-disciplinary movements in the environmental humanities, generating a mode of thinking and theorizing that moves beyond the scale of human life." -- Claire Colebrook * Pennsylvania State University *"Thomas Nail has developed a much-needed, and previously underrepresented philosophy of geology. In elaborating a process theory of a kinetic earth, this book helps us imagine our planet as neither a static place of habitation nor a protective Mother Earth." -- Matthias Fritsch * Concordia University *"Is ecocide, unconsciously practiced by industrio-techno-capitalist humans to their own detriment and potential extinction, a direct result of the reduction and destruction of Earth's complex energy dissipation? In an ambitious and fabulous synthesis, with a Lucretian sensibility and deep scientific rapprochement, Thomas Nail gives us back a real Earth, where life is part of a planetary more-than-human dissipative system and humans better get with the flow. A fascinating, difficult, needed scientifico-philosophical document, Theory of the Earth should interest and irritate scientists as it provides a needed provocation to much modern environmental philosophy." -- Dorion Sagan * author of Cosmic Apprentice: Dispatches from the Edges of Science *"While Anthropocene ideology focuses on the destructive action of humans on a passive Earth, Nail posits that conceptual refocusing—away from conservation toward an ethics of energy transformation—can help address the serious environmental problems we face. Though chiefly a work of philosophy, this text is accessible for any advanced reader interested in environmental meta issues. Recommended." -- E. Kincanon * CHOICE *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractWe are witnessing a second Copernican revolution, in which the earth is not just moving around the sun but is itself internally on the move. Terrestrial events that we could in the past only have imagined taking place over huge time scales are now happening before our eyes. Flora and fauna are headed north in mass migrations, throwing tens of thousands of species into motion around the world. Today, half of all species on earth are on the move, including insects, viruses, and microbes. However, since not all species are moving at the same rate or in the same way, species are coming into contact with one another in new ways and producing new hybrids. A new history of the earth is necessary in order to understand the immanent conditions of the present and the kind of earth that we are. 1The Flow of Matter chapter abstractThe earth flows because the matter of the cosmos flows through it. It is not an unchanging or even uniformly changing substance following its own autonomous processes. Geology is also cosmology, and the cosmos flows. Flows of matter continually compose, cycle through, and flow out of the earth. The earth is only a regional circulation of a much larger kinetic and entropic process. Historically, however, philosophy, politics, and much of geology have not taken the ongoing flow of cosmic matter seriously. This has led to a complete inversion of what the earth is and the human relationship to it. The earth is not a planet, but rather a process of terrestrialization. 2The Fold of Elements chapter abstractThe pedetic flow and fluctuation of matter is constitutive of the earth and its elemental body. The word "earth" designates not only a planet and its soil but also one of the four classical elements. The earth is elemental and elementary only because the universe is—and the latter is the key to understanding the former. If the element "earth" is mineral, then the earth must share its elemental namesake with the mineral bodies of the cosmos. In this sense, earth is not just on the earth, but in the universe and from the universe. In other words, the universe was already earthly before the earth was terrestrialized. 3The Planetary Field chapter abstractMatter flows and folds into elements, but these elements are in turn distributed into celestial and planetary fields. Elements are conjoined into atomic and molecular composites that in turn are arranged and ordered together in a field of celestial and planetary circulation. This is the third core concept of geokinetics. If matter flows and elements fold into periodic cycles, planetary fields organize them all in a continuous feedback loop. This chapter provides a geokinetic theory of how conjoined flows become organized according to distinct regimes or planetary fields. 4Centripetal Minerality chapter abstractThe earth is material, kinetic, and thus historical; it is possible for different, coexisting, and mixed planetary fields to emerge. In other words, it is possible for matter to distribute itself differently over time into different patterns or orders of arrangement. There is no way to know what the earth is without understanding its historical process of becoming. If this is the case then it is possible to study this material history and to discern the planetary regimes or fields along with the different elements and beings that are distributed there: minerals, atmosphere, plants, and animals. What this means is that the contemporary earth is not defined by a single geokinetic field or pattern of motion, but is composed of a motley mixture of everything that has ever been. 5Hadean Earth chapter abstractIn this chapter we look closely at the kinetic patterns produced by three major geokinetic phenomena that define the Hadean earth: meteors, the moon, and water. The argument of this chapter is that each of these major phenomena is defined predominately by a distinctly centripetal pattern of motion and a geokinetics of mineralization. Centripetal mineralization was the first major transcendental kinetic regime invented by the earth. This first movement inward toward the center from the periphery along differentiated layers continues today as the immanent condition of planetary life and mineral-based technologies. 6Centrifugal Atmospherics chapter abstractThe second major geokinetic field to rise to dominance in the earth's history was the atmospheric field. This second type of field became increasingly prevalent over the course of the Archean Eon, from about 4 billion years ago to about 2.5 billion years ago. Three major events define this transition: the end of heavy meteor bombardment, the emergence of living organisms, and the rise of a highly oxygenated atmosphere. These events were the cause of a dramatic historical shift in the earth's pattern of motion, from one of largely centripetal accretion and crystallization to one of increasingly centrifugal movements of outward expansion, respiration, and reproduction. 7Archean Earth I: Pneumatology chapter abstractDuring the Archean Eon (4 to 2.5 billion years ago), the entire planet began to move in an increasingly centrifugal pattern of motion from the center out to the periphery (and back). This chapter argues that the emergence of a prevailing centrifugal pattern of motion occurs increasingly over the course of the Archean Eon. The deep history of atmospherization is the material condition of terrestrial motion for all subsequent eons, up to the present. In this chapter we look closely at the kinetic patterns produced by four major geokinetic phenomena that define the Archean earth: sky, clouds, mountains, and life. The argument of this chapter is that each of these major phenomena is defined predominately by a distinctly centrifugal pattern of motion and a geokinetics of atmospherics. 8Archean Earth II: Biogenesis chapter abstractThe second major historical event of the Archean Eon was the emergence of living organisms (prokaryotic bacteria and archaea) with metabolism, genetic multiplication, and natural selection. Organisms are dissipative or vortical systems that have the distinct ability to remember and reproduce the material kinetic patterns that produced them. During the Archean, the entire earth erupted into centrifugal motion. Volcanoes blasted themselves into the air, the ocean evaporated into the clouds, and organisms released an incredible amount of volatiles and stored energy. However, by the end of the Archean Eon, around 2.5 billion years ago, a new form of life emerged that would change the motion of the planet yet again: plants. 9Tensional Vegetality chapter abstractThe third major geokinetic planetary field to rise to dominance in the earth's history was the vegetal field. Over the course of the Proterozoic Eon, the longest eon in the earth's history, from about 2.5 billion years ago to 541 million years ago, three major events occurred: the emergence of eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus and organelles), the development of multicellular organisms (such as protozoa, fungi, and plants), and the arrival of life on land. All these events were defined by a new kind of tensional motion inside, between, and through these organisms. But this new pattern of motion defined by a system of held contrasts was not limited to life alone. Life, like mineral and atmospheric flows, is not just one discrete region among others, in isolation. Vegetal life completed, saturated, and transformed all planetary processes. 10Proterozoic Earth chapter abstractDuring the Proterozoic Eon, the entire life-saturated planet began to fold itself up into a vast knotwork of cellularized tensions. The birth of cellular and complex cellular life was not just the birth of a new type of substance "on" the earth but a new kinetic relation of the earth to itself. This chapter argues that the emergence of a prevailing tensional pattern of motion occurred increasingly over the course of the Proterozoic Eon. I argue that the deep history of phytality is the material condition of terrestrial motion for all subsequent eons, up to the present. In this chapter we look closely at the increasingly tensional kinetic patterns produced by vegetal bodies and that eventually defined the Proterozoic and early Phanerozoic earth: thallus, stem, leaf, root, seed, and flower. 11Elastic Animality chapter abstractAnimality is the fourth major geokinetic planetary pattern of motion. The rise of animality overlapped with the end of the Proterozoic Eon as vegetality slowly dovetailed into the Phanerozoic Eon, from 541 million years ago to the present. The Phanerozoic Eon began with the Cambrian explosion of diverse animal and plant life. This explosion was itself made possible by increased oxygen in the atmosphere and mineral-rich soils produced by vegetal life across the continents. The emergence and proliferation of animals on the earth was the source of a radical new regime of elastic motion defined by the ability of living matter to expand, contract, stretch and oscillate back and forth to a degree never before seen on the earth. 12Phanerozoic Earth I: Kinomorphology chapter abstractThe Phanerozoic Eon (541 million years ago to the present) is our geological eon. It began with the Cambrian explosion of living forms, the greatest number of evolving creatures in a a single period in the history of the earth. During the Phanerozoic, the entire planet became increasingly elastic as the proliferation of life forms expanded, contracted, and mutated more rapidly than ever before. The more new organisms emerged, the faster they changed their environment. This chapter argues that the emergence of a prevailing elastic pattern of motion occurred increasingly over the course of the Phanerozoic Eon. In this chapter we look closely at the increasingly elastic kinetic structures produced by animal bodies that eventually saturated the late Proterozoic and early Phanerozoic Earth: body, head, and tail. 13Phanerozoic Earth II: Terrestrialization chapter abstractThe third major historico-morphological event of the Phanerozoic Eon was the explosion of elastic sensory organs and limbs in the animal body. With the evolution of mollusks, arthropods, and vertebrates, an enormous transformation occurred as animal life in the seas spread to the land and the skies. The process of terrestrial animality saturated the untapped energy of these new regions—completing the transformation of the earth into its full animality. The material evolution of animal morphology is also a kinetic evolution toward the increasingl elasticity, mobility, sensitivity, and energy expenditure of the earth more broadly. Animals are not on the earth but aspects of the earth itself—the becoming animal and becoming elastic of the earth. 14Kinocene Earth chapter abstractToday, the earth is in increasingly unstable motion. The earth, as we have seen in this book, has always been in motion, but today these four major patterns of geological motion have become increasingly disrupted due to the coordinated efforts of certain human groups. What I am calling the "Kinocene" in the final Part of this book is a new geological period not because motion is new to the earth, as we have seen, but because of the increasing mobility of the earth's geological strata, described in Parts I and II. At the same time, however, we are also witnessing for the first time in a long time a significant reduction in the net kinetic expenditure of the planet as a whole. 15Kinocene Ethics chapter abstractThe ethics of kinetic expenditure is not a universal ethical ground but a hypothetical ethical ground that allows us to say not only that capitalism is descriptively wrong about nature but that it is unethical (assuming we want to survive), on the grounds that it leads to the reduction of planetary expenditure (including the reduction of human and ecological diversity). Furthermore, the ethics of expenditure relates to the material conditions of all human society as such. If we even want to have humanist ethics in the first place, there must be humans alive to practice it. Thus, implicit in all humanist ethics is the assumption of planetary existence and survival. In short: If we want human ethics, then we need to be alive and survive, and if we want to survive then we need to try to increase planetary expenditure (with all that entails). Conclusion: The Future chapter abstractEverything is in motion. The earth is in motion because so is the cosmos. The West's historically mistaken belief in a static or stable earth is one of the biggest mistakes ever made. This mistake is symptomatic of a similar belief in stasis in politics, ontology, science, and the arts. Together, the belief in stasis of one form or another across the major domains of human knowledge and activity is the source of our contemporary world crisis. Movement and expenditure had always been primary. Human history was not the progressive realization of static forms. Progress and development in the Western tradition are dead. Human history can now be seen for what it is: a series of kinetic patterns iterated in the material diffusion of the cosmos itself.
£86.40
Stanford University Press Automation Is a Myth
Book SynopsisFor some, automation will usher in a labor-free utopia; for others, it signals a disastrous age-to-come. Yet whether seen as dream or nightmare, automation, argues Munn, is ultimately a fable that rests on a set of triple fictions. There is the myth of full autonomy, claiming that machines will take over production and supplant humans. But far from being self-acting, technical solutions are piecemeal; their support and maintenance reveals the immense human labor behind "autonomous" processes. There is the myth of universal automation, with technologies framed as a desituated force sweeping the globe. But this fiction ignores the social, cultural, and geographical forces that shape technologies at a local level. And, there is the myth of automating everyone, the generic figure of "the human" at the heart of automation claims. But labor is socially stratified and so automation's fallout will be highly uneven, falling heavier on some (immigrants, people of color, women) than others. Munn moves from machine minders in China to warehouse pickers in the United States to explore the ways that new technologies do (and don't) reconfigure labor. Combining this rich array of human stories with insights from media and cultural studies, Munn points to a more nuanced, localized, and racialized understanding of the "future of work."Trade Review"Warehouses, factories, fields, supermarkets, smart-homes. These are just some of the material sites that confront myths of automation in Luke Munn's tightly crafted book traversing racial histories, gender politics, contemporary labor regimes, and global logistics. Fantasies of autonomous technologies and visions of freedom, we discover, are almost always accompanied by human endurance and suffering, as well as sparkling acts of collective ingenuity that mess with machines. Munn critically furnishes the bleak, uneven world of automation with alternatives for technology design inspired by activists, artists, and social movements. A perfect handbook for diagnosing the future-present of automated worlds."—Ned Rossiter, author of Software, Infrastructure, Labor"Accessibly written and powerfully argued, Luke Munn's Automation is a Myth carefully demonstrates how the fiction that automation is everywhere and that every aspect of labor and production can or will be automated obscures racialized and gendered power relations and precludes opportunities to shape more radical technologically mediated futures. With wide ranging historical and geopolitical examples of automation fantasies, Munn forcefully demonstrates the importance of contextualizing and de-universalizing conversations about labor, technology and automation."—Neda Atanasoski, author of Surrogate Humanity: Race, Robots and the Politics of Technological Futures"An engaging, insightful, and instructive read, this book offers a compelling new perspective on the future of labor-saving technology. More than a myth-buster, Munn is an original voice who offers a vision for a more humane and productive economy."—Frank Pasquale, author of New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI"With Automation Is a Myth, Luke Munn makes an insightful contribution to the growing body of literature that critically investigates current accounts about 'automation.' ... Munn has written a thought-provoking critique of the underlying assumptions of most automation talk today, bringing to bear the insights of an eclectic group of scholars and commentators."—Richard A. Bachmann, H-Sci-Med-Tech"In Automation is a Myth, Luke Munn thoughtfully demands greater specificity of automation discourse. Munn's book is a call to avoid totalizing narratives around automation, and instead to be attentive to the what, when, where, and who of the phenomenon."—Karen Levy, Social Forces"Drawing on scholarship from racial capitalism and gender studies, this excellent book offers much-needed depth and a contrarian viewpoint to the social and political impacts of automation. Highly recommended."—S. J. Chapman Jr., CHOICE"[Automation is a Myth] transcends the silos of media studies to expand our understanding of automation by synthesising literature from sociology, race and gender studies and science and technology studies."—Lutfun Nahar Lata, New Media & SocietyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Automation Is a Myth 1. The Fantasy of Full Automation 2. Spotty Automation and Less-Than-Human Workers 3. Technology in Context, Technology as Culture 4. Automation on the Ground 5. Automation's Racialized Fallout 6. Automation's Gendered Inequality Conclusion: Automation Is Not Our Future
£68.00
Stanford University Press Automation Is a Myth
Book SynopsisFor some, automation will usher in a labor-free utopia; for others, it signals a disastrous age-to-come. Yet whether seen as dream or nightmare, automation, argues Munn, is ultimately a fable that rests on a set of triple fictions. There is the myth of full autonomy, claiming that machines will take over production and supplant humans. But far from being self-acting, technical solutions are piecemeal; their support and maintenance reveals the immense human labor behind "autonomous" processes. There is the myth of universal automation, with technologies framed as a desituated force sweeping the globe. But this fiction ignores the social, cultural, and geographical forces that shape technologies at a local level. And, there is the myth of automating everyone, the generic figure of "the human" at the heart of automation claims. But labor is socially stratified and so automation's fallout will be highly uneven, falling heavier on some (immigrants, people of color, women) than others. Munn moves from machine minders in China to warehouse pickers in the United States to explore the ways that new technologies do (and don't) reconfigure labor. Combining this rich array of human stories with insights from media and cultural studies, Munn points to a more nuanced, localized, and racialized understanding of the "future of work."Trade Review"Warehouses, factories, fields, supermarkets, smart-homes. These are just some of the material sites that confront myths of automation in Luke Munn's tightly crafted book traversing racial histories, gender politics, contemporary labor regimes, and global logistics. Fantasies of autonomous technologies and visions of freedom, we discover, are almost always accompanied by human endurance and suffering, as well as sparkling acts of collective ingenuity that mess with machines. Munn critically furnishes the bleak, uneven world of automation with alternatives for technology design inspired by activists, artists, and social movements. A perfect handbook for diagnosing the future-present of automated worlds."—Ned Rossiter, author of Software, Infrastructure, Labor"Accessibly written and powerfully argued, Luke Munn's Automation is a Myth carefully demonstrates how the fiction that automation is everywhere and that every aspect of labor and production can or will be automated obscures racialized and gendered power relations and precludes opportunities to shape more radical technologically mediated futures. With wide ranging historical and geopolitical examples of automation fantasies, Munn forcefully demonstrates the importance of contextualizing and de-universalizing conversations about labor, technology and automation."—Neda Atanasoski, author of Surrogate Humanity: Race, Robots and the Politics of Technological Futures"An engaging, insightful, and instructive read, this book offers a compelling new perspective on the future of labor-saving technology. More than a myth-buster, Munn is an original voice who offers a vision for a more humane and productive economy."—Frank Pasquale, author of New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI"With Automation Is a Myth, Luke Munn makes an insightful contribution to the growing body of literature that critically investigates current accounts about 'automation.' ... Munn has written a thought-provoking critique of the underlying assumptions of most automation talk today, bringing to bear the insights of an eclectic group of scholars and commentators."—Richard A. Bachmann, H-Sci-Med-Tech"In Automation is a Myth, Luke Munn thoughtfully demands greater specificity of automation discourse. Munn's book is a call to avoid totalizing narratives around automation, and instead to be attentive to the what, when, where, and who of the phenomenon."—Karen Levy, Social Forces"Drawing on scholarship from racial capitalism and gender studies, this excellent book offers much-needed depth and a contrarian viewpoint to the social and political impacts of automation. Highly recommended."—S. J. Chapman Jr., CHOICE"[Automation is a Myth] transcends the silos of media studies to expand our understanding of automation by synthesising literature from sociology, race and gender studies and science and technology studies."—Lutfun Nahar Lata, New Media & SocietyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Automation Is a Myth 1. The Fantasy of Full Automation 2. Spotty Automation and Less-Than-Human Workers 3. Technology in Context, Technology as Culture 4. Automation on the Ground 5. Automation's Racialized Fallout 6. Automation's Gendered Inequality Conclusion: Automation Is Not Our Future
£18.89
Stanford University Press Making Sense: Markets from Stories in New Breast
Book SynopsisBreast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers and a leading cause of death for women worldwide. With advances in molecular engineering in the 1980s, hopes began to rise that a non-toxic and non-invasive treatment for breast cancer could be developed. These hopes were stoked by the researchers, biotech companies, and analysts who worked to make sense of the uncertainties during product development. In Making Sense Sophie Mützel traces this emergence of "innovative breast cancer therapeutics" from the late 1980s up to 2010, through the lens of the narratives of the involved actors. Combining theories of economic and cultural sociology, Mützel shows how stories are integral for the emergence of new markets; stories of the future create a market of expectations prior to any existing products; stories also help to create categories on what such a new market and its products are about. Making Sense uses thousands of press statements, media reports, scientific reports, and financial and industry analyses, and combines qualitative and large-scale computational text analyses, to illustrate these mechanisms, presenting a fresh view of how life-prolonging innovations can be turned into market products. Trade Review"Mützel brilliantly connects market emergence and creation of a market of expectations in a book that defines the next level of excitement in theorizing entanglements of structure, culture, and meaning."—Ronald Breiger, University of Arizona"Deftly interweaving text analyses and computational methods to examine thousands of stories, Mützel fashions a virtuoso example of relational sociology."—Woody Powell, Stanford University"Making Sense makes a seminal contribution to the understanding of markets and innovation processes."—Jens Beckert, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne"By focusing on the role of stories in market emergence and by combining qualitative and computational text analysis, Making Sense—as Mützel highlights in the conclusions—partakes in the debates among economic sociologists concerning the relevance of culture in market emergence and how to measure it.... Making Sense offers readers the opportunity to approach the topic through a fascinating methodology."—Penelope K. Hardy, H-Sci-Med-Tech"Indeed, Mützel's book can be read as much for its substantive contributions as it can be for its method. This text is innovative in its approach to analysis through its combination of close textual analysis to study meaning-making processes, alongside its deployment of computational methods to understand the macro discursive trajectories and patterns in meaning making in breast cancer therapeutics over two decades."—Melanie Jeske, Social ForcesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Markets and Stories 2. Breast Cancer Therapies and Innovation 3. A Market of Expectations 4. Making Sense of a Market 5. Patterns in Meaning-Making: Categories over Time Conclusion: Markets from Stories
£64.80
Stanford University Press Climate Change, Interrupted: Representation and
Book SynopsisIn this moment of climate precarity, Victorian studies scholar Barbara Leckie considers the climate crisis as a problem of time. Spanning the long nineteenth century through our current moment, her interdisciplinary treatment of climate change at once rethinks time and illustrates that the time for climate action is now. Climate Change, Interrupted argues that linear, progress-inflected temporalities are not adequate to a crisis that defies their terms. Instead, this book advances a theory and practice of interruption to rethink prevailing temporal frameworks. At the same time, it models the anachronistic, time-blending, and time-layering temporality it advances. In a series of experimental chapters informed by the unlikely trio of Walter Benjamin, Donna Haraway, and Virginia Woolf, Leckie reinflects and cowrites the traditions and knowledges of the long nineteenth century and the current period in the spirit of climate action collaboration. The current moment demands as many approaches as possible, invites us to take risks, and asks scholars and activists adept at storytelling to participate in the conversation. Climate Change, Interrupted, accordingly, invests in interruption to tell a different story of the climate crisis.Trade Review"Climate Change, Interrupted is a moving and voracious experiment that inspires more than it alarms. I so appreciate the capacious and unexpected circles it draws, and Leckie's sage and spirited company on every page."—Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint"What a treat to read such brilliantly surprising readings of Benjamin, Eliot, and Shelley, braided together in an exquisitely crafted experimental work. Leckie makes a powerful case for the crucial role of the humanities in the climate crisis."—Caroline Levine, author of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network"Highly original, boldly conceived, and extremely thought-provoking. The genuine honesty and directness of Leckie's voice, and the approachability of her experimentation, will ensure this book finds a wide audience."—Kate Flint, author of Flash! Photography, Writing, and Surprising Illumination"This is a dazzling piece of work, and a joy to read—deeply adventurous and undisciplined in the best sense of that term."—Jesse Oak Taylor, coeditor of Anthropocene Reading: Literary History in Geologic Times"The staggering originality of Barbara Leckie's Climate Change, Interrupted: Representation and the Remaking of Time rests upon the title's most innocuous term: representation.... Climate Change, Interrupted unforgettably activates its own claims on an aesthetic level."—Shawna Ross, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
£64.80
Stanford University Press Making Sense: Markets from Stories in New Breast
Book SynopsisBreast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers and a leading cause of death for women worldwide. With advances in molecular engineering in the 1980s, hopes began to rise that a non-toxic and non-invasive treatment for breast cancer could be developed. These hopes were stoked by the researchers, biotech companies, and analysts who worked to make sense of the uncertainties during product development. In Making Sense Sophie Mützel traces this emergence of "innovative breast cancer therapeutics" from the late 1980s up to 2010, through the lens of the narratives of the involved actors. Combining theories of economic and cultural sociology, Mützel shows how stories are integral for the emergence of new markets; stories of the future create a market of expectations prior to any existing products; stories also help to create categories on what such a new market and its products are about. Making Sense uses thousands of press statements, media reports, scientific reports, and financial and industry analyses, and combines qualitative and large-scale computational text analyses, to illustrate these mechanisms, presenting a fresh view of how life-prolonging innovations can be turned into market products. Trade Review"Mützel brilliantly connects market emergence and creation of a market of expectations in a book that defines the next level of excitement in theorizing entanglements of structure, culture, and meaning."—Ronald Breiger, University of Arizona"Deftly interweaving text analyses and computational methods to examine thousands of stories, Mützel fashions a virtuoso example of relational sociology."—Woody Powell, Stanford University"Making Sense makes a seminal contribution to the understanding of markets and innovation processes."—Jens Beckert, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne"By focusing on the role of stories in market emergence and by combining qualitative and computational text analysis, Making Sense—as Mützel highlights in the conclusions—partakes in the debates among economic sociologists concerning the relevance of culture in market emergence and how to measure it.... Making Sense offers readers the opportunity to approach the topic through a fascinating methodology."—Penelope K. Hardy, H-Sci-Med-Tech"Indeed, Mützel's book can be read as much for its substantive contributions as it can be for its method. This text is innovative in its approach to analysis through its combination of close textual analysis to study meaning-making processes, alongside its deployment of computational methods to understand the macro discursive trajectories and patterns in meaning making in breast cancer therapeutics over two decades."—Melanie Jeske, Social ForcesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Markets and Stories 2. Breast Cancer Therapies and Innovation 3. A Market of Expectations 4. Making Sense of a Market 5. Patterns in Meaning-Making: Categories over Time Conclusion: Markets from Stories
£23.39
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Platform Capitalism
Book SynopsisWhat unites Google and Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, Siemens and GE, Uber and Airbnb? Across a wide range of sectors, these firms are transforming themselves into platforms: businesses that provide the hardware and software foundation for others to operate on. This transformation signals a major shift in how capitalist firms operate and how they interact with the rest of the economy: the emergence of �platform capitalism�. This book critically examines these new business forms, tracing their genesis from the long downturn of the 1970s to the boom and bust of the 1990s and the aftershocks of the 2008 crisis. It shows how the fundamental foundations of the economy are rapidly being carved up among a small number of monopolistic platforms, and how the platform introduces new tendencies within capitalism that pose significant challenges to any vision of a post-capitalist future. This book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the most powerful tech companies of our time are transforming the global economy."Trade Review‘Platform Capitalism is a high definition snapshot of the current political economic situation than manages to get a lot of detail into a tight frame. It offers a convincing image of the current stage of capitalist development as a series of variations on the theme of the platform as a means of consolidating or seizing a kind of monopoly leverage over not only distribution but also production. Srnicek gives good reasons for thinking the platform moment in capital accumulation might be less all-conquering than it looks.’McKenzie Wark, author of Telethesia: Communication, Culture and Class"Probe the slithering, creeping collusion between public and private, work and exhaustion, capitalism and death. As cars transform into terrorist devices and public housing explodes into flame through neglectful policies, planning and practices, we require books to understand the loss of agency, the loss of choice and the permanent revolution of fear, confusion and ignorance."Times Higher Education Supplement"…Srnicek builds an illuminating 120-page dissertation on where the platform came from, and where it might take us."Literary Review of Canada"It’s one of those books that so neatly gets to the heart of how modern society in the 21st century functions."PajibaTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vi Introduction 1 1 The Long Downturn 9 2 Platform Capitalism 36 3 Great Platform Wars 93 Notes 130 References 141
£42.75
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Will Robots Take Your Job?: A Plea for Consensus
Book SynopsisThe trend that began with ATMs and do-it-yourself checkouts is moving at lightning speed. Everything from driving to teaching to the care of the elderly and, indeed, code-writing can now be done by smart machines. Conventional wisdom says there will be new jobs to replace those we lose – but is it so simple? And are we ready?Technology writer and think-tank director Nigel Cameron argues it's naive to believe we face a smooth transition. Whether or not there are "new" jobs, we face massive disruption as the jobs millions of us are doing get outsourced to machines. A twenty-first-century "rust belt" will rapidly corrode the labor market and affect literally hundreds of different kinds of jobs simultaneously.Robots won't design our future – we will. Yet shockingly, political leaders and policy makers don't seem to have this in their line of sight. So how should we assess and prepare for the risks of this unknown future?Trade Review"A compelling and cutting-edge book, packed with intellectual energy. A challenge to conventional wisdom. A passionate plea for debate about the future of jobs, and preparing for upheaval in labor markets, put in elegant and thoughtful style. A must-read for all who care about the future: leaders, political and others, and yes, economists."Nagy K. Hanna, author, visiting professor, and former chief strategist of the World Bank"Nigel Cameron injects vital insight and urgency into the technology debate, and his book should be a wake-up call to policymakers and influencers around the world. Technological advances are moving at staggering speed but we cannot assume all will be well for those displaced by such 'progress'. We are living in a time of deep political and economic uncertainty, as disaffected groups rally against the fallout of change. But, as Will Robots Take your Job? makes clear, this may mark only the beginning. It is time to wake from our slumber; if we take responsibility now the future is ours to shape for the better. This book shows us a way forward."Christian Guy, former Special Adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron"Nigel Cameron has a refreshingly honest answer to the question of whether robots will take all the jobs: we don't know. Politicians are used to dealing with uncertainty in other fields, yet in this case they seem paralyzed. His brief, bracing book helpfully summarizes the debate – and persuasively argues that a risk-based approach to policymaking is the best response."Tom Standage, Deputy Editor, The Economist "Will Robots Take Your Job? offers a clear-headed introduction to an issue that should be at the forefront of public talk about technology: the likelihood of large-scale unemployment as machines take on increasing numbers of tasks previously assigned to a human workforce. Reminding us that the consequences of technological change are not 'unstoppable,' Cameron's book is a welcome call for public conversation and action to rethink relationships between humans and machines for the twenty-first century."Jennifer S. Light, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"An interesting read, providing a general overview of the main drivers of technological disruption and its impact on jobs, people and societies."Labour & IndustryTable of ContentsPreface Introduction: Time to Stop Being Naïve 1. Non-Human Resources 2. �The Stupid Luddite People� 3. Welcome to the Rust Belt 4. Building Consensus and Getting Prepared Notes Bibliography
£38.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Will Robots Take Your Job?: A Plea for Consensus
Book SynopsisThe trend that began with ATMs and do-it-yourself checkouts is moving at lightning speed. Everything from driving to teaching to the care of the elderly and, indeed, code-writing can now be done by smart machines. Conventional wisdom says there will be new jobs to replace those we lose – but is it so simple? And are we ready?Technology writer and think-tank director Nigel Cameron argues it's naive to believe we face a smooth transition. Whether or not there are "new" jobs, we face massive disruption as the jobs millions of us are doing get outsourced to machines. A twenty-first-century "rust belt" will rapidly corrode the labor market and affect literally hundreds of different kinds of jobs simultaneously.Robots won't design our future – we will. Yet shockingly, political leaders and policy makers don't seem to have this in their line of sight. So how should we assess and prepare for the risks of this unknown future?Trade Review"A compelling and cutting-edge book, packed with intellectual energy. A challenge to conventional wisdom. A passionate plea for debate about the future of jobs, and preparing for upheaval in labor markets, put in elegant and thoughtful style. A must-read for all who care about the future: leaders, political and others, and yes, economists."Nagy K. Hanna, author, visiting professor, and former chief strategist of the World Bank"Nigel Cameron injects vital insight and urgency into the technology debate, and his book should be a wake-up call to policymakers and influencers around the world. Technological advances are moving at staggering speed but we cannot assume all will be well for those displaced by such 'progress'. We are living in a time of deep political and economic uncertainty, as disaffected groups rally against the fallout of change. But, as Will Robots Take your Job? makes clear, this may mark only the beginning. It is time to wake from our slumber; if we take responsibility now the future is ours to shape for the better. This book shows us a way forward."Christian Guy, former Special Adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron"Nigel Cameron has a refreshingly honest answer to the question of whether robots will take all the jobs: we don't know. Politicians are used to dealing with uncertainty in other fields, yet in this case they seem paralyzed. His brief, bracing book helpfully summarizes the debate – and persuasively argues that a risk-based approach to policymaking is the best response."Tom Standage, Deputy Editor, The Economist "Will Robots Take Your Job? offers a clear-headed introduction to an issue that should be at the forefront of public talk about technology: the likelihood of large-scale unemployment as machines take on increasing numbers of tasks previously assigned to a human workforce. Reminding us that the consequences of technological change are not 'unstoppable,' Cameron's book is a welcome call for public conversation and action to rethink relationships between humans and machines for the twenty-first century."Jennifer S. Light, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"An interesting read, providing a general overview of the main drivers of technological disruption and its impact on jobs, people and societies."Labour & IndustryTable of ContentsPreface Introduction: Time to Stop Being Naïve 1. Non-Human Resources 2. �The Stupid Luddite People� 3. Welcome to the Rust Belt 4. Building Consensus and Getting Prepared Notes Bibliography
£11.77
John Wiley and Sons Ltd How To Be a Geek: Essays on the Culture of
Book SynopsisComputer software and its structures, devices and processes are woven into our everyday life. Their significance is not just technical: the algorithms, programming languages, abstractions and metadata that millions of people rely on every day have far-reaching implications for the way we understand the underlying dynamics of contemporary societies. In this innovative new book, software studies theorist Matthew Fuller examines how the introduction and expansion of computational systems into areas ranging from urban planning and state surveillance to games and voting systems are transforming our understanding of politics, culture and aesthetics in the twenty-first century. Combining historical insight and a deep understanding of the technology powering modern software systems with a powerful critical perspective, this book opens up new ways of understanding the fundamental infrastructures of contemporary life, economies, entertainment and warfare. In so doing Fuller shows that everyone must learn ‘how to be a geek’, as the seemingly opaque processes and structures of modern computer and software technology have a significance that no-one can afford to ignore. This powerful and engaging book will be of interest to everyone interested in a critical understanding of the political and cultural ramifications of digital media and computing in the modern world.Trade Review"Insightful, informative, provocative and brilliant, Fuller 'geeks out' the problematic of software. In a wide–ranging analysis that moves from object oriented languages to github, from metadata to urban models, Fuller reveals software's intersecting technical, cultural and political aspects. A must read for anyone interested in software and new media studies." —Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Brown University"This new book from the pioneer of software studies sets a new standard for critical discussion about the crucial part of contemporary culture and society – software. From mobile apps and social networks to email and word processing, we use software everyday. Yet critical thinking about software that can combine big ideas with careful attention to small details and genealogies of software concepts, tools, and interfaces is still rare. Fuller and his collaborators both give us fresh ideas and wonderful insights, and also show us what it means to study software culture." —Lev Manovich, City University of New YorkTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Biographies of Co-Authors Introduction Histories 1. The Obscure Objects of Object Orientation (with Andrew Goffey) 2. Abstract Urbanism (with Graham Harwood) Entities 3. Software Studies Methods 4. Big Diff, granularity, incoherence and production in the Github software repository, (with Andrew Goffey, Adrian Mackenzie, Richard Mills and Stuart Sharples) 5. The Author Name (with Nikita Mazurov and Dan McQuillan) Aesthetics 6. Always One Bit More, computing and the experience of ambiguity 7. Computational Aesthetics (with M. Beatrice Fazi) 8. Phrase (with Olga Goriunova) 9. Feral Computing: from ubiquitous computing to wild interactions (with Sónia Matos) 10. Just fun enough to go completely mad about: on games, procedures and amusement Powers 11. Black Sites and Transparency Layers 12. Algorithmic Tumult and the Brilliance of Chelsea Manning Index
£49.50
John Wiley and Sons Ltd How To Be a Geek: Essays on the Culture of
Book SynopsisComputer software and its structures, devices and processes are woven into our everyday life. Their significance is not just technical: the algorithms, programming languages, abstractions and metadata that millions of people rely on every day have far-reaching implications for the way we understand the underlying dynamics of contemporary societies. In this innovative new book, software studies theorist Matthew Fuller examines how the introduction and expansion of computational systems into areas ranging from urban planning and state surveillance to games and voting systems are transforming our understanding of politics, culture and aesthetics in the twenty-first century. Combining historical insight and a deep understanding of the technology powering modern software systems with a powerful critical perspective, this book opens up new ways of understanding the fundamental infrastructures of contemporary life, economies, entertainment and warfare. In so doing Fuller shows that everyone must learn ‘how to be a geek’, as the seemingly opaque processes and structures of modern computer and software technology have a significance that no-one can afford to ignore. This powerful and engaging book will be of interest to everyone interested in a critical understanding of the political and cultural ramifications of digital media and computing in the modern world.Trade Review"Insightful, informative, provocative and brilliant, Fuller 'geeks out' the problematic of software. In a wide–ranging analysis that moves from object oriented languages to github, from metadata to urban models, Fuller reveals software's intersecting technical, cultural and political aspects. A must read for anyone interested in software and new media studies." —Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Brown University"This new book from the pioneer of software studies sets a new standard for critical discussion about the crucial part of contemporary culture and society – software. From mobile apps and social networks to email and word processing, we use software everyday. Yet critical thinking about software that can combine big ideas with careful attention to small details and genealogies of software concepts, tools, and interfaces is still rare. Fuller and his collaborators both give us fresh ideas and wonderful insights, and also show us what it means to study software culture." —Lev Manovich, City University of New YorkTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgements Biographies of Co-Authors Introduction Histories 1. The Obscure Objects of Object Orientation (with Andrew Goffey) 2. Abstract Urbanism (with Graham Harwood) Entities 3. Software Studies Methods 4. Big Diff, granularity, incoherence and production in the Github software repository, (with Andrew Goffey, Adrian Mackenzie, Richard Mills and Stuart Sharples) 5. The Author Name (with Nikita Mazurov and Dan McQuillan) Aesthetics 6. Always One Bit More, computing and the experience of ambiguity 7. Computational Aesthetics (with M. Beatrice Fazi) 8. Phrase (with Olga Goriunova) 9. Feral Computing: from ubiquitous computing to wild interactions (with Sónia Matos) 10. Just fun enough to go completely mad about: on games, procedures and amusement Powers 11. Black Sites and Transparency Layers 12. Algorithmic Tumult and the Brilliance of Chelsea Manning Index
£16.14
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Digital Economy
Book SynopsisBoasting trillion-dollar companies, the digital economy profits from our emotions, our relationships with each other, and the ways we interact with the world. In this timely book, Tim Jordan deftly explores the workings of the digital economy. He discusses the hype and significance surrounding its activities and practices in order to outline important concepts, theory, and policy questions. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, he examines the areas of search, social media, service providers, free economic activity, and digital gaming. Companies discussed include Google, Baidu, Uber, Bitcoin, Wikipedia, Fortnight, and World of Warcraft. Jordan argues that the digital economy is not concerned primarily with selling products, but relies instead on creating communities that can be read by software and algorithms. Profit is then extracted through targeted advertising, subscriptions, misleading 'purchases', and service relations. The Digital Economy is an important reference for students and scholars getting to grips with this enormous contemporary phenomenon.Trade Review"A lively excursion across the varied terrains of the “digital economy”, in which the author argues that it’s not platform technologies that drive our digital searching, working, socialising and gaming, but our deep embeddedness in shared social practices, habits and collective communities."Mark Banks, University of Leicester "Writing in a personal and lively style, Tim Jordan intelligently explores the digital economic practices that constitute search, social media, online gaming and more. Tracing the perspectives, tactics and activities of users, advertisers and platforms, he separates the hype from the reality."Thomas Poell, University of Amsterdam“a welcome addition that STS scholars may find useful for future research projects conceptualising the remaking of property regimes.”LSE Review of Books Table of ContentsAcknowledgements 1 Introduction: The Meaning of the Digital Economy 2 Search 3 Social Media 4 Taxis, Hotels and Blockchains 5 Free Online Economies 6 Online Games 7 Profit, Labour, Production and Consumption 8 Defining the Digital Economy 9 Policy 10 Conclusion References Index
£49.50
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Digital Condition
Book SynopsisOur daily lives, our culture and our politics are now shaped by the digital condition as large numbers of people involve themselves in contentious negotiations of meaning in ever more dimensions of life, from the trivial to the profound. They are making use of the capacities of complex communication infrastructures, currently dominated by social mass media such as Twitter and Facebook, on which they have come to depend.Amidst a confusing plurality, Felix Stalder argues that are three key constituents of this condition: the use of existing cultural materials for one's own production, the way in which new meaning is established as a collective endeavour, and the underlying role of algorithms and automated decision-making processes that reduce and give shape to massive volumes of data. These three characteristics define what Stalder calls 'the digital condition'. Stalder also examines the profound political implications of this new culture. We stand at a crossroads between post-democracy and the commons, a concentration of power among the few or a genuine widening of participation, with the digital condition offering the potential for starkly different outcomes.This ambitious and wide-ranging theory of our contemporary digital condition will be of great interest to students and scholars in media and communications, cultural studies, and social, political and cultural theory, as well as to a wider readership interested in the ways in which culture and politics are changing today.Trade Review"A remarkable map of the social and cultural changes brought about by the shift to digital culture. Broad in scope and precise in detail, this is a book of plentiful insights and deft propositions." Matthew Fuller, Goldsmiths, University of London"A fresh and intimate analysis that transcends labels and points to the tendency toward commons as proof for the existence of genuine, fundamental, and cutting-edge alternatives. Felix Stalder is whispering in the reader's ear that, yes, despite everything, another world is possible. A must-read for anyone who cares about the future."Trebor Scholz, The New School, New YorkTable of ContentsPreface to the English Edition vii Acknowledgments x Introduction: After the End of the Gutenberg Galaxy 1 I. Evolution 11 The Expansion of the Social Basis of Culture 12 The Culturalization of the World 35 The Technologization of Culture 41 From the Margins to the Center of Society 56 II. Forms 58 Referentiality 59 Communality 79 Algorithmicity 101 III. Politics 125 Post-Democracy 127 Commons 152 Against a Lack of Alternatives 174 Notes and References 176
£46.80
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Digital Condition
Book SynopsisOur daily lives, our culture and our politics are now shaped by the digital condition as large numbers of people involve themselves in contentious negotiations of meaning in ever more dimensions of life, from the trivial to the profound. They are making use of the capacities of complex communication infrastructures, currently dominated by social mass media such as Twitter and Facebook, on which they have come to depend.Amidst a confusing plurality, Felix Stalder argues that are three key constituents of this condition: the use of existing cultural materials for one's own production, the way in which new meaning is established as a collective endeavour, and the underlying role of algorithms and automated decision-making processes that reduce and give shape to massive volumes of data. These three characteristics define what Stalder calls 'the digital condition'. Stalder also examines the profound political implications of this new culture. We stand at a crossroads between post-democracy and the commons, a concentration of power among the few or a genuine widening of participation, with the digital condition offering the potential for starkly different outcomes.This ambitious and wide-ranging theory of our contemporary digital condition will be of great interest to students and scholars in media and communications, cultural studies, and social, political and cultural theory, as well as to a wider readership interested in the ways in which culture and politics are changing today.Trade Review"A remarkable map of the social and cultural changes brought about by the shift to digital culture. Broad in scope and precise in detail, this is a book of plentiful insights and deft propositions."Matthew Fuller, Goldsmiths, University of London"A fresh and intimate analysis that transcends labels and points to the tendency toward commons as proof for the existence of genuine, fundamental, and cutting-edge alternatives. Felix Stalder is whispering in the reader's ear that, yes, despite everything, another world is possible. A must-read for anyone who cares about the future."Trebor Scholz, The New School, New YorkTable of ContentsPreface to the English Edition vii Acknowledgments x Introduction: After the End of the Gutenberg Galaxy 1 I. Evolution 11 The Expansion of the Social Basis of Culture 12 The Culturalization of the World 35 The Technologization of Culture 41 From the Margins to the Center of Society 56 II. Forms 58 Referentiality 59 Communality 79 Algorithmicity 101 III. Politics 125 Post-Democracy 127 Commons 152 Against a Lack of Alternatives 174 Notes and References 176
£15.19
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains
Book SynopsisFrom their shadowy origins in Bitcoin to their use by multinational corporations, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are remaking the rules of digital media and society. Meanwhile, regulators, governments, and the public are trying to make sense of it all. In this accessible book, Quinn DuPont guides readers through the changing face of money to show how blockchain technology underpins new forms of value exchange and social coordination. He introduces cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to readers in terms of their developers and users, investment opportunities and risks, changes to politics and law, social and industrial applications - and what this all means for the new economy. The author argues throughout that, rather than being a technical innovation, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are social technologies enabling developers and users to engage in unprecedented experiments with social and political levers. Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains dispenses with hype and offers sober reflection on this crucial and timely topic. It is essential reading for students and scholars of culture, politics, media, and the economy, as well as anyone who wants to understand, take part in, or change the future of work and society.Trade Review“This book cuts through the hype and presents, in layperson’s terms, the developments and applications of blockchain, offering lessons on how we will imagine human systems, governance, and accountability in a world of distributed computational processes and decentralized authority. A real tour de force.“Bill Maurer, University of California, Irvine “Amid all the hype surrounding cryptocurrency, this book provides a refreshingly balanced perspective on what matters – and does not matter – about these new forms of money. Quinn DuPont provides a well-informed analysis of the cryptocurrency terrain, which should be required reading for students and researchers, as well as anyone who wants to get involved in this exciting new world but might be wary of doing so.”Nigel Dodd, London School of Economics and Political Science
£45.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains
Book SynopsisFrom their shadowy origins in Bitcoin to their use by multinational corporations, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are remaking the rules of digital media and society. Meanwhile, regulators, governments, and the public are trying to make sense of it all. In this accessible book, Quinn DuPont guides readers through the changing face of money to show how blockchain technology underpins new forms of value exchange and social coordination. He introduces cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to readers in terms of their developers and users, investment opportunities and risks, changes to politics and law, social and industrial applications - and what this all means for the new economy. The author argues throughout that, rather than being a technical innovation, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are social technologies enabling developers and users to engage in unprecedented experiments with social and political levers. Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains dispenses with hype and offers sober reflection on this crucial and timely topic. It is essential reading for students and scholars of culture, politics, media, and the economy, as well as anyone who wants to understand, take part in, or change the future of work and society.Trade Review“This book cuts through the hype and presents, in layperson’s terms, the developments and applications of blockchain, offering lessons on how we will imagine human systems, governance, and accountability in a world of distributed computational processes and decentralized authority. A real tour de force.“Bill Maurer, University of California, Irvine “Amid all the hype surrounding cryptocurrency, this book provides a refreshingly balanced perspective on what matters – and does not matter – about these new forms of money. Quinn DuPont provides a well-informed analysis of the cryptocurrency terrain, which should be required reading for students and researchers, as well as anyone who wants to get involved in this exciting new world but might be wary of doing so.”Nigel Dodd, London School of Economics and Political Science
£15.19
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Xenofeminism
Book SynopsisIn an era of accelerating technology and increasing complexity, how should we reimagine the emancipatory potential of feminism? How should gender politics be reconfigured in a world being transformed by automation, globalization and the digital revolution? These questions are addressed in this bold new book by Helen Hester, a founding member of the 'Laboria Cuboniks' collective that developed the acclaimed manifesto 'Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation'. Hester develops a three-part definition of xenofeminism grounded in the ideas of technomaterialism, anti-naturalism, and gender abolitionism. She elaborates these ideas in relation to assistive reproductive technologies and interrogates the relationship between reproduction and futurity, while steering clear of a problematic anti-natalism. Finally, she examines what xenofeminist technologies might look like in practice, using the history of one specific device to argue for a future-oriented gender politics that can facilitate alternative models of reproduction. Challenging and iconoclastic, this visionary book is the essential guide to one of the most exciting intellectual trends in contemporary feminism.Trade Review"This is without doubt one of the most exciting texts I have read for quite some time. Lucid, well-grounded and brilliantly original, this short book is a breath of fresh air."Claire Colebrook, Pennsylvania State University�Helen Hester has her eyes set firmly on the future... its impact will be far reaching.�DIVA Magazine�Pithy and engaging... I heartily recommend this well-argued, provocative, and timely text.�Philosophy NowTable of Contents Contents Introduction 1. What is Xenofeminism? 2. Xenofeminist Futurities 3. Xenofeminist Technologies Conclusion: Xeno-Reproduction Endnotes Works Cited
£38.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Canguilhem
Book SynopsisGeorges Canguilhem (1904–95) was an influential historian and philosopher of science, as renowned for his teaching as for his writings. He is best known for his book The Normal and the Pathological, originally his doctoral thesis in medicine, but he also wrote a thesis in philosophy on the concept of the reflex, supervised by Gaston Bachelard. He was the sponsor of Michel Foucault’s doctoral thesis on madness. However, his work extends far beyond what is suggested by his association with these thinkers. Canguilhem also produced a series of important works on the natural sciences, including studies of evolution, psychology, vitalism and mechanism, experimentation, monstrosity and disease. Stuart Elden discusses the whole of this important thinker’s complex work, including recently rediscovered texts and archival materials. Canguilhem always approached questions historically, examining how it was that we came to a significant moment in time, outlining tensions, detours and paths not taken. The first comprehensive study in English, this book is a crucial guide for those coming to terms with Canguilhem’s important contributions, and will appeal to researchers and students from a range of fields.Trade Review‘The patience, clarity and erudition we expect of Stuart Elden's books are on full display in this exceptional work. More than a simple introduction, Canguilhem enables readers to see the outlines, stakes and details of the works of an important thinker.’John Protevi, Louisiana State University ‘This impressive and meticulously researched volume which includes a wealth of references to archival material provides the first comprehensive introduction in English to a figure recognized as a seminal influence by postwar French thinkers, including Foucault and Althusser.’Clare O’Farrell, Queensland University of TechnologyTable of Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1 Foundations 2 The Normal and the Pathological 3 Philosophy of Biology 4 Physiology and the Reflex 5 Regulation and Psychology 6 Evolution and Monstrosity 7 Philosophy of History 8 Writings on Medicine 9 Legacies Timeline Notes Index
£49.50
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Canguilhem
Book SynopsisGeorges Canguilhem (1904–95) was an influential historian and philosopher of science, as renowned for his teaching as for his writings. He is best known for his book The Normal and the Pathological, originally his doctoral thesis in medicine, but he also wrote a thesis in philosophy on the concept of the reflex, supervised by Gaston Bachelard. He was the sponsor of Michel Foucault’s doctoral thesis on madness. However, his work extends far beyond what is suggested by his association with these thinkers. Canguilhem also produced a series of important works on the natural sciences, including studies of evolution, psychology, vitalism and mechanism, experimentation, monstrosity and disease. Stuart Elden discusses the whole of this important thinker’s complex work, including recently rediscovered texts and archival materials. Canguilhem always approached questions historically, examining how it was that we came to a significant moment in time, outlining tensions, detours and paths not taken. The first comprehensive study in English, this book is a crucial guide for those coming to terms with Canguilhem’s important contributions, and will appeal to researchers and students from a range of fields.Trade Review‘The patience, clarity and erudition we expect of Stuart Elden's books are on full display in this exceptional work. More than a simple introduction, Canguilhem enables readers to see the outlines, stakes and details of the works of an important thinker.’John Protevi, Louisiana State University ‘This impressive and meticulously researched volume which includes a wealth of references to archival material provides the first comprehensive introduction in English to a figure recognized as a seminal influence by postwar French thinkers, including Foucault and Althusser.’Clare O’Farrell, Queensland University of Technology
£17.09
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Metric Society: On the Quantification of the
Book SynopsisIn today’s world, numbers are in the ascendancy. Societies dominated by star ratings, scores, likes and lists are rapidly emerging, as data are collected on virtually every aspect of our lives. From annual university rankings, ratings agencies and fitness tracking technologies to our credit score and health status, everything and everybody is measured and evaluated. In this important new book, Steffen Mau offers a critical analysis of this increasingly pervasive phenomenon. While the original intention behind the drive to quantify may have been to build trust and transparency, Mau shows how metrics have in fact become a form of social conditioning. The ubiquitous language of ranking and scoring has changed profoundly our perception of value and status. What is more, through quantification, our capacity for competition and comparison has expanded significantly – we can now measure ourselves against others in practically every area. The rise of quantification has created and strengthened social hierarchies, transforming qualitative differences into quantitative inequalities that play a decisive role in shaping the life chances of individuals. This timely analysis of the pernicious impact of quantification will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, as well as anyone concerned by the cult of numbers and its impact on our lives and societies today.Trade Review ‘In this brilliant book, Steffen Mau does not simply demonstrate the distortions that occur when excessive reliance is placed on statistical indicators, but shows how the current mania for measurement and quantification eats away at social relationships and even our sense of ourselves.’Colin Crouch, Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick ‘Mau, a leading expert on inequality in Europe, is tackling a question of growing significance: the relationship between quantification, status comparison and social competition. His probing analysis offers a fresh perspective for understanding the brave new world of self-monitoring we live in. It offers convincing explanations for current anxieties of performance that are fed by growing inequality and neoliberalism. Influential in Germany, this excellent book should find a wide readership in the English-reading public.’Michèle Lamont, past President, American Sociological Association "A timely, informative and appropriately pessimistic book."Morning Star ‘A wide-ranging tour through rankings and ratings, stars and points, charts and graphs… the metric society may prove a means for faraway data overlords to capture power and entrench inequality in the guise of efficiency. It risks descending into a 21st-century dystopia that is almost as bleak, in its impersonal way, as those imagined in the darkest novels of the 20th.’The Economist"The book is well grounded in a vast and relevant literature and covers an extensive array of topics, from academic rankings to actuarial justice, through to credit scores, travel reviews, professional assessment, and reputation building through social media, among others. In the process, it offers important insights and raises relevant questions, many of which have a clear Foucaultian inspiration."Sociological Research OnlineTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 1 The Measurement of Social Value 10 What does quantification mean? 12 The calculative practices of the market 15 The state as data manager 17 Engines of quantification: digitalization and economization 21 2 Status Competition and the Power of Numbers 26 Dispositives of comparison 28 Commensurability and incommensurability 31 New horizons of comparison 33 Registers of comparison and investive status work 35 3 Hierarchization: Rankings and Ratings 40 Visibilization and the creation of difference 40 On your marks! 43 University rankings 47 Here today, gone tomorrow: the market power of rating agencies 53 4 Classification: Scoring and Screening 60 Credit scoring 63 Quantified health status 67 Mobility value 71 ‘Boost your score’ – academic status markers 74 Social worth investigations 78 5 The Evaluation Cult: Stars and Points 81 Satisfaction surveys 82 Evaluation portals as selectors 84 Peer-to-peer ratings 87 Professions in the evaluative spotlight 89 Like-based reputations on social media 93 6 The Quantified Self: Charts and Graphs 99 Health, exercise and mood 101 The collective body 104 Motivation techniques 106 7 The Power of Nomination 111 The nomination power of the state 112 Performance measurement and the framing of competition 115 The nomination power of experts 119 Algorithmic authority 123 Critique of nomination power 125 8 Risks and Side-Effects 129 Reactive measurements 129 Loss of professional control 133 Loss of time and energy 135 Monoculture versus diversity 137 9 Transparency and Discipline 141 Normative and political pressure 144 The power of feedback 147 Technological surveillance in the workplace 149 The new tariff systems 151 The interdependence of self- and external surveillance 153 The regime of averages, benchmarks and body images 155 10 The Inequality Regime of Quantification 158 Establishment of worth 160 Reputation management 162 Collectives of non-equals 166 From class conflict to individual competition 168 Inescapability and status fluidity 170 Self-reinforcing effects 174 Bibliography 177 Index 196
£45.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Metric Society: On the Quantification of the
Book SynopsisIn today’s world, numbers are in the ascendancy. Societies dominated by star ratings, scores, likes and lists are rapidly emerging, as data are collected on virtually every aspect of our lives. From annual university rankings, ratings agencies and fitness tracking technologies to our credit score and health status, everything and everybody is measured and evaluated. In this important new book, Steffen Mau offers a critical analysis of this increasingly pervasive phenomenon. While the original intention behind the drive to quantify may have been to build trust and transparency, Mau shows how metrics have in fact become a form of social conditioning. The ubiquitous language of ranking and scoring has changed profoundly our perception of value and status. What is more, through quantification, our capacity for competition and comparison has expanded significantly – we can now measure ourselves against others in practically every area. The rise of quantification has created and strengthened social hierarchies, transforming qualitative differences into quantitative inequalities that play a decisive role in shaping the life chances of individuals. This timely analysis of the pernicious impact of quantification will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, as well as anyone concerned by the cult of numbers and its impact on our lives and societies today.Trade Review‘In this brilliant book, Steffen Mau does not simply demonstrate the distortions that occur when excessive reliance is placed on statistical indicators, but shows how the current mania for measurement and quantification eats away at social relationships and even our sense of ourselves.’Colin Crouch, Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick ‘Mau, a leading expert on inequality in Europe, is tackling a question of growing significance: the relationship between quantification, status comparison and social competition. His probing analysis offers a fresh perspective for understanding the brave new world of self-monitoring we live in. It offers convincing explanations for current anxieties of performance that are fed by growing inequality and neoliberalism. Influential in Germany, this excellent book should find a wide readership in the English-reading public.’Michèle Lamont, past President, American Sociological Association "A timely, informative and appropriately pessimistic book."Morning Star ‘A wide-ranging tour through rankings and ratings, stars and points, charts and graphs… the metric society may prove a means for faraway data overlords to capture power and entrench inequality in the guise of efficiency. It risks descending into a 21st-century dystopia that is almost as bleak, in its impersonal way, as those imagined in the darkest novels of the 20th.’The Economist"The book is well grounded in a vast and relevant literature and covers an extensive array of topics, from academic rankings to actuarial justice, through to credit scores, travel reviews, professional assessment, and reputation building through social media, among others. In the process, it offers important insights and raises relevant questions, many of which have a clear Foucaultian inspiration."Sociological Research OnlineTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 1 The Measurement of Social Value 10 What does quantification mean? 12 The calculative practices of the market 15 The state as data manager 17 Engines of quantification: digitalization and economization 21 2 Status Competition and the Power of Numbers 26 Dispositives of comparison 28 Commensurability and incommensurability 31 New horizons of comparison 33 Registers of comparison and investive status work 35 3 Hierarchization: Rankings and Ratings 40 Visibilization and the creation of difference 40 On your marks! 43 University rankings 47 Here today, gone tomorrow: the market power of rating agencies 53 4 Classification: Scoring and Screening 60 Credit scoring 63 Quantified health status 67 Mobility value 71 ‘Boost your score’ – academic status markers 74 Social worth investigations 78 5 The Evaluation Cult: Stars and Points 81 Satisfaction surveys 82 Evaluation portals as selectors 84 Peer-to-peer ratings 87 Professions in the evaluative spotlight 89 Like-based reputations on social media 93 6 The Quantified Self: Charts and Graphs 99 Health, exercise and mood 101 The collective body 104 Motivation techniques 106 7 The Power of Nomination 111 The nomination power of the state 112 Performance measurement and the framing of competition 115 The nomination power of experts 119 Algorithmic authority 123 Critique of nomination power 125 8 Risks and Side-Effects 129 Reactive measurements 129 Loss of professional control 133 Loss of time and energy 135 Monoculture versus diversity 137 9 Transparency and Discipline 141 Normative and political pressure 144 The power of feedback 147 Technological surveillance in the workplace 149 The new tariff systems 151 The interdependence of self- and external surveillance 153 The regime of averages, benchmarks and body images 155 10 The Inequality Regime of Quantification 158 Establishment of worth 160 Reputation management 162 Collectives of non-equals 166 From class conflict to individual competition 168 Inescapability and status fluidity 170 Self-reinforcing effects 174 Bibliography 177 Index 196
£15.19
John Wiley and Sons Ltd What is Philosophy of Science?
Book SynopsisPhilosophy of science puts science itself under the microscope: What exactly is science? How do its explanations of the world differ from those of other subjects, including so-called “pseudo-sciences”? How should we understand and evaluate scientific methods? What, if anything, can science tell us about the nature of physical reality?Dean Rickles guides beginners through the central topics in philosophy of science. He looks at the origins and evolution of the field, the issues that arise when distinguishing between science and non-science, the concepts of logic and associated problems, scientific realism and anti-realism, and the nature of scientific models and representing. Rickles brings the subject to sparkling life with a user-friendly tone and rich, real-world examples.What is Philosophy of Science? is the must-have primer for students getting to grips with this broad-ranging and important topic.Trade Review�'An enjoyable and lively introduction to central issues within general philosophy of science. The book is 'written for the absolute beginner' (xi) and lives up to the billing. The writing is clear and accessible. Explanations are balanced, neither superficial nor weighed down by excessive jargon and detail. This economy of style enables Rickles to cover an impressive amount of material, given its length. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning what philosophy of science is, and I am confident that instructors of relevant courses will find the book useful.� Metascience �A wonderfully accessible picture of what philosophers are trying to understand about science about the nature of scientific reasoning and theories, what makes them special, and how they represent the world. Rickles� pithy introduction is fun, direct, extensive, and captivating.� Anjan Chakravartty, University of Miami �This engagingly written introduction gives a fresh voice to traditional, and essential, topics in the philosophy of science. It is perfectly pitched at the complete beginner, requires no prior philosophical training, and will be a wonderful resource both inside and outside the classroom.� Eleanor Knox, King�s College London �Dean Rickles rightly notes that philosophy of science puts science under the microscope. Well, in his own fine What is Philosophy of Science?, Rickles manages to put philosophy of science itself under the magnifying glass. Written for the uninitiated, the book succeeds in making major philosophical views and arguments concerning science accessible to the novice, offering the necessary conceptual tools for a more in depth study of the subject.� Stathis Psillos, University of AthensTable of ContentsPreface 1 Philosophy, Science, and History 2 Logic and Philosophy of Science 3 Demarcation and the Scientific Method 4 The Nature of Scientific Theories Index
£45.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd What is Philosophy of Science?
Book SynopsisPhilosophy of science puts science itself under the microscope: What exactly is science? How do its explanations of the world differ from those of other subjects, including so-called “pseudo-sciences”? How should we understand and evaluate scientific methods? What, if anything, can science tell us about the nature of physical reality?Dean Rickles guides beginners through the central topics in philosophy of science. He looks at the origins and evolution of the field, the issues that arise when distinguishing between science and non-science, the concepts of logic and associated problems, scientific realism and anti-realism, and the nature of scientific models and representing. Rickles brings the subject to sparkling life with a user-friendly tone and rich, real-world examples.What is Philosophy of Science? is the must-have primer for students getting to grips with this broad-ranging and important topic.Trade Review�'An enjoyable and lively introduction to central issues within general philosophy of science. The book is 'written for the absolute beginner' (xi) and lives up to the billing. The writing is clear and accessible. Explanations are balanced, neither superficial nor weighed down by excessive jargon and detail. This economy of style enables Rickles to cover an impressive amount of material, given its length. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning what philosophy of science is, and I am confident that instructors of relevant courses will find the book useful.� Metascience �A wonderfully accessible picture of what philosophers are trying to understand about science about the nature of scientific reasoning and theories, what makes them special, and how they represent the world. Rickles� pithy introduction is fun, direct, extensive, and captivating.� Anjan Chakravartty, University of Miami �This engagingly written introduction gives a fresh voice to traditional, and essential, topics in the philosophy of science. It is perfectly pitched at the complete beginner, requires no prior philosophical training, and will be a wonderful resource both inside and outside the classroom.� Eleanor Knox, King�s College London �Dean Rickles rightly notes that philosophy of science puts science under the microscope. Well, in his own fine What is Philosophy of Science?, Rickles manages to put philosophy of science itself under the magnifying glass. Written for the uninitiated, the book succeeds in making major philosophical views and arguments concerning science accessible to the novice, offering the necessary conceptual tools for a more in depth study of the subject.� Stathis Psillos, University of AthensTable of ContentsPreface1 Philosophy, Science, and History2 Logic and Philosophy of Science3 Demarcation and the Scientific Method4 The Nature of Scientific TheoriesIndex
£14.99
John Wiley and Sons Ltd How Green is Your Smartphone?
Book SynopsisEvery day we are inundated by propaganda that claims life will be better once we are connected to digital technology. Poverty, famine, and injustice will end, and the economy will be “green.” All anyone needs is the latest smartphone. In this succinct and lively book, Maxwell and Miller take a critical look at contemporary gadgets and the systems that connect them, shedding light on environmental risks. Contrary to widespread claims, consumer electronics and other digital technologies are made in ways that cause some of the worst environmental disasters of our time – conflict-minerals extraction, fatal and life-threatening occupational hazards, toxic pollution of ecosystems, rising energy consumption linked to increased carbon emissions, and e-waste. Nonetheless, a greener future is possible, in which technology meets its emancipatory and progressive potential. How Green is Your Smartphone? encourages us to look at our phones in a wholly new way, and is important reading for anyone concerned by the impact of everyday technologies on our environment.Trade Review“In this broad, informative, and surprisingly searing look into ‘smart’ systems, Maxwell and Miller make a compelling case for rethinking and redesigning digital technologies.”Devra Davis, author of Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation “Rigorously researched and acutely argued, this provocative book promises to take readers beyond their comfort zones, into the domain of environmental justice and sustainable development.”Jack Qiu, Chinese University of Hong Kong “How green is your phone? Encourage us to look at mobile phones from a new perspective, and also have important reference significance for thinking about the impact of daily life technology on the environment.”China Media Research “The strength of How Green Is Your Smartphone? is its critical examination of a wide range of issues generated through smartphone production and consumption. ... certainly left me thinking about the global impact generated by my own smartphone use.”Media International Australia “In How Green is your Smartphone?, the various issues around labour, environment and political economy are distilled clearly and concisely with a sharp focus. For teaching purposes, this is the book I have been waiting for. … In the spirit of a manifesto, Maxwell and Miller deploy snappy, no-nonsense language to alert us to the urgency of their call to action, namely the creation of a greener communication system.”PrometheusTable of ContentsIntroduction1 Outsmart Your Smartphone2 The Greatest Smartphone is the One You Already Own3 Calling Bullshit on Anti-Science PropagandaConclusion: What Next?ReferencesIndex
£11.77
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Augmented Reality: Unboxing Tech's Next Big Thing
Book SynopsisSlated as ‘the next big thing in tech’, augmented reality promises to take the screen out of our hands and wrap it around the world via ‘smart spectacles’. As a pervasive, invisible interface between the world and our senses, AR offers unparalleled capacity to reveal hidden digital depths, but it also comes at a cost to our privacy, our property, and our reality. In this crucial and provocative book, Mark Pesce draws on over thirty years’ experience to offer the first mainstream exploration of augmented reality. He discusses the exciting and beneficial features of AR as well as the issues and risks raised by this still-emerging technology – a technology that moulds us by shaping what we see and hear. Augmented Reality is essential reading for anyone interested in the growing influence of this impressive but deeply concerning technology. As the book reveals, reality - once augmented - will never be the same.Trade Review“This is the story of how we came to live in an increasingly augmented reality and what this might mean for the future of being human, told by one of this technology’s most brilliant and playful pioneers. Thrilling, scary, hopeful, and required reading.”Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens and Team Human “A must-read for those who are both fascinated by digital technology and fearful of its implications. Mark makes a deeply technical topic accessible to any reader, and catalogs the key insights and innovations that led to where we are now: on the cusp of the most significant technological advancement in history-- and possibly the most dangerously invasive and manipulative tool ever created.”Tony Parisi, VR pioneer and Head of AR/VR Ad Innovation at Unity Technologies“an expansive and holistic picture of how augmented reality works as a system of machines.” ARPost“a must-read.”The Connector“fascinating”ZD Net
£37.50
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Augmented Reality: Unboxing Tech's Next Big Thing
Book SynopsisSlated as ‘the next big thing in tech’, augmented reality promises to take the screen out of our hands and wrap it around the world via ‘smart spectacles’. As a pervasive, invisible interface between the world and our senses, AR offers unparalleled capacity to reveal hidden digital depths, but it also comes at a cost to our privacy, our property, and our reality. In this crucial and provocative book, Mark Pesce draws on over thirty years’ experience to offer the first mainstream exploration of augmented reality. He discusses the exciting and beneficial features of AR as well as the issues and risks raised by this still-emerging technology – a technology that moulds us by shaping what we see and hear. Augmented Reality is essential reading for anyone interested in the growing influence of this impressive but deeply concerning technology. As the book reveals, reality - once augmented - will never be the same.Trade Review“This is the story of how we came to live in an increasingly augmented reality and what this might mean for the future of being human, told by one of this technology’s most brilliant and playful pioneers. Thrilling, scary, hopeful, and required reading.”Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens and Team Human “A must-read for those who are both fascinated by digital technology and fearful of its implications. Mark makes a deeply technical topic accessible to any reader, and catalogs the key insights and innovations that led to where we are now: on the cusp of the most significant technological advancement in history-- and possibly the most dangerously invasive and manipulative tool ever created.”Tony Parisi, VR pioneer and Head of AR/VR Ad Innovation at Unity Technologies“an expansive and holistic picture of how augmented reality works as a system of machines.” ARPost“a must-read.”The Connector“fascinating”ZD Net
£13.49
