We Live in Social Space

We Live in Social Space
Author: Fred Emil Katz
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2017-01-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1524659738

This is how the book starts: “Does the fetus know it is in its mother’s womb? Probably not. Certainly not in any conscious way. Yet it is there, in the womb, asserting its existence. In that prepartum existence, the fetus is coping on its path to becoming a viable human being. “Do we, postpartum humans, know that we live in some sort of external womb? Probably not. Yet we do live in the confines of an external womb. I’ll call it social space. We may not be aware of it, but we live in, and through, and by the actions of social space.” The book examines four attributes of that Social Space. They give new illumination to many facets of our life—from our sexuality to willingness to believe in false messiahs, from stage fright among even the most accomplished performers to our enjoyment of opera.

The Production of Space

The Production of Space
Author: Henri Lefebvre
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 464
Release: 1992-04-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780631181774

Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited by scholars in many different fields. The book is a search for a reconciliation between mental space (the space of the philosophers) and real space (the physical and social spheres in which we all live). In the course of his exploration, Henri Lefebvre moves from metaphysical and ideological considerations of the meaning of space to its experience in the everyday life of home and city. He seeks, in other words, to bridge the gap between the realms of theory and practice, between the mental and the social, and between philosophy and reality. In doing so, he ranges through art, literature, architecture and economics, and further provides a powerful antidote to the sterile and obfuscatory methods and theories characteristic of much recent continental philosophy. This is a work of great vision and incisiveness. It is also characterized by its author's wit and by anecdote, as well as by a deftness of style which Donald Nicholson-Smith's sensitive translation precisely captures.

From Popular Culture to Everyday Life

From Popular Culture to Everyday Life
Author: John Storey
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2014-04-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1135129002

From Popular Culture to Everyday Life presents a critical exploration of the development of everyday life as an object of study in cultural analysis, wherein John Storey addresses the way in which everyday life is beginning to replace popular culture as a primary concept in cultural studies. Storey presents a range of different ways of thinking theoretically about the everyday; from Freudian and Marxist approaches, to chapters exploring topics such as consumption, mediatization and phenomenological sociology. The book concludes, drawing from the previous nine chapters, with notes towards a definition of what everyday life might look like as a pedagogic object of study in cultural studies. This is an ideal introduction to the theories of everyday life for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of cultural studies, communication studies and media studies.

Culture + Technology

Culture + Technology
Author: Jennifer Daryl Slack
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2005
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780820450070

"Culture + Technology is an essential guide to the fascinating history of these debates, and offers new perspectives that give readers the tools they need to make informed decisions about the role of technology in our lives. In clear and compelling language, Slack and Wise untangle and expose the cultural assumptions that underlie our thinking about technology, stories so deeply held we often don't recognize their influence. The book considers the perceived inevitability of technological advance and our myths about progress. It also looks at sources of resistance to these stories from the Luddites of the 19th century to the Unabomber in our own time. Slack and Wise help readers sift through the confusions about culture and technology that arise in their own everyday lives."--BOOK JACKET.

Communication and Capitalism

Communication and Capitalism
Author: Christian Fuchs
Publisher: University of Westminster Press
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2020-05-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1912656728

‘An authoritative analysis of the role of communication in contemporary capitalism and an important contribution to debates about the forms of domination and potentials for liberation in today’s capitalist society.’ — Professor Michael Hardt, Duke University, co-author of the tetralogy Empire, Commonwealth, Multitude, and Assembly ‘A comprehensive approach to understanding and transcending the deepening crisis of communicative capitalism. It is a major work of synthesis and essential reading for anyone wanting to know what critical analysis is and why we need it now more than ever.’ — Professor Graham Murdock, Emeritus Professor, University of Loughborough and co-editor of The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications Communication and Capitalism outlines foundations of a critical theory of communication. Going beyond Jürgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action, Christian Fuchs outlines a communicative materialism that is a critical, dialectical, humanist approach to theorising communication in society and in capitalism. The book renews Marxist Humanism as a critical theory perspective on communication and society. The author theorises communication and society by engaging with the dialectic, materialism, society, work, labour, technology, the means of communication as means of production, capitalism, class, the public sphere, alienation, ideology, nationalism, racism, authoritarianism, fascism, patriarchy, globalisation, the new imperialism, the commons, love, death, metaphysics, religion, critique, social and class struggles, praxis, and socialism. Fuchs renews the engagement with the questions of what it means to be a human and a humanist today and what dangers humanity faces today.

Spatial analysis and social spaces

Spatial analysis and social spaces
Author: Eleftheria Paliou
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 3110370328

In the past decade a range of formal spatial analysis methods has been developed for the study of human engagement, experience and socialisation within the built environment. Many, although not all, of these emanate from the fields of architectural and urban studies, and draw upon social theories of space that lay emphasis on the role of visibility, movement, and accessibility in the built environment. These approaches are now gaining in popularity among researchers of prehistoric and historic built spaces and are given increasingly more weight in the interpretation of past urban environments. Spatial Analysis and Social Spaces brings together contributions from specialists in archaeology, social theory, and urban planning who explore the theoretical and methodological frameworks associated with the application of new and established spatial analysis methods in past built environments. The focus is mainly on more recent computer-based approaches and on techniques such as access analysis, visibility graph analysis, isovist analysis, agent-based models of pedestrian movement, and 3D visibility approaches. The contributors to this volume examine the relationship between space and social life from many different perspectives, and provide illuminating examples from the archaeology of Greece, Italy and Cyprus, in which intra-site analysis offers valuable insights into the built spaces and societies under study.

The Library Catalogue as Social Space

The Library Catalogue as Social Space
Author: Laurel Tarulli
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2012-01-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1598846302

Emphasizing the advantages of working together and exploring the future of library services in an online, socially connected world, this exciting book shows how all public library professionals can take advantage of our strongest community and information tool—the library catalogue. This book is a guide to the library catalogue that all public library professionals will find enlightening and useful. Its technical services perspective provides a different point of view as compared to traditional public library literature, which is often written by frontline professionals. For example, it poses and examines this thought-provoking question: should library catalogues be considered the primary gateway to the library's information, rather than the library website? Author and collection access librarian Laurel Tarulli examines next-generation or "social" catalogues, discussing the theories and concepts behind them, their impact on core library services, and their potential in shaping future libraries and library services. Geared toward frontline and backroom staff, this book helps readers understand next-generation catalogues and see the collaborative opportunities that are possible between the frontline and backroom. Written to be much more than a "one-time" read, this resource book provides practical ideas for beneficial collaboration and implementation of social features in library catalogues.

Categories We Live By

Categories We Live By
Author: Ásta
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2018-07-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190907274

We are women, we are men. We are refugees, single mothers, people with disabilities, and queers. We belong to social categories and they frame our actions, self-understanding, and opportunities. But what are social categories? How are they created and sustained? How does one come to belong to them? Ásta approaches these questions through analytic feminist metaphysics. Her theory of social categories centers on an answer to the question: what is it for a feature of an individual to be socially meaningful? In a careful, probing investigation, she reveals how social categories are created and sustained and demonstrates their tendency to oppress through examples from current events. To this end, she offers an account of just what social construction is and how it works in a range of examples that problematize the categories of sex, gender, and race in particular. The main idea is that social categories are conferred upon people. Ásta introduces a 'conferralist' framework in order to articulate a theory of social meaning, social construction, and most importantly, of the construction of sex, gender, race, disability, and other social categories.

Ritual Servitudes and Christian Social Practices in Ghana

Ritual Servitudes and Christian Social Practices in Ghana
Author: David Stiles-Ocran
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2022-10-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000770028

This book explores the kinds of Christian service or diaconia that develop in non-institutionalized practices for supporting survivors of indigenous ritual servitude or Trokosi in Africa. Drawing on empirical research from Ghana, it examines the possibilities of freedom, equality, and dignity for liberated Trokosi and the manner in which these women’s experiences constitute a repudiation of dominant patriarchal family systems. With close attention to the work of indigenous parachurches – which function outside of institutionalized churches – in challenging the contemporary practice of ritual slavery and offering its survivors a lived space in which they need not remain “hidden” as they seek restoration and integration into wider society, Ritual Servitudes and Christian Social Practices in Ghana will appeal to scholars of sociology, theology, and religion with interests in gender, contemporary ministries and African religion.

Routledge Handbook of Social and Cultural Theory

Routledge Handbook of Social and Cultural Theory
Author: Anthony Elliott
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 552
Release: 2020-12-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351369687

If today students of social theory read Jurgen Habermas, Michael Foucault and Anthony Giddens, then proper regard to the question of culture means that they should also read Raymond Williams, Julia Kristeva and Slavoj Zizek. The second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Social and Cultural Theory is fully revised and updated to provide students, teachers and researchers with a comprehensive, critical guide to the major traditions of thought in social and cultural theory, as well as tracing the complex intellectual connections between these distinct but related approaches to understanding society and culture. The Handbook, edited by acclaimed sociologist Anthony Elliott, develops a powerful argument for bringing together social and cultural theory more systematically than ever before. Key social and cultural theories, ranging from classical approaches to postmodern, psychoanalytic and post-feminist approaches, are drawn together and critically appraised. There are also new chapters on mobilities and migrations, as well as posthumanism. The Handbook, written in a clear and direct style will appeal to a wide audience of students and scholars. The extensive references and sources will direct students to areas of further study.