Analyzing the complex interaction between the material and immaterial aspects of new digital technologies, this book draws upon a mix of theoretical approaches (including sociology, media theory, cultural studies and technological philosophy), to suggest that the ‘Matrix’ of science fiction and Hollywood is simply an extreme example of how contemporary technological society enframes and conditions its citizens. Arranged in two parts, the book covers: theorizing the Im/Material Matrix living in the Digital Matrix. Providing a novel perspective on on-going digital developments by using both the work of current thinkers and that of past theorists not normally associated with digital issues, it gives a fresh insight into the roots and causes of the social matrix behind the digital one of popular imagination. The authors highlight the way we should be concerned by the power of the digital to undermine physical reality, but also explore the potential the digital has for alternative, empowering social uses. The book’s central point is to impress upon the reader that the digital does indeed matter. It includes a pessimistic interpretation of technological change, and adds a substantial historical perspective to the often excessively topical focus of much existing cyberstudies literature making it an important volume for students and researchers in this field.

As new technology and opportunities emerge through the revolutionary impacts of the digital age, the function of libraries and librarians and how they provide services to constituents is rapidly changing. The impact of new technology touches everything from libraries' organizational structures, business models, and workflow processes, to position descriptions and the creation of new positions. As libraries are required to make operational adjustments to meet the growing technological demands of libraries' customer bases and provide these services, librarians must be flexible in adapting to this fast-moving environment. This volume shares the unique perspectives and experiences of librarians on the front lines of this technological transformation. The essays within provide details of both the practical applications of surviving, adapting, and growing when confronted with changing roles and responsibilities, as well as a big picture perspective of the changing roles impacting libraries and librarians. This book strives to be a valuable tool for librarians involved in public and technical services, digital humanities, virtual and augmented reality, government documents, information technology, and scholarly communication.

In Mondo Nano Colin Milburn takes his readers on a playful expedition through the emerging landscape of nanotechnology, offering a light-hearted yet critical account of our high-tech world of fun and games. This expedition ventures into discussions of the first nanocars, the popular video games Second Life, Crysis, and BioShock, international nanosoccer tournaments, and utopian nano cities. Along the way, Milburn shows how the methods, dispositions, and goals of nanotechnology research converge with video game culture. With an emphasis on play, scientists and gamers alike are building a new world atom by atom, transforming scientific speculations and video game fantasies into reality. Milburn suggests that the closing of the gap between bits and atoms entices scientists, geeks, and gamers to dream of a completely programmable future. Welcome to the wild world of Mondo Nano.

Towards a New Social Contract Ars Electronica 2023 is dedicated to the complex questions of truth and the concept of ownership in this digital age. In doing so, the festival navigates the central questions of our time. The focus is on how our perception of "authentic" and "original" is being transformed and whether truth can be owned, and how this relates to digitalization and the rapidly developing performance of artificial intelligence. How can the achievements of a tool that is so much based on the globally collective "raw material" of knowledge and creativity be made accessible to everyone and be harnessed to the benefit of all? This comprehensive volume brings together the works of artists, scientists, developers, designers, entrepreneurs and activists from around the world and delves deep into the themes of the festival, offering insights, perspectives, and thought-provoking content that reflect on the intersection of art, technology, and society.

The family is an important site for the transmission of knowledge and cultural values. Amidst claims that young people are failing to follow health advice, dropping out of sport and at risk of an ever-expanding list of lifestyle diseases, families have become the target of government interventions. This book is the first to offer critical sociological perspectives on how families do and do not function as a pedagogical site for health education, sport and physical activity practices. This book focuses on the importance of families as sites of pedagogical work across a range of cultural and geographical contexts. It explores the relationships between families, education, health, physical activity and sport, and also offers reflections on the methodological and ethical issues arising from this research. Its chapters discuss key questions such as: how active living messages are taken up in families; how parents perceive the role of education, physical activity and sport; how culture, gender, religion and social class shape engagement in sport; how family pedagogies may influence health education, sport and physical activity now and in the future. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in health, physical education, health education, family studies, sport pedagogy or the sociology of sport and exercise.

Nanotechnology has been the subject of extensive ‘assessment hype,’ unlike any previous field of research and development. A multiplicity of stakeholders have started to analyze the implications of nanotechnology: Technology assessment institutions around the world, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, re-insurance companies, and academics from science and technology studies and applied ethics have turned their attention to this growing field’s implications. In the course of these assessment efforts, a social phenomenon has emerged – a phenomenon the editors define as assessment regime. Despite the variety of organizations, methods, and actors involved in the evaluation and regulation of emerging nanotechnologies, the assessment activities comply with an overarching scientific and political imperative: Innovations are only welcome if they are assessed against the criteria of safety, sustainability, desirability, and acceptability. So far, such deliberations and reflections have played only a subordinate role. This book argues that with the rise of the nanotechnology assessment regime, however, things have changed dramatically: Situated at the crossroads of democratizing science and technology, good governance, and the quest for sustainable innovations, the assessment regime has become constitutive for technological development. The contributions in this book explore and critically analyse nanotechnology’s assessment regime: To what extent is it constitutive for technology in general, for nanotechnology in particular? What social conditions render the regime a phenomenon sui generis? And what are its implications for science and society?

This book explores genealogies and the challenges related to the concept of the postdigital, the ambiguous nature of postdigital knowledges, and the many faces of postdigital sensibilities. The book answers three key questions: What is postdigital knowledge? What does it mean to do postdigital research? What, if anything, is distinct from research conducted in other perspectives? As such, this book is a one-stop publication for those interested in the theory of postdigital research. Postdigital Research: Genealogies, Challenges, and Future Perspectives is complemented by Constructing Postdigital Research: Method and Emancipation, also edited by Petar Jandrić, Alison MacKenzie, and Jeremy Knox, which explores these questions in practice.

Iceland’s economy is recovering from a deep COVID-19 recession. Fisheries and intellectual services exports are on the rise and foreign tourists are starting to come back as travel restrictions are gradually eased. The health crisis has been relatively mild so far, thanks to a smart testing and tracking strategy and a well-functioning health system.

This book takes a novel, data-driven approach to the cemeteries of Paris, analyzing a largely text-based body of archival material as proxy evidence for visual material that has been lost due to systematic, and legally sanctioned, acts of erasure. This study represents the first full-length study of vernacular monuments in France and the entrepreneurs who made them. It also provides methodical considerations, at the intersection of the computational and digital humanities for managing survival biases in extant historical evidence, that are applicable beyond the thematic focus of this book. Since extant examples of these more inconspicuous monuments are rare, this project employs both distant and close viewing—analyzing commercial almanacs, work logs, and burial records in aggregates alongside detailed case studies—to compensate for gaps in the material record. The book will be of interest to scholars working in visual culture, popular culture, digital humanities, and French history.

Cyberspace has become the ultimate frontier and central issue of international conflict, geopolitical competition, and security. Emerging threats and technologies continuously challenge the prospect of an open, secure, and free cyberspace. Additionally, the rising influence of technology on society and culture increasingly pushes international diplomacy to establish responsible state behavior in cyberspace and internet governance against the backdrop of fragmentation and polarization. In this context, novel normative practices and actors are emerging both inside and outside the conventional sites of international diplomacy and global governance. In Hybridity, Conflict, and the Global Politics of Cybersecurity, Fabio Cristiano and Bibi van den Berg explore the hybridity and conflict inherent to these recent processes of remodulation of the global politics of cybersecurity by analyzing emerging normative practices, threats and technologies, and actors. Through this comprehensive analysis, this edited volume ultimately sheds light on the problematic technical logic of emergence that informs the global politics of cybersecurity and delineates novel normative paths for cyberspace moving forward.