Science, Technology and Society
Digital Technologies, Smart Cities and the Environment
In the Ruins of Broken Promises
Examining the environmental impacts of digitalisation in smart cities, this book asks how we can reconcile the adoption of smart technologies into sustainable projects.
It traces the material and environmental costs of daily realities for smart cities and asks how promises are broken when cities become ‘smart.’
The Digital Transformation of the European Border Regime
The Powers and Perils of Imagining Future Borders
This book offers an in-depth investigation into the digitizsation processes of Europe’s border regime.
With a focus on the European Union agency eu-LISA, one of the most significant actors in the digital border regime, it shows how sociotechnical imaginations drives the future of borders and European governance of mobility.
Digitized Institutions
In this Byte, the contributions consider the way that digitally meditated social processes are transforming institutions. It examines the interconnectedness of institutions and considers digitization across schooling, work, and media, with an eye on inequality.
Disrupted Urbanism
Situated Smart Initiatives in African Cities
The ‘smart city’ is often promoted as a technology-driven solution to complex urban issues. Drawing on original research conducted in urban African settings, this book provides a much-needed alternative view, exploring how ‘home-grown’ digital disruption, driven and initiated by local actors, upending the mainstream corporate narrative.
Ecological Reparation
Repair, Remediation and Resurgence in Social and Environmental Conflict
How do we engage with the threat of social and environmental degradation while creating and maintaining liveable and just worlds? Researchers from diverse backgrounds unpack this question through a series of original and committed contributions to this wide-ranging volume.
The Economic Lives of Platforms
Rethinking the Political Economy of Digital Markets
This interdisciplinary collection rethinks the political economy of the digital market by asking what came before platforms and suggesting what might come after them. Addressing themes like internet decolonisation, the book makes a timely assessment of the impact of evolving connections between technology, information, society and markets.
Egalitarian Digital Privacy
Image-based Abuse and Beyond
This book considers the social, legal and technological features of unauthorised dissemination of intimate images. With a focus on private law theory, the book defines the appropriate scope of liability of platforms and viewers. Through its analysis, it develops a new theory of egalitarian digital privacy.
Epigenetics and Responsibility
Ethical Perspectives
EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
This thought-provoking collection redefines the boundaries of moral responsibility. It shows how epigenetics reveals connections between our genetic make-up and our environment. The essays suggest a shift in focus from individual to collective responsibility.
Experiments in Automating Immigration Systems
Identifying a pattern of risky experimentation with automated systems in the Home Office, this book outlines precautionary measures that are essential to ensure that society benefits from government automation without exposing individuals to unacceptable risks.
Expertise in Crisis
The Ideological Contours of Public Scientific Controversies
As the crisis of expertise continues to be a global issue, this book shows that it is not a ‘scientific’ controversy, but an ideological dispute with believers on both sides. If the advocates of consensus science acknowledge the uncertainties of even the best science, it is possible to open a pathway towards communication between world views.
From Capital to Commons
Exploring the Promise of a World beyond Capitalism
This stimulating analysis from Hannes Gerhardt shows how technology-led and commons-oriented strategies can create fairer economies and societies. Setting out the role of various digital tools with concrete examples of their value, it is a constructive and optimistic guide to overcoming anti-capitalist barriers.