Author: Colin Koopman File Type: pdf We are now acutely aware, as if all of the sudden, that data matters enormously to how we live. How did information come to be so integral to what we can do? How did we become people who effortlessly present our lives in social media profiles and who are meticulously recorded in state surveillance dossiers and online marketing databases? What is the story behind data coming to matter so much to who we are?In How We Became Our Data, Colin Koopman excavates early moments of our rapidly accelerating data-tracking technologies and their consequences for how we think of and express our selfhood today. Koopman explores the emergence of mass-scale record keeping systems like birth certificates and social security numbers, as well as new data techniques for categorizing personality traits, measuring intelligence, and even racializing subjects. This all culminates in what Koopman calls the informational person and the informational power we are now subject to. The recent explosion of digital technologies that are turning us into a series of algorithmic data points is shown to have a deeper and more turbulent past than we commonly think. Blending philosophy, history, political theory, and media theory in conversation with thinkers like Michel Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, and Friedrich Kittler, Koopman presents an illuminating perspective on how we have come to think of our personhoodand how we can resist its erosion.

Author: Martin Breaugh File Type: epub How do people (or plebs) excluded from political institutions achieve political agency? Revisiting a series of marginal events, Martin Breaugh identifies fleeting yet decisive instances of emancipation in which the people took it upon themselves to become political subjects. Emerging during the Roman plebss first secession in 494 B.C.E., the plebeian experience consists of an underground or unexplored configuration of political strategies to obtain political freedom, a political practice that rejects domination and, by means of concerted action, establishes an alternative form of power. Breaughs study concludes in the nineteenth century and integrates ideas from sociology, philosophy, history, and political science. Organized around diverse case studies, his text is designed for class use and showcases the exchange between history and ideas that modifies the understanding and use of theoretical concepts over time. The plebeian experience also describes a recurring phenomenon scholars can use to clarify struggles for emancipation throughout history, expanding research into the political agency of the many and other cutting-edge concerns.

Author: Marius Turda File Type: pdf p Segoe UI, serif 13pxThe idea of race may be outdated, as many commentators and scholars, working in a broad range of different fields in the sciences and humanities, have argued over many years. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most persistent forms of human classification. Theories of race primitivism (the idea that there is a natural racial hierarchy and ranking order of inferior and superior races), race biologism (the belief that people can be classified by genetic features which are shared by members of racial groups), and race essentialism (the notion that races can be defined by scientifically identifiable and verifiable cultural and physical characteristics) are deeply embedded in modern history, culture and politics. p Segoe UI, serif 13pxHistoricizing Race offers a new understanding of this reality by exploring the interconnectedness of scientific, cultural and political strands of racial thought in Europe and elsewhere. It re-conceptualises the idea of race by unearthing various historical traditions that continue to inform not only current debates about individual and collective identities, but also national and international politics. In a concise format, accessible to students and scholars alike, the authors draw out some of the reasons why race-centred thinking has, in recent years, re-emerged in such shocking and explicit form in current populist, xenophobic, and anti-immigration movements. p Segoe UI, serif 13px**h3 Segoe UI, serif 13pxReview font face=Segoe UI, serif size=2For hundreds of years, perhaps thousands, human beings have tried to establish their differences with thefont others in order to establish who is superior and who is inferior and, if possible, kill thecode Segoe UI, serif 13pxcodefont face=Segoe UI, serif size=2inferior, enslave them or, at the very least, lord it over them. This fascinating and erudite account focuses particularly on the ways science has been used (and misused) to establish racial differences even though such differences are overwhelmingly culturally constructed. With unflappable zeal we are offered an amazing and well-informed account of the evolution of scientific racism in the 19th and 20th centuries. There is much to learn from this tour de force. * Donald Sassoon, Emeritus Professor of Comparative European History, Queen Mary, University of London, UK * This book provides an excellent overview of the history of race, as well as shedding light on its relevance to contemporary society. The breadth of coverage across different time periods, together with its global scope, with interesting examples from across the continents, is impressive. The authors have treated a complex and challenging subject with great care, thoughtfulness and sensitivity. * Lisa Pine, Associate Professor of History, London South Bank University, UK * font h3 Segoe UI, serif 13pxAbout the Author p Segoe UI, serif 13pxMarius Turda is Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at Oxford Brookes University, UK. p Segoe UI, serif 13pxMaria Sophia Quine is Senior Fellow in the Centre for Medical Humanities at Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Author: Pilling David File Type: epub bA revelatory and entertaining book about the pitfalls of how we measure our economy and how to correct them, by an award-winning editor of The Financial TimesbbrbbrbbA near miracle Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Dont Tell You About CapitalismbrbrbIn The Growth Delusion, author and prize-winning journalist David Pilling explores how economists and their cult of growth have hijacked our policy-making and infiltrated our thinking about what makes societies work. Our policies are geared relentlessly towards increasing our standard measure of growth, Gross Domestic Product. By this yardstick we have never been wealthier or happier. So why doesnt it feel that way? Why are we living in such fractured times, with global populism on the rise and wealth inequality as stark as ever?brbrIn a book that is simultaneously trenchant, thought-provoking and entertaining, Pilling argues that we need to measure our...