- Table View
- List View
Political Modernity and Social Theory: Origins, Development and Alternatives
by Jose Maur¡cio DominguesModern liberal democracy and authoritarian collectivism have known diverse political regimes; autocratic, oligarchic or democratic, they each consist of a mixed, partly oligarchic regime in which plebeian politics are subordinated. With authoritarian collectivism’s defeat, a return to modernity has produced one more hybrid configuration.An in-depth investigation of political modernity and how it is differentiated from other forms of society, this book researches its origins and trajectory as a specific dimension of modern civilisation – articulating a renewed critical theory through an analysis of rights and law, politics, state and autonomy, social reproduction, crisis and political change.Examining these diverse aspects, Political Modernity and Social Theory proposes an encompassing and far-reaching approach spanning past and present – stressing radical plebeian democracy and maintaining a strong opening to the future and to possible alternatives to modernity.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
Political Party Research: An Overview
by Elmar WiesendahlThe book by the well-known German party researcher Elmar Wiesendahl presents the development, theoretical perspectives, research approaches, and fields of investigation in party research in light of the state of the art.
Political Science in Africa: Freedom, Relevance, Impact (Africa Now)
by Liisa Laakso Siphamandla ZondiBringing together African and international scholars, this book gives an account of the present state of the discipline of political science in Africa - generating insights into its present and future trajectories, and assessing the freedom with which it is practiced.Tackling subjects including the decolonization of the discipline, political scientists as public intellectuals, and the teaching of political science, this diverse range of perspectives paints a detailed picture of the impact and relevance of the political science discipline on the continent during the struggles for democratization, and the influence it continues to exert today.
A Politics of Melancholia: From Plato to Arendt
by George Edmondson Klaus MladekWhy melancholia is a vital form of social critique and a catalyst for political renewalMelancholia is wrongly condemned as a condition of withdrawal and despair that alienates its sufferer from community. Countering that misconception, A Politics of Melancholia reclaims an understanding of melancholia not as an affliction in need of a remedy but as an affirmative stance toward decay and ruination in political life, and restores the melancholic figure—by turns inventive and destructive, outraged and inspired—to their rightful place as the poet of political thought.George Edmondson and Klaus Mladek identify pivotal moments of political melancholia in ancient and modern texts, offering new perspectives on the death of Socrates in Plato&’s dialogues, the fratricide in Hamlet, Woyzeck&’s killing of Marie in Georg Büchner&’s Woyzeck, the murder of Moses in Freud&’s thought, and the betrayal of the revolutionary idea that Hannah Arendt identifies in her critique of eighteenth-century revolutions. Melancholia emerges here as a disposition that is mournful but also jubilant, a mood of unbending disconsolation that remains faithful to a scene of downfall, to events that cannot be forgotten, and to things that cannot be governed.Recovering a tradition of thought that is both affirmative and hopeful, this eloquent book reveals how political melancholia embodies a shared condition of discontent that binds communities together and inspires change.
The Politics of Recognition in the Age of Digital Spaces: Appearing Together (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Benjamin JJ CarpenterThis book provides a philosophical analysis of the notion of selfhood that underlies identity politics. It offers a unique theory of the self that combines previous scholarly work on recognition and the phenomenology of space. The politics of identity occupy the centre of a contested terrain. Marginalised and oppressed peoples continue to seek the transformation of our shared social world and our political institutions required for their lives to be liveable. Public criticism and academic treatments of identity politics often take a disparaging view that treats it as subordinate to more general political questions about justice and the organisation of society and its institutions. This book argues that these polemics ignore the numerous ways in which all politics is concerned with matters of selfhood and identity. Through a rereading of Hegel’s account of recognition as an ongoing and dynamic process that constitutes the self, it presents selves—and the categories of identity that qualify these selves—as fundamentally conditioned by the environments in which they appear before themselves and others. It also argues that we do the work of identity in public spaces—particularly digital spaces—and that these spaces shape what identities we can assume and what those identities mean. Contemporary social media technologies facilitate the production of particular forms of selfhood through the combined logics of the interface, the profile, and the post. The Politics of Recognition in the Age of Digital Spaces will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in a wide range of disciplines including political philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of technology, sociology, political theory, and critical theory. It will also appeal to anyone with an interest in contemporary identity politics, whether as a matter of study or lived experience.
The Politics of Recognition in the Age of Digital Spaces: Appearing Together (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Benjamin JJ CarpenterThis book provides a philosophical analysis of the notion of selfhood that underlies identity politics. It offers a unique theory of the self that combines previous scholarly work on recognition and the phenomenology of space. The politics of identity occupy the centre of a contested terrain. Marginalised and oppressed peoples continue to seek the transformation of our shared social world and our political institutions required for their lives to be liveable. Public criticism and academic treatments of identity politics often take a disparaging view that treats it as subordinate to more general political questions about justice and the organisation of society and its institutions. This book argues that these polemics ignore the numerous ways in which all politics is concerned with matters of selfhood and identity. Through a rereading of Hegel’s account of recognition as an ongoing and dynamic process that constitutes the self, it presents selves—and the categories of identity that qualify these selves—as fundamentally conditioned by the environments in which they appear before themselves and others. It also argues that we do the work of identity in public spaces—particularly digital spaces—and that these spaces shape what identities we can assume and what those identities mean. Contemporary social media technologies facilitate the production of particular forms of selfhood through the combined logics of the interface, the profile, and the post. The Politics of Recognition in the Age of Digital Spaces will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in a wide range of disciplines including political philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of technology, sociology, political theory, and critical theory. It will also appeal to anyone with an interest in contemporary identity politics, whether as a matter of study or lived experience.
The Politics of Replacement: Demographic Fears, Conspiracy Theories, and Race Wars (Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right)
by Sarah Bracke Luis Manuel Hernández AguilarThe Politics of Replacement explores current demographic conspiracy theories and their entanglement with different forms of racism and exclusionary politics such as sexism. The book focuses on population replacement conspiracy theories, i.e. those imaginaries and discourses centered on the idea that the national population is under threat of being overtaken or even wiped out by those considered as “alien” to the nation, and that this is the result of concerted efforts by “elites”. Replacement conspiracy theories are on the rise again: from Eurabia fantasies to Renaud Camus’ The Great Replacement, white supremacist discourses are thriving and increasingly broadcasting in mainstream venues. To account for their rise and spread, this edited volume brings together research on various dimensions of population replacement conspiracy theories: different theoretical and methodological approaches, different social scientific and humanities (inter)disciplinary backgrounds, different geographical case-studies (across Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, and Oceania), different time-periods (medieval archives, colonial archives, Nazi archives, post-colonial migrations, post-9/11), and different forms of racialization and racisms (Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism against migrants and refugees), as well as with the entanglement of population replacement discourse with gendered violence. The book is organized into four sections: (1) exploring the historical background of the current rise of demographic conspiracy theories; (2) tracing the (neoliberal) governmentalities in and through which replacement discourse operates; (3) analysing the particularly intense focus on the threat of Muslims in contemporary replacement conspiracy theories, and (4) investigating the connection between replacement conspiracies, gender, and violence. This title is essential reading for scholars, journalists, and activists interested in the contemporary far right, conspiracy theories, and racisms.
The Politics of Replacement: Demographic Fears, Conspiracy Theories, and Race Wars (Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right)
The Politics of Replacement explores current demographic conspiracy theories and their entanglement with different forms of racism and exclusionary politics such as sexism. The book focuses on population replacement conspiracy theories, i.e. those imaginaries and discourses centered on the idea that the national population is under threat of being overtaken or even wiped out by those considered as “alien” to the nation, and that this is the result of concerted efforts by “elites”. Replacement conspiracy theories are on the rise again: from Eurabia fantasies to Renaud Camus’ The Great Replacement, white supremacist discourses are thriving and increasingly broadcasting in mainstream venues. To account for their rise and spread, this edited volume brings together research on various dimensions of population replacement conspiracy theories: different theoretical and methodological approaches, different social scientific and humanities (inter)disciplinary backgrounds, different geographical case-studies (across Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, and Oceania), different time-periods (medieval archives, colonial archives, Nazi archives, post-colonial migrations, post-9/11), and different forms of racialization and racisms (Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism against migrants and refugees), as well as with the entanglement of population replacement discourse with gendered violence. The book is organized into four sections: (1) exploring the historical background of the current rise of demographic conspiracy theories; (2) tracing the (neoliberal) governmentalities in and through which replacement discourse operates; (3) analysing the particularly intense focus on the threat of Muslims in contemporary replacement conspiracy theories, and (4) investigating the connection between replacement conspiracies, gender, and violence. This title is essential reading for scholars, journalists, and activists interested in the contemporary far right, conspiracy theories, and racisms.
Politische Theorie des Anarchismus: Zum paradoxen Streben nach Autonomie, Selbstbestimmung und Selbstorganisation (Edition Politik #168)
by Jonathan EibischDer anarchistische Politikbegriff erscheint widersprüchlich: Der Ablehnung von Politik steht eine Bezugnahme auf sie gegenüber. Diese Paradoxie entspringt einer bestimmten Denkweise, die dabei hilft, Netzwerke zwischen verschiedenen Strömungen, Gruppen und Diskursen zu weben. So eröffnet sich die Möglichkeit, auf widersprüchliche gesellschaftliche Verhältnisse zu antworten, um sie zu überschreiten. Dies zeigt sich im Modus des Strebens nach Autonomie, in Kontroversen zwischen Individualismus und Kollektivismus und in theoretischen Konzepten wie der sozialen Revolution. In diesem Kontext verdeutlicht Jonathan Eibisch, dass es eine zeitgemäße politische Theorie des Anarchismus gibt - und wie sie aussehen kann.
Politische Theorie des Anarchismus: Zum paradoxen Streben nach Autonomie, Selbstbestimmung und Selbstorganisation (Edition Politik #168)
by Jonathan EibischDer anarchistische Politikbegriff erscheint widersprüchlich: Der Ablehnung von Politik steht eine Bezugnahme auf sie gegenüber. Diese Paradoxie entspringt einer bestimmten Denkweise, die dabei hilft, Netzwerke zwischen verschiedenen Strömungen, Gruppen und Diskursen zu weben. So eröffnet sich die Möglichkeit, auf widersprüchliche gesellschaftliche Verhältnisse zu antworten, um sie zu überschreiten. Dies zeigt sich im Modus des Strebens nach Autonomie, in Kontroversen zwischen Individualismus und Kollektivismus und in theoretischen Konzepten wie der sozialen Revolution. In diesem Kontext verdeutlicht Jonathan Eibisch, dass es eine zeitgemäße politische Theorie des Anarchismus gibt - und wie sie aussehen kann.
Popular Music in Spanish Cinema (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)
by Lidia López GómezPopular Music in Spanish Cinema analyses the aesthetics and stylistic development of soundtracks from national productions, considering how political instability and cultural diversity in Spain determined the ways of making art and managing culture. As a pioneering study in this field, the chronologically structured approach of this book provides readers with a complete overview of Spanish music and connects it to the complex historical events that conditioned Spanish culture throughout the 20th century to the present day, from the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil war, and the dictatorship through to democracy. The book enables an understanding of the relationships between the recording and film production industries, the construction of collective imagination, the formulation of new stereotypes, semiotic meanings within film music and the musical exchanges between national and international cinema. This volume is an essential read for students and academics in the field of musicology, ethnomusicology and history as well as those interested in the study of diverse musical styles such as copla, zarzuela, flamenco, jazz, foxtrot, pop and rock and how they have been used in Spanish films throughout history.
Popular Music in Spanish Cinema (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)
Popular Music in Spanish Cinema analyses the aesthetics and stylistic development of soundtracks from national productions, considering how political instability and cultural diversity in Spain determined the ways of making art and managing culture. As a pioneering study in this field, the chronologically structured approach of this book provides readers with a complete overview of Spanish music and connects it to the complex historical events that conditioned Spanish culture throughout the 20th century to the present day, from the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil war, and the dictatorship through to democracy. The book enables an understanding of the relationships between the recording and film production industries, the construction of collective imagination, the formulation of new stereotypes, semiotic meanings within film music and the musical exchanges between national and international cinema. This volume is an essential read for students and academics in the field of musicology, ethnomusicology and history as well as those interested in the study of diverse musical styles such as copla, zarzuela, flamenco, jazz, foxtrot, pop and rock and how they have been used in Spanish films throughout history.
Populist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research
by Yannis StavrakakisPopulist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research offers a refreshingly innovative discourse theory perspective on populist phenomena. Reading this book will help you familiarize yourself with the historical genealogy of significant populist phenomena from the end of the 19th century onwards and with the main conceptual/theoretical accounts established to analyse them. Mainstream conceptualizations of populism in both academia and public discourse are critically discussed in order to map new, promising avenues for research. Inspired by the works of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the book addresses current challenges within populism research and highlights the new directions that a conceptually nuanced, theoretically rigorous and historically informed discursive orientation can contribute to the contemporary study of populism. Without sacrificing attention to detail, strong bibliographical support and a focus on the future development of populism research, Populist Discourse is written in accessible language to engage populism scholars, advanced undergraduates and graduate-level students within the field of political science. Due to its interdisciplinary character, it will also appeal to readers associated with various politically informed area studies and the broader field of ideology and discourse analysis.
Populist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research
by Yannis StavrakakisPopulist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research offers a refreshingly innovative discourse theory perspective on populist phenomena. Reading this book will help you familiarize yourself with the historical genealogy of significant populist phenomena from the end of the 19th century onwards and with the main conceptual/theoretical accounts established to analyse them. Mainstream conceptualizations of populism in both academia and public discourse are critically discussed in order to map new, promising avenues for research. Inspired by the works of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the book addresses current challenges within populism research and highlights the new directions that a conceptually nuanced, theoretically rigorous and historically informed discursive orientation can contribute to the contemporary study of populism. Without sacrificing attention to detail, strong bibliographical support and a focus on the future development of populism research, Populist Discourse is written in accessible language to engage populism scholars, advanced undergraduates and graduate-level students within the field of political science. Due to its interdisciplinary character, it will also appeal to readers associated with various politically informed area studies and the broader field of ideology and discourse analysis.
Portrait of Young Gödel: Education, First Steps in Logic, the Problem of Completeness (Vienna Circle Institute Library #9)
by Jan von PlatoIn the summer of 1928, Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) embarked on his logical journey that would bring him world fame in a mere three years. By early 1929, he had solved an outstanding problem in logic, namely the question of the completeness of the axioms and rules of quantificational logic. He then went on to extend the result to the axiom system of arithmetic but found, instead of completeness, his famous incompleteness theorem that got published in 1931. It belongs to the most iconic achievements of 20th century science and has been instrumental in the development of theories of formal languages and algorithmic computability – two essential components in the birth of the information society.This book explores Gödel’s way from an exceptional high-school student to a firmly established young logician. Essays in Gödel’s hand from the high school show that his central philosophical and scientific convictions were formed early on, before his university studies. Particular emphasis is laid on the course that made Gödel one of the foremost logicians of all times. The scientific biography of young Gödel is followed by English translations from Gödel’s German Gabelsberger shorthand of all his early preserved notebooks on logic and related topics.
Portraits of Wollstonecraft: The Making of a Feminist Icon, 1785 to 2020
by Eileen M. HuntOne of The Tablet's Books of the Year 2021Portraits of Wollstonecraft collects and introduces 102 texts and artifacts that document Mary Wollstonecraft's public reception in art, literature, philosophy and feminist politics. Each portrait is a milestone in her depiction in culture. From William Blake's 1803 poem 'Mary' to Maggi Hambling's contentious sculpture in 2020, these sources validate the monumental place Wollstonecraft holds in not just one but many canons. The color images in Part I: Public Sightings trace her earliest reception in portraiture, from 1785 to 1804, with detailed analysis paired with each of the illustrations. Arranged chronologically, these landmark images are followed by the reviews of Wollstonecraft's books that appeared during her lifetime in Jamaica, Madrid, Amsterdam and London. Part II: Global Afterlives, examines her multifarious posthumous reception and features diary entries, excerpts from English-language biographies, letters, articles and introductions to her books. From Olive Schreiner's introduction to the Rights of Women composed in Cape Town in 1889 to the translator's preface to the first Czech edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1904, they showcase an impressive sweep of cross-cultural perspectives on her life and writings. The sources in Part III: Making an International Icon chart the depth and breadth of her legacies on a global scale. Feminists, philosophers, and social scientists-from Ruth Benedict to Virginia Sapiro to Amartya Sen-have written and spoken with conviction about the emotional power of looking into the eyes of the author of the Rights of Woman. This section includes major thinkers from across the 19th and 20th centuries who responded to Wollstonecraft's theories on virtue, love, gender, education, and rights: Mary Shelley, Emma Goldman, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Susan Moller Okin, Barbara Johnson and Martha Nussbaum. We see how Wollstonecraft gained traction in feminist politics, both as a philosopher and as a transcultural icon of the cause, beginning with English suffragist Millicent Fawcett's centennial edition of the Rights of Woman in 1891 and extending through feminist art in The Paris Review during the age of #MeToo. Assembling responses from Ireland, Continental Europe, North and South America and across the former colonies of the British Empire, this one-of-a-kind collection tells a compelling story of Wollstonecraft's watershed contributions to human rights debates throughout the modern and contemporary world.
Positivist and Political-Economic Theories of International Relations: Liberal-Pluralist and Radical Dimensions
by Amartya MukhopadhyayThis book provides an introduction to positivist-pluralist theories of international relations (IR) which emerged during the early-and mid-1950’s along with Marxist political economic and non-Marxist economic theories of IR. Positivist and Political-Economic Theories of International Relations is an in-depth critical study of texts and literature which highlight IR’s methodological pluralism even after it gained maturity. It examines how pluralist political status quo and radical economic criticism coexist in discrete areas of the discipline. Insights are provided into key positivist liberal-pluralist theories, namely decision-making approaches, and theories of integration, regionalism, interdependence, and regime. It discusses the four political economic and critical theories of Marxism, dependency, world systems, and international political economy. The book, as an advanced supplementary reader, will be of great interest to researchers and students of international relations, history, law, and the multidisciplinary social scientific field of political economy.
Positivist and Political-Economic Theories of International Relations: Liberal-Pluralist and Radical Dimensions
by Amartya MukhopadhyayThis book provides an introduction to positivist-pluralist theories of international relations (IR) which emerged during the early-and mid-1950’s along with Marxist political economic and non-Marxist economic theories of IR. Positivist and Political-Economic Theories of International Relations is an in-depth critical study of texts and literature which highlight IR’s methodological pluralism even after it gained maturity. It examines how pluralist political status quo and radical economic criticism coexist in discrete areas of the discipline. Insights are provided into key positivist liberal-pluralist theories, namely decision-making approaches, and theories of integration, regionalism, interdependence, and regime. It discusses the four political economic and critical theories of Marxism, dependency, world systems, and international political economy. The book, as an advanced supplementary reader, will be of great interest to researchers and students of international relations, history, law, and the multidisciplinary social scientific field of political economy.
Post-Apocalyptic Cultures: New Political Imaginaries After the Collapse of Modernity (Palgrave Studies in Utopianism)
by Julia Urabayen Jorge León CaseroThis book advocates for the necessity of recovering the value of utopias as political projects that open new channels of action. The criticism of modern political utopias is based on the supposed impossibility of creating for the future because there is no longer a future (apocalyptic ideology). However, this edited collection seeks to show that the post-apocalyptic world in which we live entails a renewed freedom of design for the radical reorganization of institutions. Post-apocalyptic cultures are not obligated to follow the capitalist, anthropocentric, correlationist and sovereign modes of the old political project of emancipation—the Western enlightenment—that has started to collapse. With this in mind, this book is divided into four sections dedicated to the main themes from which to rethink the projects of political emancipation that are possible nowadays: technopolitics; posthumanist biopolitics; non-western politicsl and the crossover between arts and politics.
Post-Cold War Predictions: Politicism in Practice (ISSN)
by Hanna Samir KassabPost- Cold War Predictions examines how the international order evolved after the collapse of the Soviet Union (and before the attacks on 9/11) by focusing on the ways we study and understand major powers’ security behavior within the evolving multipolar order. Beginning with an overview of Post-Cold War literature, Kassab summarizes and evaluates influential Post-Cold War texts to better understand scholarship’s need to predict. First, he discusses the central importance of power in international relations and drives home the central focus of international structures, linking findings to the broader structure-agent problem. He then reinterprets the purpose of theory, preferring explanatory theories to those that aim to predict outcomes. To understand the context by which political ideas were developed and followed as if they were political ideologies, Hanna Samir Kassab makes explicit the links between historicism and historiography, forwarding a new methodology for studying political science: Politicist analysis. Using simple jargon and defining terms where necessary, this succinct and enlightening text is required reading for all those interested in international politics.
Post-Cold War Predictions: Politicism in Practice (ISSN)
by Hanna Samir KassabPost- Cold War Predictions examines how the international order evolved after the collapse of the Soviet Union (and before the attacks on 9/11) by focusing on the ways we study and understand major powers’ security behavior within the evolving multipolar order. Beginning with an overview of Post-Cold War literature, Kassab summarizes and evaluates influential Post-Cold War texts to better understand scholarship’s need to predict. First, he discusses the central importance of power in international relations and drives home the central focus of international structures, linking findings to the broader structure-agent problem. He then reinterprets the purpose of theory, preferring explanatory theories to those that aim to predict outcomes. To understand the context by which political ideas were developed and followed as if they were political ideologies, Hanna Samir Kassab makes explicit the links between historicism and historiography, forwarding a new methodology for studying political science: Politicist analysis. Using simple jargon and defining terms where necessary, this succinct and enlightening text is required reading for all those interested in international politics.
Postanarchism and Critical Art Practices
by Professor Saul Newman Tihomir TopuzovskiEngaging with contemporary debates about the political role of art in an era of total market subsumption, this book shows how artists respond to the challenges of political authoritarianism, police violence, right-wing populism, 'post-truth' discourse, economic inequality, pandemics, and the environmental crisis, transforming the public sphere in new and unexpected ways. Going beyond sterile debates about identity politics, diversity and representation that beset the mainstream media, university campuses and other cultural domains, the volume illustrates the ways in which artists are opening up alternative sites of contestation, occupation, and autonomous political thought and action. Newman and Topuzovski examine here the artistic practices of multiple collectives and individuals deeply engaged with social and political activities such as Grupo de Arte Callejero (GAC) and Voina, arguing that the best way to understand these new critical discourses and practices is through an updated political theory of anarchism - or what we call postanarchism - where the insurrection against power and the politics of singularity are central. Featuring, for instance, an examination of significant movements such as Black Lives Matter, as well as its use of artistic tactics such as graffiti, graphic design and movement art, the book launches itself into a vibrant discussion of the extent to which art can produce a multiplicity of practices through the deconstruction of existing legal, political, and cultural identities. By developing an alternative way of exploring the nexus between art and politics through the idea of postanarchism, this book bridges the gap between the two, promoting an understanding of the political role that art can play today and introduces a theory of postanarchism to a non-specialist audience of artists, activists and those generally interested in new sites and directions for radical politics.
Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities (Routledge Advances in Game Studies)
by Poppy WildePosthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities explores the relationship between avatar and gamer in the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game World of Warcraft, to examine notions of entangled subjectivity, affects and embodiments – what it means and how it feels to be posthuman. With a focus on posthuman subjectivity, Wilde considers how we can begin to articulate ourselves when the boundary between self and other is unclear. Drawing on fieldnotes of her own gameplay experiences, the author analyses how subjectivity is formed in ways that defy a single individual notion of "self", and explores how different practices, feelings, and societal understandings can disrupt strict binaries and emphasise our posthumanism. She interrogates if one can speak of an "I" in the face of posthuman multiplicity, before exploring different analytical themes, beginning with how acting theories might be posthumanised and articulate the relationship between avatar and gamer. She then defines posthuman empathy and explains how this is experienced in gaming, before addressing the need to account for boredom, the complexity of nostalgia, and ways death and loss are experienced through gaming. This volume will appeal to a broad audience and is particularly relevant to scholars and students of cultural studies, media studies, humanities, and game studies. Chapters 2 and 7 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities (Routledge Advances in Game Studies)
by Poppy WildePosthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities explores the relationship between avatar and gamer in the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game World of Warcraft, to examine notions of entangled subjectivity, affects and embodiments – what it means and how it feels to be posthuman. With a focus on posthuman subjectivity, Wilde considers how we can begin to articulate ourselves when the boundary between self and other is unclear. Drawing on fieldnotes of her own gameplay experiences, the author analyses how subjectivity is formed in ways that defy a single individual notion of "self", and explores how different practices, feelings, and societal understandings can disrupt strict binaries and emphasise our posthumanism. She interrogates if one can speak of an "I" in the face of posthuman multiplicity, before exploring different analytical themes, beginning with how acting theories might be posthumanised and articulate the relationship between avatar and gamer. She then defines posthuman empathy and explains how this is experienced in gaming, before addressing the need to account for boredom, the complexity of nostalgia, and ways death and loss are experienced through gaming. This volume will appeal to a broad audience and is particularly relevant to scholars and students of cultural studies, media studies, humanities, and game studies. Chapters 2 and 7 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
The Postmodern Predicament: Existential Challenges of the Twenty-First Century
by Bruce AckermanOne of our most influential political theorists offers a boundary-breaking—and liberating—perspective on the meaning of life in the internet age Human beings have taken one thing for granted since our earliest days: we are bodily creatures dealing with one another on a face-to-face basis. The internet has shattered this fundamental feature of human existence. We are suddenly living our lives in two worlds at once—shifting endlessly from virtual to physical reality as we reach out to others. Worse yet, we are developing different personal identities in our two worlds. We say and do things in virtual reality that flatly contradict our face-to-face commitments to family, friends, and fellow-workers—and vice versa. The Postmodern Predicament explores these dilemmas at each phase of the life cycle, beginning at the moment a young child picks up a cell phone. The existentialist tradition of the twentieth century provides a precious perspective on our postmodern dilemmas. Thinkers and doers like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre considered the fragmentation of modern life as a central source of contemporary anxieties. Like them, Ackerman views the challenges of the internet age as a political, no less than personal, problem—and proposes concrete reforms that that could mobilize broad-based support for democracy against demagogic assaults on its very foundations.