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Amid an unprecedented digital revolution, our society grapples with profound challenges, from the upheaval of traditional global systems to the ethical implications of technology's inexorable advance. As academic scholars seek a comprehensive understanding of this dynamic environment, Driving Decentralization and Disruption With Digital Technologies emerges as a beacon of insight. This compelling book confronts the intricate issues spawned by decentralization, de-globalization, and the transformative power of digital technologies, providing a roadmap for traversing the complexities of our digitally connected world. The book starts by unraveling the disruptive forces at play, shedding light on the threats posed to existing hierarchies and the potential consequences for disadvantaged groups. Digital disintermediation, driven by platforms and peer-to-peer networks, shakes the foundations of traditional economic systems, leaving banks and markets in flux. As global relationships redefine themselves in the face of decentralized markets, supply chains, and economic ties, scholars grapple with the profound implications for the future. Driving Decentralization and Disruption With Digital Technologies stands out by offering a deep dive into decentralized technologies, particularly blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. It showcases their capacity to empower individuals and local communities, examining the transformative potential of decentralized finance (DeFi) and governance models. The book examines the difficult issue of digital identity and data sovereignty, examining policy considerations, challenges, and the promise of decentralized identification systems. For academic scholars seeking clarity amidst the complexities of the digital era, Driving Decentralization and Disruption With Digital Technologies is the indispensable guide. It meticulously dissects the ethical and societal ramifications of the digital revolution, advocating for a fair and just digital society. By fostering an understanding of the intricate interplay between technology, decentralization, and de-globalization, this book equips scholars with the knowledge needed to navigate the uncharted territories of a digitally connected world. Driving Decentralization and Disruption With Digital Technologies is a roadmap for academics seeking to comprehend and contribute to the ongoing transformation of our global society.

What do cultural leaders really think about the problems they, and the arts and cultural sector, face? This book brings global leaders in the cultural field into dialogue with academics and experts to offer profound insight and perspectives on the complex issues the cultural sector faces in a rapidly accelerating and destabilising twenty-first century context.The book engages directly with leaders in the arts and cultural sector, bridging the gap between academia, policy and practice. Each chapter sheds new light on national cultural policy contexts, offering different perspectives on arts subsidy, audiences, the cultural workforce, heritage, artform development and how cultural leadership functions in a fast-changing local, national and international context. Interviews are conducted by academics and experts with significant knowledge and understanding of the arts management and cultural policy field, who ask critical and probing questions. Featuring interviews with an impressively international range of senior figures from the cultural sector, from the Royal Opera House, BMW, Bloomberg and Onassis Foundation and covering countries including the UK, Germany, Chile, Singapore, Greece, USA, Serbia and Ireland, the book gives a truly global overview of cultural leadership from leaders who are open to question, critique and challenge. Each chapter offers a unique and fascinating insight into the mind of a leader in their field, with their experience ranging from huge participatory events featuring tens of thousands of people to the visual arts, opera, the Turner Prize and the #blacklivesmatter movement.This book will be essential reading for reflective cultural leaders around the world, as well as a useful resource for students and scholars involved with arts and cultural management and policy.

This book examines the mediated shift in the contemporary human condition, focusing on the ways in which we synthesise with media content in daily life, essentially transmediating ourselves into new forms and (re)creating ourselves across media.Across an international roster of essays, this book establishes a transdisciplinary theory for the ‘transmedia self', exploring how technological ubiquity and digital self-determination combine with themes and disciplines such as celebrity culture, fandom, play, politics, and ultimately broader self-conception and projection to inform the creation of transmedia identities in the twenty-first century. Specifically, the book repositions transmediality as key to understanding the formation of identity in a post-digital media culture and transmedia age, where our lives are interlaced, intermingled, and narrativised across a range of media platforms and interfaces.This book is ideal for scholars and students interested in transmedia storytelling, cultural studies, media studies, sociology, philosophy, and politics.

A deep dive into one of this century's most potent questions: do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it? This compact new edition of a paradigmatic text packs a big and actionable punch. Updated with a new section on the unique challenges posed by AI, Program or Be Programmed presents a spirited, accessible poetics of new media. On these pages (and screens), Rushkoff picks up where Marshall McLuhan left off, helping readers recognize programming as the new literacy of the digital age. The debate over whether the internet is good or bad for us fills the airwaves and the blogosphere. But for all the heat of claim and counter-claim, the argument is essentially beside the point: it's here; it's everywhere. The real question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? “Choose the former,” writes Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” In eleven “commands,” Rushkoff provides cyberenthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate this new universe.

In an era dominated by the demands of the 21st-century workforce, the imperative for distributed and asynchronous work has never been more pronounced. Global organizations grapple with the challenge of fostering connections for diverse purposes, ranging from team building to promoting inclusivity in the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and addressing collaborative operational needs. A deep dive into the creation and utilization of virtual communities, illuminating their effectiveness in various professional settings across industries is necessary to empower leaders to connect with their teams. From informal social learning environments to formal organizational structures, more knowledge is needed to showcase how professionals can leverage authentic connections to inform and support modern professional practice. Utilizing Virtual Communities in Professional Practice serves this purpose and stands as a comprehensive guide that seeks to support professionals in exploring the latest theoretical frameworks underpinning successful virtual communities. Each chapter of the book combines theoretical insights with practical applications, rooted in research and supported by relevant literature. By providing examples from diverse industries, the book empowers individuals to consider new virtual community approaches for their unique professional settings. The objective is to equip readers with new ideas and considerations, enabling them to customize and implement virtual communities effectively in realms such as education, business, and community engagement. Designed for professionals in teaching, learning, training, and development, Utilizing Virtual Communities in Professional Practice caters to those keen on implementing virtual communities. The book's practical insights and experiences drawn from various professional settings make it a relevant and engaging read for individuals across different fields, offering modern solutions applicable in diverse settings—from education and business to community and social circles. With a focus on key topics such as DEI, emerging technologies, and organizational culture, Utilizing Virtual Communities in Professional Practice stands as a useful tool for those navigating the dynamic landscape of virtual professional connections.

The weight of constant digital connection is the default condition of working life, home life, and everyday personal life – driving us to engage more with platforms than with people, a new state of constant disconnection that we cannot escape. Overflowing email inboxes, deluges of mobile phone notifications and torrents of social media posts—the flow of communication in its abundance is today's individualized interface for interpersonal and professional practices. Communication technologies and their use are both the needle and the thread of the wider social tapestry of everyday contemporary life. This ever-changing communication environment is where the neoliberal economic policies of the West and the commercial imperatives of the platform and data-mining industries meet. It is where the contradictions they produce can be felt day-to-day by citizens-turned-users. How does it feel to live at the pressure points of intersecting economic realities and why does it matter? Drawing on extensive sociological research, Burchell examines how individuals try to manage connection as participation in everyday life and how, on a larger scale, the ever-expanding knowledge, communication, and data-driven economies depend on the very pressures that result from our disparate communication needs. With so much time spent managing the pressures of our communication environment, we often overlook the way media technologies produce systemic tensions that are reshaping how we interact with each other and what we understand to be social connection today.

Digital disintermediation, or the elimination of “middle-men” in a traditional market setting, has had profound effects on global economies. The rise of peer-to-peer networks and decentralized marketplaces has also led to some market destabilization, and the discussion on data sovereignty and privacy challenges raises concerns surrounding business in the digital age. Digital Technologies, Ethics, and Decentralization in the Digital Era is a research-based book which boldly tackles a myriad of ethical dilemmas, including bias, privacy, and inclusivity, and advocates for a future where digital access is fair and equitable. Academic scholars and industry professionals will embark on an enlightening journey through the digital revolution's transformative power. This book delves into the very core of digital technologies, shedding light on their role as catalysts for decentralization and de-globalization. Readers will gain invaluable insights into how these technologies disrupt established systems, paving the way for innovative alternatives. The exploration of blockchain and decentralized finance shines a light on how individuals and communities can harness technology to empower themselves, reshaping the dynamics of power in an increasingly interconnected world. As readers engage with the thought-provoking content of this book, they will be inspired to envision a world where international cooperation and diplomacy are reshaped by technology. The final chapters explore the potential for digital diplomacy and multilateral approaches to address global challenges in a decentralized, de-globalized era. By the end of this comprehensive journey, scholars will be equipped with the knowledge and insights needed to not only understand the digital revolution's impact but also actively contribute to shaping its future trajectory. Digital Technologies, Ethics, and Decentralization in the Digital Era is the compass scholars need to thrive in this digital age, offering a compelling roadmap for understanding, adapting to, and influencing the course of this ongoing revolution.

We are inclined to assume that digital technologies have suddenly revolutionized everything – including our relationships, our forms of work and leisure, and even our democracies – in just a few years. Armin Nassehi puts forward a new theory of digital society that turns this assumption on its head. Rather than treating digital technologies as an independent causal force that is transforming social life, he asks: what problem does digitalization solve? When we pose the question in this way, we can see, argues Nassehi, that digitalization helps societies to deal with and reduce complexity by using coded numbers to process information. We can also see that modern societies had a digital structure long before computer technologies were developed – already in the nineteenth century, for example, statistical pattern recognition technologies were being used in functionally differentiated societies in order to recognize, monitor and control forms of human behaviour. Digital technologies were so successful in such a short period of time and were able to penetrate so many areas of society so quickly precisely because of a pre-existing sensitivity that prepared modern societies for digital development. This highly original book lays the foundations for a theory of the digital society that will be of value to everyone interested in the growing presence of digital technologies in our lives.

In our fast-paced, technology-driven world, there is a strong sense of untapped potential and unfulfilled promises. People today possess an unprecedented amount of power through their technological gadgets but often remain unaware of how to wield it effectively. This lack of understanding and agency leads to a plethora of societal problems, from passive consumerism to environmental degradation, fostering a sense of helplessness. Considerations of Cyber Behavior and Mass Technology in Modern Society offer a comprehensive solution to this pressing issue. It is a scholarly beacon, guiding academic scholars and critical thinkers toward a profound reassessment of our relationship with technology and society. By delving into the intricate web of topics such as active citizenship, global information production, and the coexistence of consumer technology and freedom, our book presents an opportunity to explore the root causes of our modern-day challenges. This book empowers readers to not only understand the complexities of our world but to actively engage in shaping a brighter future. This work is not just an observation but a call to action, challenging readers to become agents of change in a world yearning for innovative solutions and a deeper understanding of the untapped potential within our grasp. Considerations of Cyber Behavior and Mass Technology in Modern Society invite scholars to reimagine, rethink, and ultimately transform the world we live in.

The digital age is rapidly progressing, and the ubiquitous presence of technology has become both a boon and a bane. The undeniable convenience of constant connectivity and digital devices has led to a new challenge: a sharp increase in the time we spend looking at screens, which has a consequential impact on our health and well-being. With a the majority of the global population having access to and using the internet regularly, concerns about digital addiction, reduced attention spans, and lifestyle diseases have become pressing issues. The dire need to address these challenges and navigate a sustainable path forward is more evident than ever. Business Drivers in Promoting Digital Detoxification serves as a comprehensive exploration of contemporary initiatives championed by diverse industries to promote digital detox and reveals the myriad of opportunities embedded within this transformative trend. From the spheres of health and tourism to unexpected sectors, this volume stands as a testament to the potential of embracing digital detox not only as a health imperative but also as a gateway to innovative business ventures. For academics, researchers, students, and professionals, this book serves as a guiding light amidst the complexities of the digital era. It not only elucidates the drivers behind the digital detox movement but also uncovers the uncharted territory of its implications. Business Drivers in Promoting Digital Detoxification is more than a compilation of insights; it is a roadmap for shaping a healthier and more sustainable future in a digitally connected world. Join us in this pivotal conversation, delve into its pages, and emerge equipped with the knowledge to drive meaningful change for yourself, your organization, and overall society.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The internet as we know it is broken. Here's how we can seize back control of our lives from the corporate algorithms and create a better internet—before it's too late.“In the spirit of Thomas Paine's Revolution-era Common Sense, this manifesto challenges us to create new digital architectures to safeguard democracy.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Elon MuskIt was once a utopian dream. But today's internet, despite its conveniences and connectivity, is the primary cause of a pervasive unease that has taken hold in the U.S. and other democratic societies. It's why youth suicide rates are rising, why politics has become toxic, and why our most important institutions are faltering. Information is the lifeblood of any society, and our current system for distributing it is corrupted at its heart. Everything comes down to our ability to communicate openly and trustfully with each other. But, thanks to the dominant digital platforms and the ways they distort human behavior, we have lost that ability—while, at the same time, we've been robbed of the data that is rightfully ours.The roots of this crisis, argue Frank McCourt and Michael Casey, lie in the prevailing order of the internet. In plain but forceful language, the authors—a civic entrepreneur and an acclaimed journalist—show how a centralized system controlled by a small group of for-profit entities has set this catastrophe in motion and eroded our personhood. And then they describe a groundbreaking solution to reclaim it: rather than superficial, patchwork regulations, we must reimagine the very architecture of the internet. The resulting “third-generation internet” would replace the status quo with a new model marked by digital property rights, autonomy, and ownership.Inspired by historical calls to action like Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Our Biggest Fight argues that we must act now to embed the core values of a free, democratic society in the internet of tomorrow. Do it right and we will finally, properly, unlock its immense potential.

Dit boek richt zich op het bevorderen van kritisch denken en belicht de rol ervan in de context van digitalisering. Het benadrukt het belang van bewustwording en kritische reflectie op de impact van digitalisering in de maatschappij. Het boek biedt praktische inzichten en instrumenten om kritisch denken toegankelijk te maken. Het beoogt relevante kennis op een begrijpelijke manier te presenteren met een focus op praktische toepassing. De intentie is om een toegankelijk werk te bieden op het onderwerp kritisch denken. Door beschikbare kennis en materialen op een begrijpelijke wijze te beschrijven wordt het voor een grotere groep mensen mogelijk om zich te verdiepen in het onderwerp. Dit boek geeft een overzicht van de belangrijkste theorie en literatuur. Het is niet de bedoeling om het onderwerp wetenschappelijk of puur theoretisch te beschouwen. De waarde van kritisch denken zit juist in de toepassing. Dit boek biedt om die reden allerlei praktische handreikingen en inzichten, zoals een verzameling van instrumenten die je praktisch kunt inzetten. De doelgroep van dit boek is breed, maar we gaan er wel vanuit dat lezers affiniteit hebben met onderwerpen als gegevens en informatievoorziening. Daarmee richten we ons met name op de doelgroep informatieprofessionals. Dit boek is ook te gebruiken als leerboek voor studenten in het hoger onderwijs, met name in IT-gerelateerde opleidingen. Het boek is opgedeeld in twee delen. Deel 1 is vooral een inleiding en uitleg van kritisch denken. Het gaat in op de basis van kritisch denken: redeneren. Het legt uit wat valkuilen zijn in ons denken en beschrijft contexten waarin kritisch denken belangrijk is. Deel 2 past de ideeën uit deel 1 toe op digitalisering. Het legt eerst uit wat kansen en bedreigingen zijn bij digitalisering. Vervolgens gaat het dieper in op de rol van gegevens en informatie en het belang van digitale ethiek. Het biedt een concrete handreiking in de vorm van hulpmiddelen, technieken en opdrachten om mee aan de slag te gaan. Dit boek is ontstaan uit een interessegroep over kritisch denken. Die werkgroep en dit boek worden ondersteund vanuit de vakverenigingen KNVI (Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging van Informatieprofessionals) en DANW (Digital Architects NetWork). Deze vakverenigingen zijn gericht op informatieprofessionals, waarbij DANW zich specifiek richt op architecten in het digitale domein. Beide verenigingen vertegenwoordigen professionals die organisaties ondersteunen in hun digitale transformatie. In dit digitale tijdperk is er een overvloed aan informatie waardoor er een toenemend belang is voor kritisch denken. Informatieprofessionals zouden dan ook bij uitstek bewust en vaardig moeten zijn op dit gebied.

In today's rapidly evolving world, digital communication has become both a boon and a challenge. The proliferation of social media and innovative technologies has transformed the way we interact, communicate, and access information. However, navigating this complex landscape poses significant difficulties for scholars, researchers, and students in various disciplines. The integration of social media into fields like communication science, public relations, advertising, and more has created a demand for comprehensive and authoritative resources that can shed light on the current state and future expectations of digital communication. Additionally, the ever-changing nature of social media platforms and digital technologies necessitates up-to-date and relevant research to understand their impact on society and communication practices. Advancements in Socialized and Digital Media Communications emerges as the definitive solution to address the challenges posed by the digital communication revolution. Edited by Ebru Gülbug Erol and Michael Kuyucu, this book offers a comprehensive collection of empirical and theoretical insights. It delves into various aspects of digital communication, providing authoritative overviews, research findings, comparative studies, and analyses of specific cases across disciplines. By focusing on social media's influence on fields like public relations, journalism, cinema, radio-television, marketing, and more, this book equips researchers, academicians, and students with the knowledge they need to thrive in this ever-changing landscape. With its thought-provoking chapters exploring topics ranging from social networks, video-sharing platforms, digital radio, and digital cinema to digital public relations, reputation management, advertising, and more, this book caters to a diverse audience. From seasoned scholars seeking to deepen their research to undergraduate and postgraduate students looking to grasp the intricacies of digital communication, this book is a valuable resource. Moreover, it appeals to professionals and the public interested in understanding how digital media has permeated every aspect of contemporary life. By offering a comprehensive and up-to-date exploration of digital communication and social media, this book empowers readers to navigate the complexities of this rapidly evolving field.

Votre jeune passe trop de temps devant les écrans? Alors ce livre est pour vous! Explorez les effets et les risques associés à l'usage des appareils numériques, des réseaux sociaux et des jeux vidéo sur la santé physique, les capacités cognitives, le bien-être psychologique ainsi que les interactions des enfants et des adolescents. Découvrez des stratégies pour prévenir la dépendance aux likes et aux jeux en ligne, le cyberharcèlement, l'hameçonnage, la désinformation et bien plus encore. Ce guide propose des méthodes et des trucs concrets, faciles à mettre en pratique, afin de vous soutenir dans vos interventions. Aidez votre jeune à adopter une saine utilisation des écrans en : • instaurant des limites de temps ; • vous intéressant à ses choix de contenu ; • le sensibilisant sur les dangers potentiels ; • lui enseignant les bonnes manières numériques. Ponctué de données scientifiques, de faits vécus, de cas cliniques et de réflexions nuancées, cet ouvrage est riche en renseignements. Il sera à coup sûr un outil précieux pour toute la famille!

Transformative new technologies are reshaping economies and societies. But as they create new opportunities, they also pose new challenges, not least of which is rising inequality. Increased disparities and related anxieties are stoking societal discontent and political ferment. Harnessing technological transformation in ways that foster its benefits, contain risks, and build inclusive prosperity is a major public policy challenge of our time and one that motivates this book.In what ways are the new technologies altering markets, business models, work, and, in turn, economic growth and income distribution? How are they affecting inequality within advanced and emerging economies and the prospects for economic convergence between them? What are the implications for public policy? What new thinking and adaptations are needed to realign institutions and policies, at national and global levels, with the new dynamics of the digital era?This book addresses these questions. It seeks to promote ideas and actions to manage digital transformation and the latest advances in artificial intelligence with foresight and purpose to shape a more prosperous and inclusive future.

A sweeping critique of how digital capitalism is reformatting our world.We now live in an “ordinal society.” Nearly every aspect of our lives is measured, ranked, and processed into discrete, standardized units of digital information. Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy argue that technologies of information management, fueled by the abundance of personal data and the infrastructure of the internet, transform how we relate to ourselves and to each other through the market, the public sphere, and the state.The personal data we give in exchange for convenient tools like Gmail and Instagram provides the raw material for predictions about everything from our purchasing power to our character. The Ordinal Society shows how these algorithmic predictions influence people's life chances and generate new forms of capital and social expectation: nobody wants to ride with an unrated cab driver anymore or rent to a tenant without a risk score. As members of this society embrace ranking and measurement in their daily lives, new forms of social competition and moral judgment arise. Familiar structures of social advantage are recycled into measures of merit that produce insidious kinds of social inequality.While we obsess over order and difference—and the logic of ordinality digs deeper into our behaviors, bodies, and minds—what will hold us together? Fourcade and Healy warn that, even though algorithms and systems of rationalized calculation have inspired backlash, they are also appealing in ways that make them hard to relinquish.

This book shares a wealth of educational stakeholder viewpoints about digital distraction from a 1:1 technology integrated high school. Data was collected before, during, and after the start of COVID-19, which provides a unique view into integrated learning and its transformation since the pandemic. The author conducted interviews with both teachers and students who also provided logs of their technology use, allowing for a qualitative and quantitative understanding of digital distraction. Through this insight, the author explores the triggers of digital distraction and strategies to help mitigate the phenomenon.

This book questions the predominance of “media abundance” as a guiding concept for contemporary mediated politics. The authors argue that media abundance is not a universal condition, and that certain individuals, communities, and even nations can more accurately be referred to as media scarce – where access to media technologies and content is limited, highly controlled, or surveilled.Through case studies that focus on guerilla militants, incarcerated Indigenous people, and cold war‑era infrastructure, including Soviet “closed” or “secret” cities and Canadian nuclear bunkers, the book's chapters interrogate how the once media scarce later “speak” to – and can be heard by – the predominant, abundant media culture. Drawing from several art projects and diverse cultural sites, the book highlights how media scarce communities negotiate and otherwise narrate their place in the world, their past experiences and lives, and escape from subjugation. To better understand media scarce politics, the book asks how and when communities become – by accident or force, by choice or necessity – media scarce.This innovative and insightful text will appeal to students and scholars around the world working in the areas of media and politics, art and politics, visual studies, surveillance studies, and communication studies.

The book addresses the theme of the advent of a ‘Matrix Land'as a pervasive environment of digital (virtual) reality in which humanity is destined to live increasingly distant from its original natural condition. The challenge posed by the Matrix Land is that of a future society in which lifeworlds and social relations lose the classic notions of time and space. Time and space become illusions and come to depend on algorithms. Virtual reality will prevail over human nature, so much so that human beings will think that what previously appeared real to them was instead pure imagination if not an illusion. Digital logic will replace analog thinking. What will remain of the human? According to the Author, the underlying sociological problem is not whether or not it will be possible to build AI and robots capable of emulating the human mind in whole or in large part. The sociological question is how new technologies change human life to the extent that, by modifying knowledge and communication, they modify people's relational life, social forms and therefore the entire society. The technologies that lead humanity towards the post/transhuman must be analyzed and evaluated based on the criteria of which human relationships they assume and which they produce. We need to see whether they support solutions that increase the ethical and empathetic sense of social relationships or, vice versa, fuel relationships devoid of human meaning.

This book represents an important voice in the discourse on the adoption of emerging ICT for sustainability. It focuses on how emerging ICT acts as a crucial enabler of sustainability, offering new forward-looking approaches to this field. The book explores how emerging ICT adoption drives sustainability efforts in business and public organizations, promoting ecological, economic, social, cultural, and political sustainability. The book's theoretical discussions, conceptual approaches, empirical studies, diverse perspectives, and views make it a valuable and comprehensive reference work.Appealing to both researchers and practitioners, this book provides significant areas for research and practice related to the contribution of emerging ICT adoption to sustainability. It also suggests vital considerations for programming and building sustainable development-driven emerging ICT adoption. Readers will find answers to important contemporary questions, such as: What are the concepts, frameworks, models, and approaches to enhance sustainable development through the adoption of emerging ICT? How does the adoption of emerging ICT influence sustainability? How can emerging ICT be adopted to enhance sustainability? What are the current practices and successful cases of emerging ICT adoption for sustainability? What factors influence emerging ICT adoption to enhance sustainability?

A compelling argument that the extractive practices of today's tech giants are the continuation of colonialism—and a crucial guide to collective resistance. Large technology companies like Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet have unprecedented access to our daily lives, collecting information when we check our email, count our steps, shop online, and commute to and from work. Current events are concerning—both the changing owners (and names) of billion-dollar tech companies and regulatory concerns about artificial intelligence underscore the sweeping nature of Big Tech's surveillance and the influence such companies hold over the people who use their apps and platforms. As trusted tech experts Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry show in this eye-opening and convincing book, this vast accumulation of data is not the accidental stockpile of a fast-growing industry. Just as nations stole territories for ill-gotten minerals and crops, wealth, and dominance, tech companies steal personal data important to our lives. It's only within the framework of colonialism, Mejias and Couldry argue, that we can comprehend the full scope of this heist. Like the land grabs of the past, today's data grab converts our data into raw material for the generation of corporate profit against our own interests. Like historical colonialism, today's tech corporations have engineered an extractive form of doing business that builds a new social and economic order, leads to job precarity, and degrades the environment. These methods deepen global inequality, consolidating corporate wealth in the Global North and engineering discriminatory algorithms. Promising convenience, connection, and scientific progress, tech companies enrich themselves by encouraging us to relinquish details about our personal interactions, our taste in movies or music, and even our health and medical records. Do we have any other choice? Data Grab affirms that we do. To defy this new form of colonialism we will need to learn from previous forms of resistance and work together to imagine entirely new ones. Mejias and Couldry share the stories of voters, workers, activists, and marginalized communities who have successfully opposed unscrupulous tech practices. An incisive discussion of the digital media that's transformed our world, Data Grab is a must-read for anyone concerned about privacy, self-determination, and justice in the internet age.

This book focuses on our increasing dependence upon Big Tech to live, manage, and enjoy our lives. The author examines how we freely exchange our personal data for access to online platforms, services, and devices without proper consideration of the implications of this trade. Our personal data is the defining resource of the emerging digital economy, and it is increasingly concentrated in a few data enclaves controlled by Big Tech firms, cementing an increasingly parasitic form of technoscientific innovation. Big Tech controls access to these data, dictates the terms of our use of their services and products, and controls the future development of key technologies like artificial intelligence. The contention of this book is that we need to rethink our political and policy approach to data governance and to do so requires unpacking the peculiarities of personal data and how personal data are transformed into a valuable asset.

This book examines the digitalization of longstanding problems of technological advance that produce inequalities and automated governance, which relieves subjects of agency and critical thought, and prompts a need to weaponize thoughtfulness against technocratic designs.The book situates digital-era problems relative to those of previous sociotechnical milieux and argues that technical advance perennially embeds corrosive effects on social relations and relations of production, recognizing variation across contexts and relative to entrenched societal hierarchies of race and other axes of difference and their intersections. Societal tolerance, despite abundant evidence for harmful effects of digital technologies, requires attention. The book explains blindness to social injustice by technocratic thinking delivered through education as well as truths embraced in the data sciences coupled with governance in universities and the private sector that protect these truths from critique. Institutional inertia suggests benefits of communitarianism, which strives for change emanating from civil society. Scaling postcapitalist communitarian values through communitybased peer production presents opportunities. However, enduring problems require critical reflection, continual revision of strategies, and active participation among diverse community citizens.This book is written with critical geographic sensibilities for an interdisciplinary audience of scholars and graduate and undergraduate students in the social sciences, humanities, and data sciences.

How we can enact meaningful change in computing to meet the urgent need for sustainability and justice.The deep entanglement of information technology with our societies has raised hope for a transition to more sustainable and just communities—those that phase out fossil fuels, distribute public goods fairly, allow free access to information, and waste less. In principle, computing should be able to help. But in practice, we live in a world in which opaque algorithms steer us toward misinformation and unsustainable consumerism. Insolvent shows why computing's dominant frame of thinking is conceptually insufficient to address our current challenges, and why computing continues to incur societal debts it cannot pay back. Christoph Becker shows how we can reorient design perspectives in computer science to better align with the values of sustainability and justice.Becker positions the role of information technology and computing in environmental sustainability, social justice, and the intersection of the two, and explains why designing IT for just sustainability is both technically and ethically challenging. Becker goes on to argue that computing could be aided by critical friends—disciplines that draw on critical social theory, feminist thought, and systems thinking—to make better sense of its role in society. Finally, Becker demonstrates that it is possible to fuse critical perspectives with work in computer science, showing new and fruitful directions for computing professionals and researchers to pursue.

El presente trabajo tiene como finalidad difundir investigaciones acerca de temas relacionados con la digitalización de entidades públicas y el impacto de las tecnologías de la información y comunicaciones en la sociedad, El documento se compone de diferentes temas realizados por egresados de la Maestría en Gobierno Electrónico del Sistema de Universidad Virtual de la Universidad de Guadalajara, en colaboración con profesores investigadores del mismo centro de estudios superiores,En el presente documento, el lector encontrará cinco capítulos, En el primero de ellos, titulado sistemático de literatura científica sobre el gobierno se hace una investigación en la literatura existente relacionada al gobierno digital, de acceso abierto y en español, Se presentan los resultados con el fin de conocer el avance en publicación de investigaciones científicas sobre el tema y su vinculación con las líneas de generación y aplicación de conocimiento establecidas en la Maestría en Gobierno Electrónico, para asíidentificar áreas de oportunidad en la investigación de temas no tratados o nuevas perspectivas de los ya publicados,En el capítulo dos, titulado accesibilidad digital: una propuesta para el diseño de aplicaciones los autores exploran la importancia de la aplicación de protocolos y estándares internacionales de accesibilidad en los desarrollos tecnológicos de la administración pública, con el fin de que las personas con discapacidades visuales o auditivas tengan la misma posibilidad de acceso a los servicios digitales de Gobierno, fomentando así la inclusión,El tercer capítulo aborda el tema sensible de personas desaparecidas, y se propone, como una acción gubernamental que contribuya a su búsqueda, la realización y puesta en marcha de un sistema que haga uso y análisis de la información disponible para la construcción de un mapa interactivo que, al revisarlo visualmente, facilite la toma de decisiones y ayude a la planeación de estrategias de búsqueda, tanto por autoridades como por asociaciones civiles y colectivos,En el capítulo cuatro, de título un caso de estudio en preparatoria vocacional de se pretende hacer visible el problema de la violencia a través de medios digitales, aplicando una encuesta a estudiantes en dicha institución de educación media superior, analizando los resultados y dando conclusiones que puedan ayudar a la generación de estrategias de prevención, Previamente se presenta un panorama de casos registrados a nivel mundial y sus efectos, además de mencionar una estrategia de prevención en Madrid, Se estudia también el avance en cuestión de legislación a nivel mundial, América Latina y México,Por último, en el capítulo cinco se presenta otra propuesta de gobierno electrónico, luego de un análisis de la situación actual del centro de bachillerato técnico CONALEP sede Ajijic-Chapala, donde se encontró que no existen servicios educativos en línea que le den la posibilidad de mayor competitividad, principalmente a raíz de la pandemia vivida durante el año 2020, La propuesta consta de una plataforma en línea que permita otorgar servicios educativos virtuales,

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced society to re-evaluate security, crisis and risk management principles and policies so we are better prepared to deal with contemporary threats. This book provides an overview of selected and key changes that have taken place in the security environment across entities. The book analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the security environment and modern societies. Using a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to security issues, it draws attention to political, military, cultural, information, legal, psychological and social aspects. Combining theoretical, empirical and practical perspectives, the editors and contributors present the result of research on both current and forecast effects of the pandemic on individuals, social groups, countries and the international community. This edited collection will be directly relevant for researchers and academics across a range of management disciplines, including risk, crisis and security management, information management and related fields.

Digital solutions are sufficiently versatile and agile to shape business processes and enterprise architecture, answer the COVID-19 crisis, solve climate change, temper political conflict, generate new employment operating models, and solve health issues. These solutions benefit businesses as an integral part of the economy and society and therefore must be studied further to ensure they are utilized appropriately. The Handbook of Research on Digitalization Solutions for Social and Economic Needs introduces the agile operating model that has triggered digital transformation and the plethora of ways it has become of practical use recently. The book also argues the business rationale of digitalization. Covering key topics such as innovation, sustainability, and business transformation, this major reference work is ideal for business owners, managers, computer scientists, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, academicians, librarians, policymakers, practitioners, educators, and students.

Digital technologies are having a profound effect on the temporalities of individuals, households and organisations. We now expect to be able to instantly source a vast array of information at any time and from anywhere, as well as buy goods with the click of a button and have them delivered within hours, while time management apps and locative media have altered how everyday scheduling and mobility unfolds.Digital Timescapes makes the case that we have transitioned to an era where the production and experience of time is qualitatively different to the pre-digital era. Rob Kitchin provides a synoptic account of this transition, charting how digital technologies, in a wide range of manifestations, are reconfiguring everyday temporalities. Attention is focused on the temporalities associated with six sets of everyday practices: history and memory; politics and policy; governance and governmentality; mobility and logistics; planning and development; and work and labour. Critically, how to challenge and reorder digitally mediated temporal power is examined through the development of an ethics of temporal care and temporal justice.Conceptually and empirically rich, Digital Timescapes is an essential guide to our new temporal regime. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Media Studies, Science and Technology Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Human Geography, and History and Memory Studies, as well as those who are interested in how digital technologies are transforming society.

This book takes a holistic view of the roles of ICTs during the pandemic through the lens of social informatics, as it is critical to our understanding of the relations between society and technology. Specific attention is given to various stakeholders and social contexts, with analysis at the individual, group, community, and society levels.Pushing the boundaries of information science research with timely and critical research questions, this edited volume showcases information science research in the context of COVID-19, by specifically accentuating sociotechnical practices, activities, and ICT interventions during the pandemic. Its social informatics focus appeals to a broad audience, and its global and international orientation provides a timely, innovative, and much-needed perspective to information science. This book is unique in its interdisciplinary nature as it consists of research studies on the intersections between ICTs and health, culture, social interaction, civic engagement, information dissemination, work, and education. Chapters apply a range of research methods, including questionnaire surveys, content analyses, and case studies from countries in Asia, Europe, and America, as well as global and international comparisons.The book's primary target audience includes scholars and students in information and library science, particularly those interested in the social aspect of the information society. It may be of interest to information professionals, library practitioners, educators, and information policymakers, as well as scholars and students in science and technology studies, cultural studies, political science, public administration, sociology, and communication studies.

Individuals, businesses, organizations, and countries all benefit from having access to data. People who generate data do it voluntarily, forming their habits, patterns, and behaviors in the process. Their psychological characteristics will be better understood as a result of the data that they generate, allowing them to make intelligent decisions. Organizations are motivated by the desire to collect and analyze as much data as possible from the general public or future customers in order to better understand their psychological features and influence them to purchase their products or services. As a result, there has been a great deal of debate concerning the use of data from the perspectives of individuals, organizations, the public, and the government. Digital Psychology's Impact on Business and Society considers the phenomena of digital psychology and society in general and evaluates individual strategies and those of businesses, organizations, and even nations. Covering topics such as big data, marketing, social media, and social computing, this reference work is ideal for policymakers, psychologists, business owners, managers, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students.

We're addicted to our devices. Our kids are too. None of us seem to be better for it. We all know this, but what can we do practically to become less isolated, polarized, and disconnected?This book answers that question with a bold idea: In an age of personal brands and artificial intelligence, perhaps it's time to relearn the forgotten art of being ordinary. In his follow-up to Get Weird, writer and media producer, CJ Casciotta, outlines nine practical solutions and illuminates a better way to live in a culture addicted to media technology, a lifeboat for anyone who feels like they're drowning in a sea of digital noise.This is a book for those who are tired of feeling like technology owns them, their children, their politics, and their livelihood, a hopeful and realistic game plan for navigating the 21st century mindfully without losing their souls. The future of our society will depend on the choices we make right now when it comes to our communication methods. It's a crisis as urgent as climate change, yet far fewer people are talking about it. The Forgotten Art of Being Ordinary will give you the language you've been looking for to start changing the conversation.

Since the publication of the ground-breaking first edition, there has been an exponential growth in research and literature about the digital world and its enormous potential benefits and threats. Fully revised and updated, this new edition brings together an expertly curated and authoritative overview of the impact and emerging horizons of digital consumption.Divided into sections, it addresses key topics including digital entertainment, self-representation, communication, Big Data, digital spirituality, online surveillance, and algorithmic advertising. It explores developments such as consumer data collection techniques, peer-to-peer payment systems, augmented reality, and AI-enhanced consumer well-being, as well as digital transgression, secrecy, crypto-currencies, NFTs, and cultural concerns such as the spread of conspiracy theories and fake news. From digital influencers, digital nomads, and digital neo-tribalism to robots and cyborgs, it explores existences that blur boundaries between humans and machines, reality and the metaverse, and the emerging'technoculture'– a state of all-encompassing digital being.This unique volume is an essential resource for scholars, practitioners, and policy makers, and will continue to provide a new generation of readers with a deep understanding of the universe of digital consumption.

An accessible yet erudite deep dive into how platforms are remaking experiences of death Since the internet's earliest days, people have died and mourned online. In quiet corners of past iterations of the web, the dead linger. But attempts at preserving the data of the dead are often ill-fated, for websites and devices decay and die, just as people do. Death disrupts technologists'plans for platforms. It reveals how digital production is always collaborative, undermining the entrepreneurial platform economy and highlighting the flaws of techno-solutionism. Big Tech has authority not only over people's lives but over their experiences of death as well. Ordinary users and workers, though, advocate for changes to tech companies'policies around death. Drawing on internet histories along with interviews with founders of digital afterlife startups, caretakers of illness blogs, and transhumanist tinkerers, the technology scholar Tamara Kneese takes readers on a vibrant tour of the ways that platforms and people work together to care for digital remains. What happens when commercial platforms encounter the messiness of mortality?

This book explores how globalization and ubiquity of digital technology combine to create specific global impacts, challenges and opportunities. Although globalization is already associated with the speeding up of interactions and change, digital globalization is characterized by immediacy. The utter pervasiveness opens new global vulnerabilities at international, national, social and personal levels. The Digital Global Condition examines the nature of digital globalization, enabling us to not only inhabit a digital world, but also to understand it, even to live well in it.

This book offers a fresh look at recent developments in policy, curricula and pedagogical discourse around children's play with Internet of Toys (IoToys). By expanding the notion of digital and smart play perspectives in early childhood education, the authors critique and develop the broader subject area of IoToys play to better serve its end users.The book brings together research from across three different countries: Australia, Norway and England. It offers tangible examples of how one can use IoToys to build children's social skills, emotional intelligence, sense of achievement, collaboration and aspects of STEM and design play thinking processes. The learning stories of children's IoToys play will deliver a comprehensive review of how practitioners and parents can come together to build communities of practice for (re)enhancing children's learning and growth using evolving technology-based play and engage in paradigmatic debates. Readers as a result will better appreciate the growth in pragmatic applications of technologies together with theoretical perspectives.The book will be a valuable resource for any academic or practitioner just beginning to understand the complexities and success stories of integrating IoToys for children's playful learning.

Exploring how we make, distribute, and consume today's media systems Media backends--the electronics, labor, and operations behind our screens--significantly influence our understanding of the sociotechnical relations, economies, and operations of media. Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, and Sander De Ridder assemble essays that delve into the evolving politics of the media infrastructural landscape. Throughout, the contributors draw on feminist, queer, and intersectional criticism to engage with infrastructural and industrial issues. This focus reflects a concern about the systemic inequalities that emerge when tech companies and designers fail to address workplace discrimination and algorithmic violence and exclusions. Moving from smart phones to smart dust, the essayists examine topics like artificial intelligence, human-machine communication, and links between digital infrastructures and public service media alongside investigations into the algorithmic backends at Netflix and Spotify, Google's hyperscale data centers, and video-on-demand services in India. A fascinating foray into an expanding landscape of media studies, Media Backends illuminates the behind-the-screen processes influencing our digital lives. Contributors: Mark Andrejevic, Philippe Bouquillion, Jonathan Cohn, Faithe J. Day, Sander De Ridder, Fatima Gaw, Christine Ithurbide, Anne Kaun, Amanda Lagerkvist, Alexis Logsdon, Stine Lomborg, Tim Markham, Vicki Mayer, Rahul Mukherjee, Kaarina Nikunen, Lisa Parks, Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philipp Seuferling, Ranjit Singh, Jacek Smolicki, Fredrik Stiernstedt, Matilda Tudor, Julia Velkova, and Zala Volcic

This book focuses on how new technologies are raising and reshaping ethical questions and practices that aim to automate ethics into program outputs.With new powerful technologies come enhanced capacities to act, which in turn require new ethical concepts for guiding just and fair actions in the use of these new capabilities. The new algorithmic regimes, for their ethical articulation, build on prior ethics discourses in computer and information ethics, as well as the philosophical traditions of ethics generally. Especially as our technologies become more autonomous, operating alongside us in the home, workplace or on the roads, ethics has the potential to limit negative effects and shape the new technical terrains in a more humanly recognizable way. The volume covers a critique of human-centered AI, the effects of AI and the Internet of Things in the domain of human resource management, how decentralized finance applications on the blockchain encode ethical norms into “smart contracts,” and the personal surveillance risks of audio beacon technology operating invisibly in our cellphones.Scholars and students from many backgrounds, as well as policy makers, journalists and the general reading public will find a multidisciplinary approach to questions posed by research in algorithmic ethics from the fields of management, sociology, social policy, public service, religion and interactive media.

This book focuses on the values and effects that are operational in data technologies as they sustain colonial and imperialist legacies while also highlighting strategies for resistance to autocratic regimes and pathways towards decolonizing efforts.Systems and schemes for databases and automated data flow processing often contain implicitly Westernized, autocratic or even imperialist features, but can also be appropriated for resistance and revolt. Algorithms are not strictly mathematical but also embody cultural constructs. Values circulate in systems along with labels and quantities. This entails more critically reflective data practices whether in government, academia, industry or the civic sphere. The volume covers a critique of the data colonialism thesis which frames computer science as a colonizing science that uses data to classify and govern us, an alternate framing of metadata as ‘data near data'to challenge seemingly neutral technical terms, and a case study of the use of social media platforms in the 2018 Sudanese uprising.Scholars and students from many backgrounds, as well as policy makers, journalists and the general reading public will find a multidisciplinary approach to questions posed by data decolonization research from the fields of Communication and Digital Media studies.

'A revelation for digital researchers and a provocation for migration scholars… It introduces an insightful, inspiring, and inviting way of making sense of the messiness without losing hope of changing things.'- Nishant Shah, Chinese University of Hong Kong'A must read for everyone who is concerned with questions of human mobility, media and communications and the digital border.'- Myria Georgiou, LSE'A much-needed addition to scholarship on mobility, technology, and migration… The book is poised to become a touchstone text.'- C.L. Quinan University of Melbourne In contemporary discussions on migration, digital technology is often seen as a ′smart′ disruptive tool. Bringing efficiencies to management, and safety to migrants. But the reality is always more complex. This book is a comprehensive and impassioned account of the relationship between digital technology and migration. From ′top-down′ governmental and corporate shaping of the migrant condition, to the ′bottom-up′ of digital practices helping migrants connect, engage and resist. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Digital Migration explores: The power relations of digital infrastructures across migrant recruitment, transportation and communication. Migrant connections and the use of digital devices, platforms and networks. Dominant digital representations of migrants, and how they're resisted. The affect and emotion of digital migration, from digital intimacy to transnational family life. How histories of pre and early-digital migration help us situate and rethink contemporary research. The realities of researching digital migration, including interviews with leading international researchers. Critical yet hopeful, Koen Leurs opens up the unequal power relations at the heart of digital migration studies, challenging us to imagine more just alternatives. Koen Leurs is an Associate Professor in Gender, Media and Migration Studies at the Graduate Gender Program, Department of Media and Culture, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. All author royalties for this book will be donated to the Alarm Phone, a hotline for boatpeople in distress.

David Kergel explores the questions of how free and self-determined we are in the digital age, whether the Internet encloses us or whether it opens up new spaces for diversity and education. The starting point is the thesis that the Internet is both heritage and future: postmodern spaces of freedom and neoliberal fixations of the electronic age unfold in the ubiquitous cultural space that digital media span. At the same time, the Internet restructures social spaces in the'analog world', digitalizes self/world relations or forms digital cultures, which in turn form ourselves. For dealing with the ambivalence of the Internet between postmodern diversity and neoliberal subjectification, an understanding of media education based on educational theory is proposed. This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Kulturen des Digitalen by David Kergel, published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2018. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

En los últimos veinte años, con la expansión de Internet, el surgimiento de las redes sociales y la explosión de la inteligencia artificial, el ecosistema informativo atravesó una transformación radical. Cada día escuchamos nuevas palabras y conceptos vinculados a la información y al mundo digital: infodemia, fake news, deep fakes, burbujas informativas, desinformación, stress informativo y detox digital, entre otros. Todos estos fenómenos son hoy en mayor o menor medida parte de nuestras vidas, y sin embargo muchos no somos conscientes, o bien no sabemos qué hacer ni cómo comportarnos frente a ellos. La alfabetización digital e informativa implica mucho más que aprender a usar las herramientas tecnológicas. Hoy en día, ¿nos informamos o nos dejamos informar? ¿Pensamos libremente o respondemos inconscientemente a los estímulos digitales? ¿Somos verdaderamente dueños de nuestro futuro? Este libro se propone compartir con el lector las principales herramientas que le permitirán convertirse en un ciudadano conscientemente informado, capaz de tener una mayor autonomía sobre sus elecciones y decisiones, y de entender las profundas transformaciones que ha atravesado el ecosistema de la información y cómo estas inciden en las bases mismas de nuestras democracias.

The second edition of Digital Literacy provides a highly focused exploration of key critical concepts in understanding digital media in a clear, engaging, and accessible way for an introductory audience. This updated edition explores a variety of approaches to digital literacy, including prescient work by media theorists, the historical influences of legacy media, the contemporary transformations of the digital environment, and the way our communication ecology is constructed. The book argues for an understanding of the changes in traditional media, the rise of Big Tech, and the challenges these pose to privacy and to democratic ideals. Important themes explored in chapters across the book include digital identity, the internet as infrastructure, the web as a collaborative tool, and domestic and global digital divides. The new edition also explores digital literacy and the pandemic, as well as the growing body of research around the effects and impact of the digital technologies we use every day. Also included are useful Applied Skills Appendices outlining core areas of digital practice. The text is an ideal resource for students and scholars of mass communication, media literacy, digital information literacy, and digital technology courses, as well as for all those wanting to know more about the deep on-going impact of communication technologies on our lives.

In The New Collective Behavior in Digital Society: Connection, Contagion, Control, Raymond L.M. Lee offers an updated view on the sociology of crowds. While the era of crowds that Le Bon famously wrote about more than a century ago reflected the social and political crises of his time, in the twenty-first century we encounter a completely new scenario with crowds forming online or morphing into swarms in digital space. Lee confronts large gatherings that are only virtually present and investigates collective behaviors that are not always palpable and visceral. This is the age of digital dominance where the collective becomes reduced to ones and zeros to become more vulnerable to the social and political interventions of our time. This book attempts to discern and dissect those interventions, focusing on the power of virality that sustains networks, assemblages, and platforms to generate new collective behaviors in an era of smartphones, surveillance, and pandemics that were never imagined in Le Bon's time.