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Phenomenology presents itself not as an explanation or interpretation of phenomena but as a description of them. Describing experience means making its internal structure explicit, which, in phenomenology, is an eidetic structure. The method of phenomenological explication or clarification is, however, by no means univocal. This paper aims to isolate the two fundamental ways in which phenomenological description is achieved. The first refers to a phenomenology of manifestation, based on the concept of determination or datum, which is realized in the phenomenological-static approach and, in particular, on the concept of extensive quality. The second refers to a phenomenology of disposition, based on the concept of tension or force - which is realized in the genetic approach as well as in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception - and, in particular on the concept of intensive or forceful quality. The analysis of the difference between the two approaches allows us to introduce the crucial distinction between digital and analogue dimensions within phenomenology., Author(s): Roberta Lanfredini [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/04jr1s763, grid.8404.8, 0000 0004 1757 2304, Department of Humanities, University of Florence, , Florence, Italy Phenomenology and explication. This paper aims to show [...]

This commentary introduces the notion of 'technical alterity' in order to address the following questions: is it possible that technical objects can become 'others' in analogy to Levinas' ethics and can this relation provide solutions for the subject in the Anthropocene? According to Levinas, the human subject's only break from having to be itself is in the consumption and enjoyment of things. Objects constitute thus an 'other' that can be consumed, i.e., appropriated and be made one's own. But, in times of the Anthropocene, where the entanglement of human and non-human actors becomes increasingly obvious and intricate, and a question of survival for human beings in the face of the climate crisis, it is necessary to develop a relation with non-human actors that does not reduce them to mere means to an end. This ethical relation with technical objects relies upon an epistemic act, since technical objects precisely do not have a 'face' in the Levinasian sense. Technical objects as 'technical others' have therefore-in light of Simondon's philosophy of technology-to be invented., Author(s): Johannes F. M. Schick [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.6190.e, 0000 0000 8580 3777, DFG-Project 'Action, Operation, Gesture: Technology as Interdisciplinary Anthropology' a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne, University [...]

About ten years ago, I acquired a deep suspicion of smartphones and social media. Riding a late-night L Train back to my Brooklyn apartment, I looked up from my book [...]

Author(s): Luciano Floridi [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) 0000 0004 1936 8948grid.4991.5Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, 1 St Giles, OX13JS, Oxford, UK (2) The Alan Turing Institute, 96 Euston [...]

Author(s): Hub Zwart [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, Netherlands Mark Coeckelbergh convincingly regards the ethics and aesthetics of living with ICT as 'vulnerability coping': a [...]

Who can still keep a secret in a world in which everyone and everything are connected by technology aimed at charting and cross-referencing people, objects, movements, behaviour, relationships, tastes and preferences? The possibilities to keep a secret have come under severe pressure in the information age. That goes for the individual as well as the state. This development merits attention as secrecy is foundational for individual freedom as well as essential to the functioning of the state. Building on Simmel's work on secrecy, this paper argues that the individual's secrets should be saved from the ever-expanding digital transparency. The legitimate function of state secrecy in turn needs rescuing from a culture of secrecy and over-classification that has exploded in recent years. Contrary to popular expectation, the digital revolution adds another layer of secrecy that is increasingly hidden behind the facade of the 'big usable systems' we work and play with every day. Our dependence on information systems and their black-boxed algorithmic analytical core leads to a certain degree of Weberian (re) enchantment that may increase the disconnect between the system, user and object., Author(s): Dennis Broeders[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, RotterdamThe Netherlands (2) Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, The HagueThe Netherlands The Secret as [...]

Information technology (IT) implementation is a major organizational change event that substantially disrupts an employee's work environment. We develop a model of technology adaptation behaviors that employees perform to cope with a new IT that causes such disruptions. Our model posits technology adaptation behaviors as a key linking mechanism between IT implementation and employee job outcomes, thus offering a holistic nomological network of technology adaptation behaviors. Two field studies conducted over a period of six months, with four waves of data collection each, in two organizations (N = 211 and N = 181) implementing two different ITs, supported the model. We found that employees performed four different technology adaptation behaviors--exploration-to-innovate, exploitation, exploration-to-revert, and avoidance--based on whether they appraised an IT as an opportunity or a threat and whether they had perceptions of control over an IT. Employees' experiential engagements (i.e., user participation and training effectiveness) and psychological engagements (i.e., user involvement and management support) during the implementation jointly determined their appraisal of an IT. Finally, we found that technology adaptation behaviors influenced changes in two key job outcomes, job performance and job satisfaction. Keywords: technology adaptation; exploration; exploitation; avoidance; job performance; job satisfaction History: Received September 22, 2008; accepted March 3, 2013, by Sandra Slaughter, information systems. Published online in Articles in Advance October 27, 2015., 1. Introduction Notwithstanding the global economic slowdown in recent times, organizations around the world continue to implement information technologies (ITs) to gain operational and strategic benefits. Organizations are expected to [...]

This paper explores the ambiguous impact of new information and communications technologies (ICTs) on the cultivation of moral skills in human beings. Just as twentieth century advances in machine automation resulted in the economic devaluation of practical knowledge and skillsets historically cultivated by machinists, artisans, and other highly trained workers (Braverman 1974 (See CR11)), while also driving the cultivation of new skills in a variety of engineering and white collar occupations, ICTs are also recognized as potential causes of a complex pattern of economic deskilling, reskilling, and upskilling. In this paper, I adapt the conceptual apparatus of sociological debates over economic deskilling to illuminate a different potential for technological deskilling/upskilling, namely the ability of ICTs to contribute to the moral deskilling of human users, a potential that exists alongside rich but currently underrealized possibilities for moral reskilling and/or upskilling. I flesh out this general hypothesis by means of examples involving automated weapons technology, new media practices, and social robotics. I conclude that since moral skills are essential prerequisites for the effective development of practical wisdom and virtuous character, and since market and cultural forces are not presently aligned to bring about the more salutary of the ambiguous potentials presented here, the future shape of these developments warrants our close attention-and perhaps active intervention., Author(s): Shannon Vallor[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Philosophy, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, 95053, Santa Clara, CA, USA Introduction In the twentieth century, emerging technologies profoundly reshaped [...]

CALIFORNIA'S SILICON VALLEY OFTEN CALLS to mind a landscape of white-collar office parks and manicured research campuses filled with young dot-com boomers and self-made millionaires. (1) Much of the writings [...]

1 La communication du droit 2 Le son et l'image 3 Le texte et l'image Conclusion Sinistre twit. L'invraisemblable fait divers médiatique à propos de la modèle Cibele Dorsa, qu'on [...], Dans le présent texte, l'auteure développe quelques réflexions autour de l'utilisation, dans la vie juridique, des nouveaux médias et particulièrement d'Internet. Elle le fait en considérant deux formes de communication utilisées par le Pouvoir judiciaire et introduites au Brésil au cours des dernières années: d'une part, la transmission en direct des séances de jugement par la télévision, la radio ou Internet; d'autre part, la diffusion institutionnelle d'informations, qui transforme les tribunaux en fournisseurs des divers médias. La compréhension des effets de ces innovations est imparfaite, car la science juridique n'est pas habituée à recourir au potentiel analytique interdisciplinaire des sciences de la communication pour comprendre la nature des processus au moyen desquels se transmet le message du droit. La principale conséquence de cette lacune méthodologique est l'insuffisance de la réflexion sur la dynamique de la diffusion du droit à travers les diverses techniques qui y concourent. Bien que des travaux récents et importants aient été consacrés à ce phénomène, sa compréhension peut tirer profit des analyses de Marshall McLuhan, auxquelles l'auteure a principalement recours dans son analyse. The following text develops a few ideas on the use of emerging media and especially Internet in the legal world, by looking at two types of communication used by judiciary authorities and introduced into Brazil in recent years: first, live coverage of trials by television, radio or Internet, and second, the broadcasting of information by the courts, making them outlets for various types of media. The effects of these innovations are still not fully understood, since it is not common in the legal field to apply the interdisciplinary analytic potential of the communication sciences to examine the nature of the processes by which the substance of the law is transmitted. The main consequence of this methodological void is a lack of analysis devoted to the dynamics of transmitting the law via various competing techniques. Despite some recent, important research in this area, it may be beneficial, in order to understand the results, to take advantage of the works of Marshall McLuhan, the main source of inspiration for this paper.

There is a convergence of technologies in the beginning of the twenty-first century that may (or may not) lead to the beginning of the end of Homo sapiens on this [...]

Cool Technologies for a New Generation Technologies hardly dreamt of forty years ago continue a surprising diversification and growth that show no sign of slowing. Smart phones and personal digital [...]

Four books that tackle the philosophy of librarianship and the use of information technology in librarianship are analyzed. It is believed that the economic crisis of recent years has brought the societal significance of libraries back into mainstream attention. The presence of free computers and Internet access in libraries is also discussed.

The ways in which government supports families and protects children are always a fine balance. In recent years, we suggest that this balance can be characterised increasingly as 'child-centric', less concerned with families and more focused on individual children and their needs. This article charts the changes in families and government responses over the last 4o years, and the way this is reflected in organisational and administrative arrangements. It notes in particular the impact on everyday practice of the introduction of information and communication technologies. Findings are reported from recent research which shows the struggles faced by practitioners who try to manage systems which separate children from their familial, social and relational contexts. As a consequence, we suggest, the work has become increasingly fragmented and less mindful of children's life within families. While the data and analysis draw on research carried out in England, we suggest that similar changes may be going on in other Western liberal democracies. doi: 10.1017/S0047279410000012

Information technology (IT) change is difficult to implement successfully. Cultural (people) issues are a major barrier to IT implementation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry and existing change models have limitations, particularly with respect to cultural issues, which directly affect the ability of companies within the AEC industry to successfully implement IT change. This paper discusses research exploring the relationships between a resistance to change index (RTCI) and the demographics of individuals to understand different AEC participants' resistance to IT change. Identifying individuals that exhibit different intensities of resistance to IT change efforts and their attendant demographics provides benchmark data to organizations. The ability to identify potential resistors is the first step in helping ensure that new technology implementations succeed. Data was collected from a 156-person sample of the AEC population to determine the relationships among different demographic groups within the AEC population and differences in their RTCI. The data analysis found several demographic groups that were different in their likelihood of resistance, including profession, gender, computer understanding and experience, and awareness of past or future changes occurring in their company. Age and education level were expected to have relationships with RTCI, based on industry stereotypes. The data analysis found that these stereotypes have no scientific basis. Two other stereotypes, gender and computer understanding and experience, were supported by the data analysis. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000108 CE Database subject headings: Change management; Information technology (IT); Construction industry.

We live in a time of great change, an increasingly global society, knitted together by pervasive communications and transportation technologies and driven by the exponential growth of new knowledge. It is a time of challenge and contradiction, as an ever-increasing human population threatens global sustainability; a global, knowledge-driven economy places a new premium on workforce skills through phenomena such as off-shoring; governments place increasing confidence in market forces to reflect public priorities even as new paradigms such as open-source technologies challenge conventional free-market philosophies; shifting geopolitical tensions driven by the great disparity in wealth and power about the globe, national security, and terrorism. (Friedman, 2005) Yet it is also a time of unusual opportunity and reason for optimism as these same technologies enable the formation of new communities and social institutions, better able to address the needs of our society. KEYWORDS library of the future, information technology, cyber-infrastructure, Metauniversity

The development and proliferation of new information and communication technologies has generated some profound claims about the erasure of place. Whilst these claims have continued political and policy resonance, they are increasingly challenged in sociological debate, which emphasizes the persistence of the local. Following this lead, our article explores relations between technology and place. We develop our understanding through engagement with Science and Technology Studies, Actor Network Theory and geographical conceptualizations of place. Our argument is worked through a new empirical study of telemedicine, where new technologies are applied precisely to overcome place. Our analysis is that, on the contrary, empirical outcomes are legible only through the lens of place. This has important policy implications and broader implications for thinking about technology in contemporary debates about globalization. KEY WORDS globalization / information and communication technologies / midwifery / Norway / place