The book consolidates systems thinking as a new world-hypothesis that is already suggesting itself behind the advancement of quantum mechanics and Ashby’s cybernetics. In particular, it shows how Einstein’s misgivings about quantum mechanics boil down to his persistence in defending the principle of contiguity at the root of the modern cosmology and, in relation to neo-cybernetics, the book rediscovers Ashby’s theory of adaptive behaviour enabling a new synthesis between physiology, psychology and ethology that has implications for systems practice. Furthermore, this new “cosmology” comes with a new “anthropology” that informs utopics, the science of utopic systems, and sheds new light on the actual founding fathers of the domain of human science. In particular, the book provides an understanding of how our human world works and how it is being constituted by utopic systems that look into the future to realize something possible. Finally, it points the way to the future unification of knowledge bringing together systems philosophy and systems science given that world-hypothesis is what makes logically possible the development and consolidation of all the different domains of science.

In Lesbian Utopics, Annamarie Jagose surveys the construction of the lesbian and finds her in a cultural space that is both everywhere and, of all places, nowhere. The "lesbian", in other words, is symbolically central, yet culturally marginal.

Few books have attempted to contextualize the importance of video game play with a critical social, cultural and political perspective that raises the question of the significance of work, pleasure, fantasy and play in the modern world. The study of why video game play is 'fun' has often been relegated to psychology, or the disciplines of cultural anthropology, literary and media studies, communications and other assorted humanistic and social science disciplines. In Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies, Talmadge Wright, David Embrick and Andras Lukacs invites us to move further and consider questions on appropriate methods of researching games, understanding the carnival quality of modern life, the role of marketing in altering game narratives, and the role of fantasy and desire in modern video game play. Embracing an approach that combines a cultural and/or critical studies approach with a sociological understanding of this new media moves the debate beyond simple media effects, moral panics, and industry boosterism to one of asking critical questions, what does modern video game play 'mean,' what questions should we be asking, and what can sociological research contribute to answering these questions. This collection includes works which use textual analysis, audience based research, symbolic interactionism, as well as political economic and psychoanalytic perspectives to illuminate areas of inquiry that preserves the pleasure of modern play while asking tough questions about what such pleasure means in a world divided by political, economic, cultural and social inequalities.

The Badlands of Modernity offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity as it emerged during the eighteenth century through an analysis of some of the most important social spaces. Drawing on Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, the book argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas of utopia and heterotopia and heterotopic spatial practice. The Palais Royal during the French Revolution, the masonic lodge and in its relationship to civil society and the public sphere and the early factories of the Industrial Revolution are all seen as heterotopia in which modern social ordering is developed. Rather than seeing modernity as being defined by a social order, the book argues that we need to take account of the processes and the ambiguous spaces in which they emerge, if we are to understand the character of modern societies. The book uses these historical examples to analyse contemporary questions about modernity and postmodernity, the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in relation to issues of order, transgression and resistance. It will be important reading for sociologists, geographers and social historians as well as anyone who has an interest in modern societies.

Created by artist Fabiana de Barros in 1998, when she took part in an artistic exchange between Switzerland, Brazil, and France, in João Pessoa (state of Paraíba), the Fiteiro Cultural [Culture Kiosk] had the intention of being an ideal space, capable of transforming into an atelier, a stage, an exhibition venue, or a place suited for resting, reading, and thinking.This second edition of Aberto [Open]: Culture Kiosk reinterprets and updates the work whose name it bears. The book was strengthened in its function of recording, analyzing, and displaying the visual memory of the structure and the impact of the Fiteiro Cultural in the cities it has visited and on the people that dedicated their reflection to it.

This work explains what is understood by the term new social movements, and provides a critical assessment of identity politics. It examines a range of issues including neo-tribalism associated with identity politics and alternative lifestyles.