Digitalization in Industry

Digitalization in Industry PDF

Author: Uli Meyer

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2019-11-14

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 3030282589

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This book traces how the current wave of industrial digitalization relates to processes of domination and emancipation. It aims to counter techno-deterministic narratives that would connect a perceived new ‘industrial revolution’ with clear-cut societal consequences. In order to do this, the volume intervenes into three ongoing discussions which pertain to emancipation and domination in the workplace, promises of emancipation through digital fabrication, and the idea of emancipating, configuring, and infrastructuring the users of industrial products. Within this framework it addresses topics including democratic participation, management thinking, gamification, the maker movement, reshoring, digital platforms, and the automation of healthcare.

Critical Theory and New Materialisms

Critical Theory and New Materialisms PDF

Author: Hartmut Rosa

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-06-14

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1000400131

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Bringing together authors from two intellectual traditions that have, so far, generally developed independently of one another – critical theory and new materialism – this book addresses the fundamental differences and potential connections that exist between these two schools of thought. With a focus on some of the most pressing questions of contemporary philosophy and social theory – in particular, those concerning the status of long-standing and contested separations between matter and life, the biological and the symbolic, passivity and agency, affectivity and rationality – it shows that recent developments in both traditions point to important convergences between them and thus prepare the ground for a more direct confrontation and cross-fertilization. The first volume to promote a dialogue between critical theory and new materialism, this collection explores the implications for contemporary debates on ecology, gender, biopolitics, post-humanism, economics and aesthetics. As such, it will appeal to philosophers, social and political theorists, and sociologists with interests in contemporary critical theory and materialism.

The knowledge of experience

The knowledge of experience PDF

Author: Dana Mahr

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-09-05

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 9811637024

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This book explores the role of social and epistemic diversity in science, technology, and medicine in the 21st century. It argues that most contemporary endeavours to democratize science are epistemically conservative. Using illustrative case studies, Dr Dana Mahr shows how epistemic diversity can contribute to a renewal of the production of scientific knowledge. Her exploration of online self-help cultures, radical feminist health movements, and grassroots environmentalism in Thailand emphasize that “experiential knowledge“ and “performativity“ are important epistemic strategies for marginalized social groups to critically engage with institutionalized knowledge.

Sustainable Living and Business

Sustainable Living and Business PDF

Author: Hans-Werner Franz

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2024-01-04

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 3658418354

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The title of the book derives from the theme of the 20th Conference on Applied Social Sciences of the Professional Association of German Sociologists, held in Munich in May 2019. The question of what concrete contributions social innovations can make to the transition to forms of sustainable coexistence and economic activity is as much the focus of this book as the question of what contribution the social sciences can make. Thus, on the one hand, it is about concrete social innovations that help us to achieve the goal of living and doing business sustainably, but on the other hand, it is also about the way in which the social sciences - not least through appropriate theoretical and methodological training - can be made socially responsible for the success of such socially innovative processes. This book is a translation of an original German edition. 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.

Cybernetic Revolutionaries

Cybernetic Revolutionaries PDF

Author: Eden Medina

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 0262525968

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A historical study of Chile's twin experiments with cybernetics and socialism, and what they tell us about the relationship of technology and politics. In Cybernetic Revolutionaries, Eden Medina tells the history of two intersecting utopian visions, one political and one technological. The first was Chile's experiment with peaceful socialist change under Salvador Allende; the second was the simultaneous attempt to build a computer system that would manage Chile's economy. Neither vision was fully realized—Allende's government ended with a violent military coup; the system, known as Project Cybersyn, was never completely implemented—but they hold lessons for today about the relationship between technology and politics. Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews, Medina examines the cybernetic system envisioned by the Chilean government—which was to feature holistic system design, decentralized management, human-computer interaction, a national telex network, near real-time control of the growing industrial sector, and modeling the behavior of dynamic systems. She also describes, and documents with photographs, the network's Star Trek-like operations room, which featured swivel chairs with armrest control panels, a wall of screens displaying data, and flashing red lights to indicate economic emergencies. Studying project Cybersyn today helps us understand not only the technological ambitions of a government in the midst of political change but also the limitations of the Chilean revolution. This history further shows how human attempts to combine the political and the technological with the goal of creating a more just society can open new technological, intellectual, and political possibilities. Technologies, Medina writes, are historical texts; when we read them we are reading history.

The Network Society

The Network Society PDF

Author: Dirk Messner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-11

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 1135226172

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The author argues that the countries that, at the end of the 20th century, have economic, social and ecological success will not be unleashed market economies but "active and learning societies" that attempt to solve their problems via an organizational and governance-related pluralism.

Recipes for Disaster

Recipes for Disaster PDF

Author: CrimeInc Worker's Collective

Publisher: CrimethInc. Collective

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 628

ISBN-13: 0970910142

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Beautifully designed A-Z of the totality of revolutionary politics. This brand new Crimethinc book is the action guide - the direct action guide. From affinity groups to wheatpasting, coalition building, hijacking events, mental health, pie-throwing, shoplifting, stenciling, supporting survivors of domestic violence, surviving a felony trial, torches, and whole bunch more. Incredible design, and lots of graphics give it that hip situ feel. Loads to read, to think about, and to do. At 650 pages, you could always throw the damn book at a suitable target. What are you waiting for?

Productivity Machines

Productivity Machines PDF

Author: Corinna Schlombs

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2019-10-01

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 0262537397

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How productivity culture and technology became emblematic of the American economic system in pre- and postwar Germany. The concept of productivity originated in a statistical measure of output per worker or per work-hour, calculated by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. A broader productivity culture emerged in 1920s America, as Henry Ford and others linked methods of mass production and consumption to high wages and low prices. These ideas were studied eagerly by a Germany in search of economic recovery after World War I, and, decades later, the Marshall Plan promoted productivity in its efforts to help post–World War II Europe rebuild. In Productivity Machines, Corinna Schlombs examines the transatlantic history of productivity technology and culture in the two decades before and after World War II. She argues for the interpretive flexibility of productivity: different groups viewed productivity differently at different times. Although it began as an objective measure, productivity came to be emblematic of the American economic system; post-World War II West Germany, however, adapted these ideas to its own political and economic values. Schlombs explains that West German unionists cast a doubtful eye on productivity's embrace of plant-level collective bargaining; unions fought for codetermination—the right to participate in corporate decisions. After describing German responses to US productivity, Schlombs offers an in-depth look at labor relations in one American company in Germany—that icon of corporate America, IBM. Finally, Schlombs considers the emergence of computer technology—seen by some as a new symbol of productivity but by others as the means to automate workers out of their jobs.