Computer Technology and Social Issues - Hardcover

Garson, G. David; Garson, David G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1878289284 ISBN 13: 9781878289285

Publisher: Igi Global, 1995

Synopsis

Addresses issues of the computer age in the context of developing a national public policy for information technology. Incorporates research and case studies in discussion of the potential of computers to threaten privacy or encourage democracy. Other themes include information technology as personal, organizational, and societal power. Useful for instructors wishing to give computer science students a perspective on the social issues and political choices surrounding computing. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

About this title

About the Author

G. David Garson is a professor of political science and public administration at North Carolina State University. He is editor of the Social Science Computer Review, published by Duke University Press, and is author or editor of a dozen books and monographs on research methods, public administration and American politics. Dr. Garson is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Universities. In addition to his full professorship, he serves as associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, supervising three computer laboratories in social sciences and the humanities at the North Carolina State University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Computing lends itself to images of authority and domination. Themes of technology-based Joseph Weizenbaum studied the pathologies and mindsets associated with computing. These range from the microworld of the "hacker" to the global fantasies of the military computer gamer in the Pentagon. To some, computing seems to be an all-beneficent "deus ex machina" solving human problems at every turn. However, to others it is quite the opposite. Of all the visions, fears, and fantasies associated with computing, perhaps none is so recurring and important as that associated with the issue of whether computing is a force for the centralization of political and organizational power.Thus it seems appropriate to start this book with an examination of computing as a threat to democratic values. First, I assess the empirical basis for fears of an emerging "

Edition details

• Publisher: Igi Global
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1878289284
• ISBN 13: 9781878289285
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 444