Virtual Society?: Technology, Cyberbole, Reality

Hardcover, xviii + 349 pages, NOT ex-library. Gentle wear, book is clean, bright, untanned, with unmarked text; free of stamps and inscriptions, firmly bound. Dust jacket shows light shelfwear, a tiny edge-nick to the lower spine. -- A critical examination of the impact of digital technologies on social structures and human interactions, this scholarly work explores the concept of the "virtual society," questioning the extent to which technological advancements have truly transformed social norms, behaviors, and realities. Woolgar delves into the hype surrounding digital innovations, contrasting it with empirical research and theoretical insights to reveal a more nuanced understanding of technology's role in contemporary life. This book is essential for sociologists, technologists, and scholars interested in the interplay between society and technology, providing a balanced perspective on the promises and pitfalls of the digital age. -- Contents: Five Rules of Virtuality / Steve Woolgar; They Came, They Surfed, They Went Back to the Beach: Conceptualizing Use and Non-Use of the Internet / Sally Wyatt, Graham Thomas & Tiziana Terranova; Visualization Needs Vision: The Pre-Paradigmatic Character of Virtual Reality / G.M. Peter Swann & Tim P. Watts; How Social Is Internet Communication?: A Reappraisal of Bandwidth and Anonymity Effects / Susan E. Watt, Martin Lea & Russell Spears; New Public Places for Internet Access: Networks for Practice-Based Learning and Social Inclusion / Sonia Liff, Fred Steward & Peter Watts; Allegories of Creative Destruction: Technology and Organization in Narratives of the E-Economy / David Knights, Faith Noble, Theo Vurdubakis & Hugh Willmott; Confronting Electronic Surveillance: Desiring and Resisting New Technologies / Brian A. Mcgrail; Getting Real About Surveillance and Privacy at Work / David Mason, Graham Button, Gloria Lankshear & Sally Coates; Virtual Society and the Cultural Practice of Study / Charles Crook & Paul Light; Reality of Virtual Social Support / Sarah Nettleton, Nicholas Pleace, Roger Burrows, Steven Muncer & Brian Loader; Real and Virtual Connectivity: New Media in London / Andreas Wittel, Celia Lury & Scott Lash; Presence, Absence, and Accountability: E-mail and the Mediation of Organizational Memory / Steven D. Brown & Geoffrey Lightfoot; Inside the Bubble: Communion, Cognition, and Deep Play at the Intersection of Wall Street and Cyberspace / Melvin Pollner; Day-to-Day Work of Standardization: A Sceptical Note on the Reliance on It in a Retail Bank / John A. Hughes, Mark Rouncefield & Pete Tolmie; Cotton to Computers: From Industrial to Information Revolutions / Jon Agar, Sarah Green & Penny Harvey; Mobile Society?: Technology, Distance, and Presence / Geoff Cooper, Nicola Green, Ged M. Murtagh & Richard Harper; Abstraction and Decontextualization: An Anthropological Comment / Marilyn Strathern.…