Technoculture: The Key Concepts

by Debra Benita Shaw

Overview

We live in a world where science and technology shape the global economy and everyday culture, where new biotechnologies are changing what we eat and how we can reproduce, and where email, mobiles and the internet have revolutionised the ways we communicate with each other and engage with the world outside us.Technoculture: The Key Concepts explores the power of scientific ideas, their impact on how we understand the natural world and how successive technological developments have influenced our attitudes to work, art, space, language and the human body. Throughout, the lively discussion of ideas is illustrated with provocative case studies - from biotech foods to life-support systems, from the Walkman and iPod to sex and cloning, from video games to military hardware. Designed to be both provocative and instructive, Technoculture: The Key Concepts outlines the place of science and technology in today's culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845202989
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/01/2008
Series:	The Key Concepts Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Debra Benita Shaw is Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London and is author of Women, Science and Fiction: The Frankenstein Inheritance.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Technology and Social Realities1. Technoscience and Power 2. TechnoNature/Culture: 3. TechnoBodies 4. TechnoSpaces 5. TechnoAesthetics 6. TechnoLinguistics ConclusionGlossaryAnnotated Guide to Further ReadingNotesBibliography

Editorial Reviews

"The strengths of the book are many... Technoculture is a valuable contribution to the literature in this field of growing significance. - Melbourn Journal of Politics - Timothy Marjoribanks [An] admirably comprehensive, easy-to-read and wide-ranging introduction to a critical and often neglected aspect of understanding technology. Importantly, it provides a serious challenge to technological determinism, a position whose assumptions remain pervasive — even in critical media and cultural studies scholarship. - Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy - Gerard Goggin, University of Queensland [Technoculture] shows how much crossover there is between the fields, presenting STS from an easily approachable perspective that maintains its depth, while tying key theories back to elements of popular culture and difficult social, ethical, and political issues. Highly recommended." - CHOICE

From the Publisher

A very well written and engrossing intervention into Science and Technology studies that can also serve as an introduction to the field for higher level undergraduate and graduate students and for anyone truly interested in the role of science and technology in human society today.

The Union Institute and University Chris Hables Gray

Technoculture: The Key Concepts argues forcefully that contemporary culture, self, and identity are profoundly interwoven with technology: we are 'techno-bodies' inhabiting 'techno-spaces.' The book combines rich empirical examples with an exciting range of social theory, encompassing the Frankfurt School, Debord, Baudrillard, and Haraway. Not only is this a crystal clear introduction to the cultural studies and social theory of technology, but researchers in the field will find many new theoretical connections and novel insights.

University of California at San Diego Charles Thorpe