Download or read book Contested Technologies written by Anders Persson and published by Nordic Academic Press. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing the important perspectives on xenotransplantation and human embryonic stem cell research, this book explores both the enthusiastic proponents and vehement resistance to these new biomedical technologies. Investigating the political, social, and ethical forces behind this kind of research and development, as well as the commercial actors and strong financial incentives that are necessary, these stories of hope, fear, and hype are matched by stories of success, failure, and fraud, showing how these technologies have become truly polarizing.
Download or read book Contested Reproduction written by John H. Evans and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-10-15 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific breakthroughs have led us to a point where soon we will be able to make specific choices about the genetic makeup of our offspring. In fact, this reality has arrived—and it is only a matter of time before the technology becomes widespread. Much like past arguments about stem-cell research, the coming debate over these reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs) will be both political and, for many people, religious. In order to understand how the debate will play out in the United States, John H. Evans conducted the first in-depth study of the claims made about RGTs by religious people from across the political spectrum, and Contested Reproduction is the stimulating result. Some of the opinions Evans documents are familiar, but others—such as the idea that certain genetic conditions produce a “meaningful suffering” that is, ultimately, desirable—provide a fascinating glimpse of religious reactions to cutting-edge science. Not surprisingly, Evans discovers that for many people opinion on the issue closely relates to their feelings about abortion, but he also finds a shared moral language that offers a way around the unproductive polarization of the abortion debate and other culture-war concerns. Admirably evenhanded, Contested Reproduction is a prescient, profound look into the future of a hot-button issue.
Download or read book Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability written by Aidan Davison and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2001-05-16 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that sustainability requires more than economic and technological efficiency.
Download or read book Contested Bodies written by John Hassard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-10-04 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring fresh and fascinating contributions from leading thinkers and theorists, Contested Bodies brings together a number of different accounts and perspectives on the body, drawing out some of the key connections and disjunctures from this most contested of topics.
Download or read book Contested Development in China s Transition to an Innovation driven Economy written by Yvette To and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-05-19 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates how technology and innovation policies in contemporary China are impacted by collaboration and conflicts between different classes and interests in a world economy, in which competitiveness is defined by the successful leverage of emerging technologies. Focusing on the actual processes and outcomes of technological upgrading in three dynamic sectors, the book presents an alternative approach to understanding China’s industrial upgrading strategies, by examining the ways in which the making and implementation of policies are shaped by political struggles between state actors and dominant capitalist interests in the context of global capitalism. In doing so, the book challenges influential institutionalist approaches as explanations of institutional change, positing instead a political economy framework grounded in social conflict theory to reveal how power relationships and politics are intrinsic to the evolution, form, and function of institutions. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of international political economy, development studies, globalisation and innovation, China and Chinese politics, and public policy.
Download or read book Contested Knowledges written by Esha Shah and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-05-20 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water acquisition, storage, allocation and distribution are intensely contested in our society, whether, for instance, such issues pertain to a conflict between upstream and downstream farmers located on a small stream or to a large dam located on the border of two nations. Water conflicts are mostly studied as disputes around access to water resources or the formulation of water laws and governance rules. However, explicitly or not, water conflicts nearly always also involve disputes among different philosophical views. The contributions to this edited volume have looked at the politics of contested knowledge as manifested in the conceptualisation, design, development, implementation and governance of large dams and mega-hydraulic infrastructure projects in various parts of the world. The special issue has explored the following core questions: Which philosophies and claims on mega-hydraulic projects are encountered, and how are they shaped, validated, negotiated and contested in concrete contexts? Whose knowledge counts and whose knowledge is downplayed in water development conflict situations, and how have different epistemic communities and cultural-political identities shaped practices of design, planning and construction of dams and mega-hydraulic projects? The contributions have also scrutinised how these epistemic communities interactively shape norms, rules, beliefs and values about water problems and solutions, including notions of justice, citizenship and progress that are subsequently to become embedded in material artefacts.
Download or read book Prototype Nation written by Silvia M. Lindtner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid look at China’s shifting place in the global political economy of technology production How did China’s mass manufacturing and “copycat” production become transformed, in the global tech imagination, from something holding the nation back to one of its key assets? Prototype Nation offers a rich transnational analysis of how the promise of democratized innovation and entrepreneurial life has shaped China’s governance and global image. With historical precision and ethnographic detail, Silvia Lindtner reveals how a growing distrust in Western models of progress and development, including Silicon Valley and the tech industry after the financial crisis of 2007–8, shaped the rise of the global maker movement and the vision of China as a “new frontier” of innovation. Lindtner’s investigations draw on more than a decade of research in experimental work spaces—makerspaces, coworking spaces, innovation hubs, hackathons, and startup weekends—in China, the United States, Africa, Europe, Taiwan, and Singapore, as well as in key sites of technology investment and industrial production—tech incubators, corporate offices, and factories. She examines how the ideals of the maker movement, to intervene in social and economic structures, served the technopolitical project of prototyping a “new” optimistic, assertive, and global China. In doing so, Lindtner demonstrates that entrepreneurial living influences governance, education, policy, investment, and urban redesign in ways that normalize the persistence of sexism, racism, colonialism, and labor exploitation. Prototype Nation shows that by attending to the bodies and sites that nurture entrepreneurial life, technology can be extricated from the seemingly endless cycle of promise and violence. Cover image: Courtesy of Cao Fei, Vitamin Creative Space and Sprüth Magers
Download or read book Big Picture Bioethics Developing Democratic Policy in Contested Domains written by Susan Dodds and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the problem of how to make democratically-legitimate public policy on issues of contentious bioethical debate. It focuses on ethical contests about research and their legitimate resolution, while addressing questions of political legitimacy. How should states make public policy on issues where there is ethical disagreement, not only about appropriate outcomes, but even what values are at stake? What constitutes justified, democratic policy in such conflicted domains? Case studies from Canada and Australia demonstrate that two countries sharing historical and institutional characteristics can reach different policy responses. This book is of interest to policymakers, bioethicists, and philosophers, and will deepen our understanding of the interactions between large-scale socio-political forces and detailed policy problems in bioethics. asdf
Download or read book The Politics of Shale Gas in Eastern Europe written by Andreas Goldthau and published by Cambridge Studies in Comparative Public Policy. This book was released on 2018-03-29 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses a policy regime approach to conduct a comparative analysis of the public policies of shale gas in Eastern Europe.
Download or read book Globalization Contested written by Louise Amoore and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting book, available in paperback for the first time, provides an illuminating account of contemporary globalisation that is grounded in actual transformations in the areas of production and the workplace. It reveals the social and political contests that give 'global' its meaning, by examining the contested nature of globalisation as it is expressed in the restructuring of work.Rejecting conventional explanations of globalisation as a process that automatically leads to transformations in working lives, or as a project that is strategically designed to bring about lean and flexible forms of production, this book advances an understanding of the social practices that constitute global change. Through case studies that span from the labour flexibility debates in Britain and Germany, to the strategies and tactics of corporations and workers, the author examines how globalisation is interpreted and experienced in everyday life. Contestation, she argues, is about more than just direct protests and resistances. It has become a central feature of the practices that enable or confound global restructuring.This book offers students and scholars of international political economy, sociology and industrial relations an innovative framework for the analysis of globalisation and the restructuring of work.
Download or read book The Soul of Medicine written by John R. Peteet and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-12-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To what extent should spiritual information be part of a patient’s medical assessment? How should physicians respond when patients refuse life-saving care on religious grounds? Should doctors pray with their patients? Questions such as these raise deeper ones about the goals of medicine and the nature of healing. In a set of engaging and candid essays, The Soul of Medicine explores the role and influence of spirituality in clinical practice, professionalism, and medical education. The contributors to this volume approach this topic from their own spiritual perspectives—Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, New Age / Eclectic, secular, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Scientist. Their thought-provoking essays provide rich insights not only into the needs of patients with various world views but also into how spirituality influences the practice of medicine. When their own spiritual issues arise in medical practice, physicians rely on their professionalism, ethics, and education. To better understand how various world views are incorporated into clinical work, doctors must ask themselves—as these contributors have—a series of important questions: What insights about life and healing does your faith provide? How does your faith challenge or reinforce contemporary medicine? How do you assess and address spirituality in clinical practice? How do your own beliefs influence your interactions with patients? The Soul of Medicine encourages medical students and practitioners to recognize the spiritual dimensions of medicine, to consider how these dimensions inform their own education and practice, and to be compassionate about their patients’—and their own—religious beliefs.
Download or read book Contested Energy Futures written by Stuart Rosewarne and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-06-11 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unpacks the politics of climate change in Australia in the context of successive conservative Coalition governments resisting any moves to mitigate emissions and as local communities and transnational corporations struggle with each other to control the transition to a sustainable energy future. As Australia has abundant clean energy resources in terms of solar and wind, the book offers a test case for study of the energy policy transition in the 21st century. It does so by using tools from political economy and sociology, teasing out public attitudes to renewable energy technologies and innovative infrastructure investments, unpacking the complex parameters of this historical debate, tracing the rise of household 'prosumers' and arguing the case for grassroots ownership of renewable infrastructure or 'energy sovereignty' - already pioneered by some isolated communities in Australia. The cultural and emancipatory benefits of cooperative ventures are well known. However, capitalism is not readily defeated by democracy. The promotion of individual households as 'virtual power stations', of 'smart technologies' and even of cryptocurrency into the energy transition innovative mix opens up ever new horizons for corporate control.
Download or read book The Quantified Worker written by Ifeoma Ajunwa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-04-30 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The information revolution has ushered in a data-driven reorganization of the workplace. Big data and AI are used to surveil workers and shift risk. Workplace wellness programs appraise our health. Personality job tests calibrate our mental state. The monitoring of social media and surveillance of the workplace measure our social behavior. With rich historical sources and contemporary examples, The Quantified Worker explores how the workforce science of today goes far beyond increasing efficiency and threatens to erase individual personhood. With exhaustive detail, Ifeoma Ajunwa shows how different forms of worker quantification are enabled, facilitated, and driven by technological advances. Timely and eye-opening, The Quantified Worker advocates for changes in the law that will mitigate the ill effects of the modern workplace.
Download or read book Contested Energy Spaces written by Tarje I. Wanvik and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authored brief discusses how to conceptualize the socio-material complexity of contested energy spaces in the Canadian North, specifically in the context of indigenous communities that have allowed industrial developments to occur on their lands despite the environmental and lifestyle consequences. By applying assemblage theory, the author identifies contested energy spaces as complex places or situations that need to be understood through geographical concepts of place, scale, and power. In 6 chapters, the book challenges preconceptions of indigenous peoples as victims by examining communities that favor industrial developments, and identifies instabilities in the Canadian North to analyze the power relations between industry, state and indigenous communities. The book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, teachers and lecturers, and geography scholars. Chapter 1 introduces the concept of energy spaces, and addresses the main research question posed in the text; why do some indigenous communities support extractive industry developments on their traditional territories, despite substantial destruction of the local environment and traditional indigenous land use practices? Chapter 2 further elaborates on the conceptualization of contested energy spaces, and chapter 3 applies this to the study area in Alberta, Canada. Chapter 4 discusses the methodology of the research process, and chapter 5 presents empirical cases in Alberta, from the changing governance structures of energy spaces to the networking of local indigenous communities. Chapter 6 concludes the brief by summarizing he findings, and by offering advice to all stakeholders regarding the dangers of leaving government processes to market forces alone.
Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Download or read book Global Justice and the Politics of Information written by Sky Croeser and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global social justice movement attempts to build a more equitable, democratic, and environmentally sustainable world. However, this book argues that actors involved need to recognise knowledge - including scientific and technological systems - to a greater extent than they presently do. The rise of the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring and the Wikileaks controversy has demonstrated that the internet can play an important role in helping people to organise against unjust systems. While governments may be able to control individual activists, they can no longer control the flow of information. However, the existence of new information and communications technologies does not in itself guarantee that peoples' movements will win out against authoritarian governments or the power of economic elites. Drawing on extensive interviews and fieldwork, this book illustrates the importance of contributions from local movements around the world to the struggle for global justice. Including detailed case studies on opposition to genetically-modified crops in the south of India, and the digital liberties movement, this book is vital reading for anyone trying to understand the changing relationship between science, technology, and progressive movements around the world. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of International Politics, Social movements, Global Justice and Internet politics.
Download or read book Innovation Contested written by Benoît Godin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-01-09 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Innovation is everywhere. In the world of goods (technology), but also in the world of words: innovation is discussed in the scientific and technical literature, but also in the social sciences and humanities. Innovation is also a central idea in the popular imaginary, in the media and in public policy. Innovation has become the emblem of the modern society and a panacea for resolving many problems. Today, innovation is spontaneously understood as technological innovation because of its contribution to economic "progress". Yet for 2,500 years, innovation had nothing to do with economics in a positive sense. Innovation was pejorative and political. It was a contested idea in philosophy, religion, politics and social affairs. Innovation only got de-contested in the last century. This occurred gradually beginning after the French revolution. Innovation shifted from a vice to a virtue. Innovation became an instrument for achieving political and social goals. In this book, Benoît Godin lucidly examines the representations and meaning(s) of innovation over time, its diverse uses, and the contexts in which the concept emerged and changed. This history is organized around three periods or episteme: the prohibition episteme, the instrument episteme, and the value episteme.
