Critical Technology: A Social Theory of Personal Computing

Author:   Graeme Kirkpatrick (University of Manchester, UK)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Inc
ISBN:  

9780815388333


Pages:   151
Publication Date:   29 November 2017
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Critical Technology: A Social Theory of Personal Computing


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Overview

"Have we resigned ourselves to a cyber-future that has been decided behind our backs? Why is technology - and our understanding of it - central to the concerns of critical social theory? In developing the PC technologists have borrowed ideas from the human sciences about what people are like, about the nature of meaning and the desirability of some experiences over others. Yet, to date, the academic disciplines most concerned with these ideas have offered neither resistance nor debate. In this book, Graeme Kirkpatrick shows why it is crucial that we initiate that debate. Offering a revealing critique of PC design and the social assumptions that underlie it, Kirkpatrick argues that it relies on a particular conception of a capitalistic society that expects its technology to come pre-packaged, mass-marketed and ""user-friendly"". Anyone who is critical of such a society and its commodification of human achievement should, he suggests, be suspicious. Kirkpatrick argues that the computer is a contested space within which major social conflicts are played out. On the one hand, there is a narrative of flexibility and human empowerment, and on the other a sense of a ""system"" that controls our lives, leaving us in thrall to the computer corporations, and at constant risk from phishers and hackers. The outcomes of these conflicts are extremely important as they will shape our future experience of technology, society and politics. Critical Technology is a lively, provocative and often radical book, which forces us to reflect on the meaning of an artefact that is central to our daily lives, yet that we too often take for granted."

Full Product Details

Author:   Graeme Kirkpatrick (University of Manchester, UK)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780815388333


ISBN 10:   0815388330
Pages:   151
Publication Date:   29 November 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Contents: What does critical theory criticize about technology?; Hacking the first personal computers: the aesthetics of personal computing; The cynicism of the computer gamer; Hacking as 'thwarted vocation'; Gaming publics and technical politics; Bibliography; Index.

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