Author : Mike Hynes
Publisher : Emerald Group Publishing
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 27,34 MB
Release : 2021-08-17
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 183909978X
The ebook edition of this title is Open Access, thanks to Knowledge Unlatched funding, and freely available to read online. This book investigates the profound effects 21st century digital technology is having on our individual and collective lives and seeks to confront the realities of a new digital age.
Author : Paul McLean
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 39,60 MB
Release : 2016-11-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0745687202
Today, interest in networks is growing by leaps and bounds, in both scientific discourse and popular culture. Networks are thought to be everywhere – from the architecture of our brains to global transportation systems. And networks are especially ubiquitous in the social world: they provide us with social support, account for the emergence of new trends and markets, and foster social protest, among other functions. Besides, who among us is not familiar with Facebook, Twitter, or, for that matter, World of Warcraft, among the myriad emerging forms of network-based virtual social interaction? It is common to think of networks simply in structural terms – the architecture of connections among objects, or the circuitry of a system. But social networks in particular are thoroughly interwoven with cultural things, in the form of tastes, norms, cultural products, styles of communication, and much more. What exactly flows through the circuitry of social networks? How are people's identities and cultural practices shaped by network structures? And, conversely, how do people's identities, their beliefs about the social world, and the kinds of messages they send affect the network structures they create? This book is designed to help readers think about how and when culture and social networks systematically penetrate one another, helping to shape each other in significant ways.
Author : Elsabé Loots
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 293 pages
File Size : 33,49 MB
Release : 2024-08-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1040095070
Over the 153-year period since 1870, the phenomenon of globalisation has been shaped and reshaped. As we look back at the events that shaped our understanding of the process and its momentum before and after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), it became clear that the process of globalisation has changed and continues to evolve, which requires a deeper analysis. The book answers the question of why the performance of the hyper-globalisation period has not continued during the post-GFC period after 2010, and what might be expected going forward. Apart from the fact that the fourth globalisation wave period between 2010 to the early 2020s has been characterised by a range of global shocks that caused more volatility, instability, and uncertainty, the major economic determinants of globalisation have also slowed markedly. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the geopolitical uncertainty and instability all caused global contagion effects around the world, with economic, socio-economic, and geopolitical consequences and responses. This book aims to analyse most of these global events and shocks and attempted to gather a deeper understanding of the present drivers of globalisation and what the major trends and shifts are geo-economically, socio-economically, and geopolitically. The conclusions drawn include that globalisation remains, despite the current slowbalisation, an integrated process that is globally entrenched, yet complex, cyclical, multifaceted and multiplex. This book is aimed at academics in economics, political sciences, social sciences, and may also find an audience among international policymakers and scholars at multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations.
Author : Osvaldo Gervasi
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 473 pages
File Size : 35,18 MB
Release :
Category :
ISBN : 303165238X
Author : Mark C. Thurber
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 117 pages
File Size : 38,83 MB
Release : 2019-05-07
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 150951404X
By making available the almost unlimited energy stored in prehistoric plant matter, coal enabled the industrial age – and it still does. Coal today generates more electricity worldwide than any other energy source, helping to drive economic growth in major emerging markets. And yet, continued reliance on this ancient rock carries a high price in smog and greenhouse gases. We use coal because it is cheap: cheap to scrape from the ground, cheap to move, cheap to burn in power plants with inadequate environmental controls. In this book, Mark Thurber explains how coal producers, users, financiers, and technology exporters drive this supply chain, while fragmented environmental movements battle for full incorporation of environmental costs into the global calculus of coal. Delving into the politics of energy versus the environment at local, national, and international levels, Thurber paints a vivid picture of the multi-faceted challenges associated with continued coal production and use in the twenty-first century.
Author : Nick Couldry
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 40,42 MB
Release : 2019-08-20
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1503609758
Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect" through digital means. But this convenience is not free—it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of Connection uncovers this process, this "data colonialism," and its designs for controlling our lives—our ways of knowing; our means of production; our political participation. Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of land, bodies, and natural resources is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the creation of a new social order emerging globally—and it must be challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.
Author : Alan J. Reid
Publisher : Springer
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 41,34 MB
Release : 2018-08-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 3319943197
The Smartphone Paradox is a critical examination of our everyday mobile technologies and the effects that they have on our thoughts and behaviors. Alan J. Reid presents a comprehensive view of smartphones: the research behind the uses and gratifications of smartphones, the obstacles they present, the opportunities they afford, and how everyone can achieve a healthy, technological balance. It includes interviews with smartphone users from a variety of backgrounds, and translates scholarly research into a conversational tone, making it easy to understand a synthesis of key findings and conclusions from a heavily-researched domain. All in all, through the lens of smartphone dependency, the book makes the argument for digital mindfulness in a device age that threatens our privacy, sociability, attention, and cognitive abilities.
Author : National Intelligence Council
Publisher : Cosimo Reports
Page : 158 pages
File Size : 24,96 MB
Release : 2021-03
Category :
ISBN : 9781646794973
"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Author : Sylvia Lorek
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
Page : 140 pages
File Size : 34,11 MB
Release : 2023-10-18
Category : Science
ISBN : 283253614X
We are now entering the third decade of the 21st Century, and, especially in the last years, the achievements made by scientists have been exceptional, leading to major advancements in the fast-growing field of sustainability research. Frontiers has organized a series of Research Topics to highlight the latest advancements in research across the field of sustainability, with articles from the Associate Members of our accomplished Editorial Boards. This editorial initiative of particular relevance, led by Prof. Sylvia Lorek (Specialty Chief Editor of the Sustainable Consumption section), together with Dr. Henrike Rau, is focused on new insights, novel developments, current challenges, latest discoveries, recent advances, and future perspectives in the field of sustainable consumption.
Author : Richard Maxwell
Publisher : Polity
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 44,66 MB
Release : 2020-01-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781509534715
Every day we are inundated by propaganda that claims life will be better once we are connected to digital technology. Poverty, famine, and injustice will end, and the economy will be “green.” All anyone needs is the latest smartphone. In this succinct and lively book, Maxwell and Miller take a critical look at contemporary gadgets and the systems that connect them, shedding light on environmental risks. Contrary to widespread claims, consumer electronics and other digital technologies are made in ways that cause some of the worst environmental disasters of our time – conflict-minerals extraction, fatal and life-threatening occupational hazards, toxic pollution of ecosystems, rising energy consumption linked to increased carbon emissions, and e-waste. Nonetheless, a greener future is possible, in which technology meets its emancipatory and progressive potential. How Green is Your Smartphone? encourages us to look at our phones in a wholly new way, and is important reading for anyone concerned by the impact of everyday technologies on our environment.
