The Technologisation of the Social

The Technologisation of the Social
Author: Paul O'Connor
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2021-12-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000517985

In an era of digital revolution, artificial intelligence, big data and augmented reality, technology has shifted from being a tool of communication to a primary medium of experience and sociality. Some of the most basic human capacities are increasingly being outsourced to machines and we increasingly experience and interpret the world through digital interfaces, with machines becoming ever more ‘social’ beings. Social interaction and human perception are being reshaped in unprecedented ways. This book explores this technologisation of the social and the attendant penetration of permanent liminality into those aspects of the lifeworld where individuals had previously sought some kind of stability and meaning. Through a historical and anthropological examination of this phenomenon, it problematises the underlying logic of limitless technological expansion and our increasing inability to imagine either ourselves or our world in other than technological terms. Drawing on a variety of concepts from political anthropology, including liminality, the trickster, imitation, schismogenesis, participation, and the void, it interrogates the contemporary technological revolution in a manner that will be of interest to sociologists, social and anthropological theorists and scholars of science and technology studies with interests in the digital transformation of social life.

Innovation in Social Services

Innovation in Social Services
Author: Andreas Langer
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2019-08-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3658051760

Across Europe, there is an intense search for new and sustainable approaches to providing welfare. Demographic change, new social risks and other factors call for new ideas to maintain and enhance the performance and quality of social services and to enable the participation of all citizens in an inclusive society. Against this background, and based on the findings of the EU research platform INNOSERV and empirically obtained research results from text and video material, this book provides insights into current approaches and practices to improve and transform social services.

Texts and Practices

Texts and Practices
Author: Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1134808194

Text and Practices provides an essential introduction to the theory and practice of Critical Discourse Analysis. Using insights from this challenging new method of linguiistic analysis, the contributors to this text reveal the ways in whcih language can be used as a means of social control. The essays in Text and Practices: * demonstrate how critical discourse analysis can be applied to a variety of written and spoken texts * deconstruct data from a range of contexts, countries and spheres * expose hidden patterns of discrimination and inequalities of power Texts and Practices, which includes specially commissioned papers from a range of distinguished authors, provides a state-of-the-art introduction to critical discourse analysis. As such it represents an important contribution to this developing field and an essential text for all advanced students of language, media and cultural studies.

The Routledge International Handbook of Digital Social Work

The Routledge International Handbook of Digital Social Work
Author: Antonio López Peláez
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2023-06-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000878686

This handbook provides an authoritative and cutting-edge overview of current research and trends related to the emerging field of digital technology and social work. This book is divided into six sections: Reframing Social Work in a Digital Society Shaping a Science of Social Work in the Digital Society Digital Social Work in Practice The Ethics of Digital Social Work Digital Social Work and the Digitalization of Welfare Institutions: Opportunities, Challenges and Country Cases Digital Social Work: Future Challenges, Directions and Transformations This book, comprised of 40 specially commissioned chapters, explores the main intersections between social work theory and practice in an increasingly digitized world. Bringing a critical focus to how social work as a profession is adapting exponentially to embrace the benefits of technology, it gives specific consideration to the digitalization of the social work profession, including the ways in which social workers are using different forms of technology to provide effective services and innovative practice responses. With chapters on big data, digital archiving, e-citizenship and inclusion, gerontechnology, children and technology, and data ethics, this book will be of interest to all social work scholars, students and professionals as well as those working in science and technology studies more broadly.

Somatechnics

Somatechnics
Author: Samantha Murray
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317052757

Somatechnics highlights the reciprocal bond between the sôma and the techné of 'the body' and the techniques in which bodies are formed and transformed as crafted responses to the world around us. Structured around the themes of the governance of social bodies, the gendering of sexed bodies and the techniques associated with the formation of the self, Somatechnics presents a groundbreaking study of body modification. Its contributions to the work of Spinoza, Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, Deluze and Guattari make it a must read for scholars of sociology, cultural and queer studies and philosophy.

Somatechnics

Somatechnics
Author: Samantha Murray
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317052749

Somatechnics highlights the reciprocal bond between the sôma and the techné of 'the body' and the techniques in which bodies are formed and transformed as crafted responses to the world around us. Structured around the themes of the governance of social bodies, the gendering of sexed bodies and the techniques associated with the formation of the self, Somatechnics presents a groundbreaking study of body modification. Its contributions to the work of Spinoza, Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, Deluze and Guattari make it a must read for scholars of sociology, cultural and queer studies and philosophy.

Cyberfeminism and Gender Violence in Social Media

Cyberfeminism and Gender Violence in Social Media
Author: Mishra, Deepanjali
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2023-10-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1668488957

Cyberfeminism and Gender Violence in Social Media is a timely and essential book that addresses the increasing violence against women on social media platforms. With the rise of digitalization and the advent of social media, women have been subjected to various forms of violence such as cyberbullying, trolling, and body shaming. This volume compiles research works on the topic of how women fall prey to social networking sites and possible remedial actions to prevent such issues. The book provides an interdisciplinary approach, making it relevant to a wide range of fields such as social science, humanities, technology, and management. It creates awareness among people, especially women, about the prospects of cybersecurity and its impact on their wellness. This book enriches readers about the impact of social media on the general public and how cyber security education can make people more aware of their security and well-being while online. This book is ideal for researchers, academicians, and students who are interested in new and innovative techniques for the safety of people irrespective of their gender. It is a significant contribution to the ongoing conversation on women's rights and violence against them in the digital age.

Socio-gerontechnology

Socio-gerontechnology
Author: Alexander Peine
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2021-03-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000317536

Social change in the twenty-first century is shaped by both demographic changes associated with ageing societies and significant technological change and development. Outlining the basic principles of a new academic field, Socio-gerontechnology, this book explores common conceptual, theoretical and methodological ideas that become visible in the critical scholarship on ageing and technology at the intersection of Age Studies and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Comprised of 15 original chapters, three commentaries and an afterword, the book explores how ageing and technology are already interconnected and constantly being intertwined in Western societies. Topics addressed cover a broad variety of socio-material domains, including care robots, the use of social media, ageing-in-place technologies, the performativity of user involvement and public consultations, dementia care and many others. Together, they provide a unique understanding of ageing and technology from a social sciences and humanities perspective and contribute to the development of new ontologies, methodologies and theories that might serve as both critique of and inspiration for policy and design. International in scope, including contributions from the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, Socio-gerontechnology is an agenda-setting text that will provide an introduction for students and early career researchers as well as for more established scholars who are interested in ageing and technology.

Making Sense of Diseases and Disasters

Making Sense of Diseases and Disasters
Author: Lee Trepanier
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2022-07-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000637379

This book examines diseases and disasters from the perspective of social and political theory, exploring the ways in which political leaders, social activists, historians, philosophers, and writers have tried to make sense of the catastrophes that have plagued humankind from Thucydides to the present COVID pandemic. By adopting the perspective of political theory, it sheds light on what these individuals and events can teach us about politics, society, and human nature, as well as the insights and limitations of political theory. Including thinkers such as Thucydides, Sophocles, Augustine, Bacon, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Publius, Bartolomé de las Casas, Jane Addams, Camus, Saramago, Baudrillard, Weber, Schmitt, Voegelin and Agamben, it considers a diverse range of events including the plagues of Byzantium and 14th century Europe, 9/11, the hurricanes of Fukushima, Boxing Day, and New Orleans, and the current COVID pandemic. An examination of past, present, and future diseases and disasters, and the ways in which individuals and societies react to them, this volume will appeal to scholars of politics, sociology, anthropology and philosophy with interests in disaster and the social body.

Body Technologies in the Greco-Roman World

Body Technologies in the Greco-Roman World
Author: Maria Gerolemou
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2023-11-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1835536433

A collection of papers that introduces the notion of the technosoma (techno body) into discussions on the representations of the body in classical antiquity. By applying the category of the technosoma to the ‘natural’ body, this volume explicitly narrows down the discussion of the technical and the natural to the physiological body. In doing so, the present collection focuses on body technologies in the specific form of beautification and body enhancement techniques, as well as medical and surgical treatments. The volume elucidates two main points. Firstly, ancient techno bodies show that the categories of gender and sexuality are at the core of the intersection of the natural and the technical, and intersect with notions of race, age, speciesism, class and education, and dis/ability. Secondly, the collection argues that new body technologies have in fact a very ancient history that can help to address the challenges of contemporary technological innovation. To this end, the volume showcases the intersection of ‘natural’ bodies with technology, gender, sexuality and reproduction. On the one hand, techno bodies tend to align with normative ideas about gender, and sexuality. On the other hand, body modification and/or enhancement techniques work hand in hand with economic and political power and knowledge, thus they often produce techno bodies that are shaped according to individual needs, i.e. according to a certain lifestyle. Consequently, techno bodies threaten to alter traditional ideas of masculinity, femininity, male and female sexuality and beauty.