Behavior Change Research and Theory: Psychological and Technological Perspectives provides a unified account of behavior change theories and broad coverage of application domains and best practices. From a psychological and human-computer interaction perspective, the book puts a strong emphasis on the psychological foundations of behavior change, and explores the relationship between technology and behavior change. It will cover the major behavior change theories: planned behavior; health belief model; protection motivation; transtheoretical; and more recent approaches to behavior change like Nudge, and Mindspace. The section on health research and behavior change will cover interventions like diet and fitness, mental health, smoking cessation, and diabetes management. Topics also include financial and security research, and behavior change in relation to financial and other forms of sensitive information (passwords, phishing, and financial transactions). The last section will highlight the challenges and opportunities afforded by the increasing use of mobile technology with respect to the design of programs and apps aimed at facilitating behavior change and the role of social media.

Stem Cells: Promises and Reality will tell you everything you have always wanted to know about stem cells, but could not understand the field from elsewhere.Stem cells are the great therapeutic promise of the century, and this evolving field of research and medicine brings with it many legal, ethical and psychological issues that must be discussed by society as a whole.Written so as to be accessible to general readers as well as specialists, this book explains what stem cells are, and the different aspects of stem cell research and applications. The book will enable the reader to understand the field sufficiently to critically participate in the public debates regarding stem cell research and society and ethics. By the end of the book, the reader will also be able to judge news on the stem cells field, and to discern what are real advances and what are phony treatments.The main advantage of this book in comparison with other 'stem cells for the general public' books is that it assumes the reader knows NOTHING about biology, except what is already common knowledge (for example, that we are made of cells). The book constructs step by step the required basic biology knowledge in order for the reader to understand all the different aspects of stem cells. At the same time that it is thorough in its stem cells-based content, and will keep the reader engaged with its narrative.

Stem Cells: Promises and Reality will tell you everything you have always wanted to know about stem cells, but could not understand the field from elsewhere.Stem cells are the great therapeutic promise of the century, and this evolving field of research and medicine brings with it many legal, ethical and psychological issues that must be discussed by society as a whole.Written so as to be accessible to general readers as well as specialists, this book explains what stem cells are, and the different aspects of stem cell research and applications. The book will enable the reader to understand the field sufficiently to critically participate in the public debates regarding stem cell research and society and ethics. By the end of the book, the reader will also be able to judge news on the stem cells field, and to discern what are real advances and what are phony treatments.The main advantage of this book in comparison with other 'stem cells for the general public' books is that it assumes the reader knows NOTHING about biology, except what is already common knowledge (for example, that we are made of cells). The book constructs step by step the required basic biology knowledge in order for the reader to understand all the different aspects of stem cells. At the same time that it is thorough in its stem cells-based content, and will keep the reader engaged with its narrative.

How have new social media altered how individuals present themselves? What dilemmas have they introduced? In the age of Facebook, Twitter and other forms of instant communication, individuals are losing (or relinquishing) control over their personal information! Trottier provides a trenchant analysis of the paradoxes of privacy and the presentation of self in the early 21st century. This book is ideal for courses in Sociology, Media Studies and Communication.

How do new media affect the question of social memory? Social memory is usually described as enacted through ritual, language, art, architecture, and institutions ? phenomena whose persistence over time and capacity for a shared storage of the past was set in contrast to fleeting individual memory. But the question of how social memory should be understood in an age of digital computing, instant updating, and interconnection in real time, is very much up in the air. The essays in this collection discuss the new technologies of memory from a variety of perspectives that explicitly investigate their impact on the very concept of the social. Contributors: David Berry, Ina Blom, Wolfgang Ernst, Matthew Fuller, Andrew Goffey, Liv Hausken, Yuk Hui, Trond Lundemo, Adrian Mackenzie, Sonia Matos, Richard Mills, Jussi Parikka, Eivind Rossaak, Stuart Sharples, Tiziana Terranova, Pasi Valiaho.

Today, it often seems as though Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) have reached a stage of normalization, at least in some countries and among certain social groups. Apparently some practices - for example in vitro fertilization (IVF) - have become standard worldwide. The contributors to Assisted Reproduction Across Borders argue against normalization as an uncontested overall trend. This volume reflects on the state of the art of ARTs. From feminist perspectives, the contributors focus on contemporary political debates triggered by ARTs. They examine the varying ways in which ARTs are interpreted and practised in different contexts, depending on religious, moral and political approaches. Assisted Reproduction Across Borders embeds feminist analysis of ARTs across a wide variety of countries and cultural contexts, discussing controversial practices such as surrogacy from the perspective of the global South as well as the global North as well as inequalities in terms of access to IVF. This volume will appeal to scholars and students of anthropology, ethnography, philosophy, political science, history, sociology, film studies, media studies, literature, art history, area studies, and interdisciplinary areas such as gender studies, cultural studies, and postcolonial studies.

A New Industrial Future? examines whether a further industrial revolution is taking place around the world. In this compelling book Birtchnell and Urry examine such a new possible future involving the mass adoption of 3D printing. The locating of 3D printers in homes, offices, stores and workshops would disrupt existing systems and pose novel challenges for incumbents. The book drawing upon expert interviews, scenario workshops and various case studies assesses the potential future of global manufacturing, freight transport, world trade and land use. It offers the first book-length social scientific analysis of the character and impacts of a new system of manufacturing that is in formation. The book will be of interest to urban planners, policy makers, social scientists, futurologists, economists, as well as general readers by offering inquiry on this future upheaval in the means of production.

This book provides in-depth and wide-ranging analyses of the emergence, and subsequent ubiquity, of algorithms in diverse realms of social life. The plurality of Algorithmic Cultures emphasizes: 1) algorithms' increasing importance in the formation of new epistemic and organizational paradigms; and 2) the multifaceted analyses of algorithms across an increasing number of research fields. The authors in this volume address the complex interrelations between social groups and algorithms in the construction of meaning and social interaction. The contributors highlight the performative dimensions of algorithms by exposing the dynamic processes through which algorithms - themselves the product of a specific approach to the world - frame reality, while at the same time organizing how people think about society. With contributions from leading experts from Media Studies, Social Studies of Science and Technology, Cultural and Media Sociology from Canada, France, Germany, UK and the USA, this volume presents cutting edge empirical and conceptual research that includes case studies on social media platforms, gaming, financial trading and mobile security infrastructures.

A New Industrial Future? examines whether a further industrial revolution is taking place around the world. In this compelling book Birtchnell and Urry examine such a new possible future involving the mass adoption of 3D printing. The locating of 3D printers in homes, offices, stores and workshops would disrupt existing systems and pose novel challenges for incumbents. The book drawing upon expert interviews, scenario workshops and various case studies assesses the potential future of global manufacturing, freight transport, world trade and land use. It offers the first book-length social scientific analysis of the character and impacts of a new system of manufacturing that is in formation. The book will be of interest to urban planners, policy makers, social scientists, futurologists, economists, as well as general readers by offering inquiry on this future upheaval in the means of production.

'Fascinating.' Hilary Mantel 'Terrific.' New Scientist 'Gripping.' Financial Times 'Stunning . . . Brimming with mystery and suffesed with haunting atmosphere.' Patrick Radden Keefe What if you had a vision that something terrible was going to happen? A train crash, a department store fire, an assassination. What if you could share your vision, and prevent a disaster? In 1966, John Barker, a British psychiatrist working in an outdated British mental hospital, established the Premonitions Bureau to investigate this very idea. He would find a network of curious correspondents, and among them two highly gifted 'percipients'. Together, they predicted calamities and international incidents with uncanny accuracy. And then, they gave Barker their most disturbing warning: that he was about to die.

Nanotechnology is sweeping the world. This science of very small particles, which includes genetic modification and the reconfiguring of the arrangement of atoms, presents possibilities beyond imagination. It also has huge implications for us all, especially here at home. How exactly is this new technology playing out in South Africa? In countries like India nanotechnology is being supported as a source of income and innovation. It has the potential to improve both the human condition and a country’s productivity and competitiveness. Is South Africa doing what it should and could to foster nanotechnology advances within the country? And what does the new technology mean for us as consumers? How many of us know that this technology is already being employed in substances like suntan cream and lipstick, with potential health implications for users? The application of nanotechnology poses risks as well as huge benefits, so we need to be particularly vigilant of the ethics and dangers of it. This book provokes discussion around these important topics and relays eyeopening information to those of us who thought all of this was sci-fi.

This volume situates itself within the context of the rapidly growing interdisciplinary field that is dedicated to the study of the complex interactions between science and religion. It presents an innovative approach insofar as it addresses the Eurocentrism that is still prevalent in this field. At the same time it reveals how science develops in the space that emerges between the 'local' and the 'global'. The volume examines a range of themes central to the interaction between science and religion: 'Eastern' thought within 'Western' science and religion and vice versa, and revisits thinkers who sought to integrate 'Eastern' and 'Western' thinking. It studies Zen Buddhism and its relation to psychotherapy, Islamic science, Vedantic science, atheism in India, and Darwinism, offering in turn new perspectives on a variety of approaches to nature. Part of the Science and Technology Studies series, this volume brings together original perspectives from major scholars from across disciplines and will be of great interest to scholars and students of science and technology studies, history of science, philosophy of science, religious studies, and sociology.

Many young Christians interested in the sciences have felt torn between two options: remaining faithful to Christ or studying science. Heated debates over the past century have created the impression that we have to choose between one or the other. The result has been a crisis of faith for many students. Josh Reeves and Steve Donaldson present a concise introduction to the study of science that explains why scientists in every age have found science congenial to their faith and how Christians in the sciences can bridge the gap between science and Christian belief and practice. If Christians are to have a beneficial dialogue with science, it will be guided by those who understand science from the inside. Consequently, this book provides both advice and encouragement for Christians entering or engaged in scientific careers because their presence in science is a vital component of the church's witness in the world.

With innovations in sports equipment, doping methods and human engineering on the horizon, the ethical issues raised by such technology have become noticeably acute. The problematization of technology in sport has gone largely unnoticed in historical, philosophical and policy studies of sport, but this study traces the origins, present contexts and future of sport technology. This volume speaks to a multi-disciplinary audience, developing theory of technology and sport. It provides a foundation for theorising technological issues in sport, building upon themes in cultural studies of the cyborg, otherness and gender. The book begins with an initial contextualising of sport technology, tracing the historical roots of key moments of technological development. Subsequently, chapters work towards theorising technology in sport, providing a socio-philosophical context to ways of understanding technology. From here, applied philosophical and ethical issues focus on the themes of fearing the other, virtual reality in sport, and the use of genetic technology to augment athletic performances. Perspectives draw upon a range of theory, including the works of Alasdair MacIntyre, Jacques Ellul, Don Ihde, Donna Haraway, Andrew Feenberg, Charles Taylor, Langdon Winner, Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, John Rawls and Michel Foucault. This book should be relevant to scholars of sport or technology from a diverse range of perspectives. Framed by the broad disciplines of history, philosophy and policy, the issues discussed can have importance for subjects as diverse as theoretical medicine, philosophy of sport and policy studies in technology. For the latter, the aim is to provide a theoretical and ethical grounding for a coherent theory of sport performance.

There is virtually nothing - until the arrival of this study - addressing the significance of the enormous contributions in science and technology towards the realization of Japan's 'economic miracle' during the occupation period. Describes the Scientific and Technical Division of McArthur's GHQ.

Through case studies, Outsourcing the Womb, Second Edition provides a critical analysis and global tour of the international surrogacy landscape in Egypt, India, China, Japan, Israel, Ukraine, the European Union and the United States. By providing a comparative analysis of countries that have very different policies, this book disentangles the complex role that race, religion, class inequality, legal regimes, and global capitalism play in the gestational surrogacy market. This book provides an intersectional frame of analysis in which multiple forms of social inequality and power differences become institutionalized and restrict the access of some individuals and families while privileging others, and concludes with a discussion of "reproductive justice" and "reproductive liberty." It is an ideal addition to courses on social problems, race, gender, and inequality.

This book argues that information communication technologies are not creating new forms of social structure, but rather altering long-standing institutions and amplifying existing trends of social change that have their origins in ancient times. Using a comparative historical perspective, it analyzes the applications of information communication technologies in relation to changes in norms and values, education institutions, the socialization of children, new forms of deviant and criminal behaviors, enhanced participation in religious activities, patterns of knowledge creation and use, the expansion of consumerism, and changing experiences of distance and time.

In a relatively short time, Finland has transformed a society of approximately 5.3 million people into one of the most educated and technologically sophisticated in the world, while maintaining relative political stability and an enviable quality of life among its people. In all comparative measures of international achievement, Finland ranks at the top among the world's most literate and wealthiest countries. How did Finland do it, and what can other countries learn from the Finnish example? This book presents an energized and informative look at Finland's cultural and developmental history, its political evolution as a state, the foundation and origins of its technology and innovation policy, and present developments in health care, education, and the pathway to sustainable economic development. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative approaches, author Kalu Kalu incorporates rarely-seen archival data alongside analysis of original research surveys disseminated to members of the Finnish national legislature, personnel of the ministries of education and health, administrators in local government jurisdictions, and members of the general public. The result is a book that offers an incisive and analytical account of virtually all aspects of Finnish life - ranging from culture, parliamentarianism, arts, architecture, design, literature, education and health policies, information technology, to the development of multipolis technology clusters and networks. Demonstrating how civic attitudes have evolved over time mediated by the pressures of technology and modernity, Technology, Culture, and Public Policy ultimately transcends an examination of Finland's own successes and challenges, considering what lessons other countries might apply to their own intricate national contexts.

This book critically explores forms and techniques of calculation that emerge with digital computation, and their implications. The contributors demonstrate that digital calculative devices matter beyond their specific functions as they progressively shape, transform and govern all areas of our life. In particular, it addresses such questions as: How does the drive to make sense of, and productively use, large amounts of diverse data, inform the development of new calculative devices, logics and techniques? How do these devices, logics and techniques affect our capacity to decide and to act? How do mundane elements of our physical and virtual existence become data to be analysed and rearranged in complex ensembles of people and things? In what ways are conventional notions of public and private, individual and population, certainty and probability, rule and exception transformed and what are the consequences? How does the search for 'hidden' connections and patterns change our understanding of social relations and associative life? Do contemporary modes of calculation produce new thresholds of calculability and computability, allowing for the improbable or the merely possible to be embraced and acted upon? As contemporary approaches to governing uncertain futures seek to anticipate future events, how are calculation and decision engaged anew? Drawing together different strands of cutting-edge research that is both theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, this book makes an important contribution to several areas of scholarship, including the emerging social science field of software studies, and will be a vital resource for students and scholars alike.

It's the founding myth of humanities computing and digital humanities: In 1949, the Italian Jesuit scholar, Roberto Busa, S.J., persuaded IBM to offer technical and financial support for the mechanized creation of a massive lemmatized concordance to the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Using Busa's own papers, recently accessioned in Milan, as well as IBM archives and other sources, Jones illuminates this DH origin story. He examines relationships between the layers of hardware, software, human agents, culture, and history, and answers the question of how specific technologies afford and even constrain cultural practices, including in this case the academic research agendas of humanities computing and, later, digital humanities.

Material Mystery considers three apparently anthropocentric myths that are central to Abrahamic religions-those of the primal human, the incarnated and possibly divine redeemer, and the resurrected body. At first glance, these stories reinforce a human-centered theology and point to a very anthropomorphic God. Taking them seriously seems to ignore the material turn in the humanities entirely, with the same sort of willful ignorance that some of our politicians show in declaring that their myths count as facts, or that the point of the rest of the world is to further human consumption. But it is possible, Karmen MacKendrick shows, to read these figures through a particular tradition that emerges from the Hebrew Bible, the tradition of Wisdom as a creative force. Wisdom texts are common across the ancient Near East. As the idea of creative Wisdom develops from antiquity into the middle ages, it gathers philosophical influences from a range of philosophical traditions. This exuberantly promiscuous impurity-intellectual, artistic, and theological-generates new interpretive possibilities. In these interpretations, each human-like figure opens up onto the world''s matter, as an interdependent part of it, and matter is thoroughly mixed with divinity. Such mythic readings complement our factual, scientific understanding of the material world, to engage wider kinds of knowing and affective attention-particularly Wisdom''s combination of care and delight.

This book critically explores forms and techniques of calculation that emerge with digital computation, and their implications. The contributors demonstrate that digital calculative devices matter beyond their specific functions as they progressively shape, transform and govern all areas of our life. In particular, it addresses such questions as: How does the drive to make sense of, and productively use, large amounts of diverse data, inform the development of new calculative devices, logics and techniques? How do these devices, logics and techniques affect our capacity to decide and to act? How do mundane elements of our physical and virtual existence become data to be analysed and rearranged in complex ensembles of people and things? In what ways are conventional notions of public and private, individual and population, certainty and probability, rule and exception transformed and what are the consequences? How does the search for 'hidden' connections and patterns change our understanding of social relations and associative life? Do contemporary modes of calculation produce new thresholds of calculability and computability, allowing for the improbable or the merely possible to be embraced and acted upon? As contemporary approaches to governing uncertain futures seek to anticipate future events, how are calculation and decision engaged anew? Drawing together different strands of cutting-edge research that is both theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, this book makes an important contribution to several areas of scholarship, including the emerging social science field of software studies, and will be a vital resource for students and scholars alike.

The financial/social cataclysm beginning in 2007 ended notions of a "great moderation" and the view that capitalism had overcome its systemic tendencies to crisis. The subsequent failure of contemporary social formations to address the causes of the crisis gives renewed impetus to better analysis in aid of the search for a better future. This book contributes to this search by reviving a broad discussion of what we humans might want a post-capitalist future to be like. It argues for a comparative anthropological critique of capital notions of value, thereby initiating the search for a new set of values, as well as identifying a number of selected computing practices that might evoke new values. It articulates a suggestive set of institutions that could support these new values, and formulates a group of measurement practices usable for evaluating the proposed institutions. The book is grounded in contemporary social science, political theory, and critical theory. It aims to leverage the possibility of alternative futures implied by some computing practices while avoiding hype and technological determinism, and uses these computing practices to explicate one possible way to think about the future.

This book offers a Buddhist perspective on the conflict between religion and science in contemporary western society. Examining Buddhist history, authors Francisca Cho and Richard K. Squier offer a comparative analysis of Buddhist and western scientific epistemologies that transcends the limitations of non-Buddhist approaches to the subject of religion and science. The book is appropriate for undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers interested in comparative religion or in the intersection of religion and science and Buddhist Studies.

Science and technology in former socialist Central and East European countries underwent a period of transformation in the last decade of the twentieth century. With respect to the past, this represents the restructuring of the old system. With respect to the twenty-first century, however, this serves as the turbulent starting phase in the transition to new national innovation systems. Based on the contributors' many years of research in this area, this book analyzes these processes in detail for fourteen countries, reveals common features and differences in the transitional phase, and infers the prospects for the development of science and technology in Eastern Europe in the framework of EU enlargement.