Explosive growth in the use of tools such as computer databases, the Internet, and mobile telephones has sparked new questions about the boundaries of electronic privacy. This book offers easy-to-find information, as familiar finding tools are used to guide the reader.
A critical inquiry into the relations of space, time and technology. Paul Virilio shows how technology has made inertia the defining condition of modernity. He argues that the real time of "action at a distance" through telecommunication has replaced the real space of immediate action. Everything now happens without the need to go anywhere. This ......
The contributors to this book examine how CD-ROMs offer alternatives to familiar places, especially classrooms. They argue that CD-ROMs are complex texts worthy of consideration for how they have changed our understanding of space and genre, and how they will affect the development of future media.
The contributors to this book examine how CD-ROMs offer alternatives to familiar places, especially classrooms. They argue that CD-ROMs are complex texts worthy of consideration for how they have changed our understanding of space and genre, and how they will affect the development of future media.
Explains how DNA works, what the Human Genome Project is, what these genetic technologies are and what they promise, and how they could disrupt our democratic society. This book is of interest to those who wish to learn more about the Human Genome Project and the genetic revolution that it may create.
The Social Implications of Geographic Information Systems
This text addresses the impact GIS is having in our social organization and the ways in which GIS is transforming how we think about the discipline of geography. examining the new technologies for gathering, analyzing and mapping geographic data, the author addresses issues about the use of GIS in research, technology, power, democratization and ......
Contemporary Perspectives on the Changing World Order
Any examination of contemporary society must recognize a central place for information and communication processes and for the technologies and institutions on which they rely, particularly for public communication. The essays in this volume juxtapose two central concepts of recent social and political thought - civil society and information ......
The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies
In this provocative and broad-ranging work, a distinguished team of authors argues that we are now seeing fundamental changes in the ways in which scientific, social and cultural knowledge is produced. They show how this trend marks a distinct shift towards a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies. Identifying a range of features associated with this new mode - reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity - the authors illustrate the connections between these features and the changing role of knowledge in social relations. While the main focus is on research and development in science and technology, the book outlines the changing dimensions of social scientific and humanities knowledge. The relations between the production of knowledge and its dissemination through education are also examined. "The New Production" of Knowledge places science policy and scientific knowledge in its broader context within contemporary societies. It will be essential reading for all those concerned with the changing nature of knowledge, the social study of science, educational systems, and with the relations between R&D and social, economic and technological development.
A landmark work. Mandatory reading for anyone who wants to learn to be a good skeptic. In this widely acclaimed and highly controversial book, Paul Kurtz examines the reasons why people accept supernatural and paranormal belief systems in spite of substantial evidence to the contrary. According to the author, it is because there is within the ......
