Contemporary Dutch policy and legislation facilitate the use of high quality, accessible and affordable assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) to all citizens in need of them, while at the same time setting some strict boundaries on their use in daily clinical practices. Through the ethnographic study of a single clinic in this national context, Patient-Centred IVF examines how this particular form of medicine, aiming to empower its patients, co-shapes the experiences, views and decisions of those using these technologies. Gerrits contends that to understand the use of reproductive technologies in practice and the complexity of processes of medicalization, we need to go beyond 'easy assumptions' about the hegemony of biomedicine and the expected impact of patient-centredness.

In recent years, popular media have inundated audiences with sensationalised headlines recounting data breaches, new forms of surveillance and other dangers of our digital age. Despite their regularity, such accounts treat each case as unprecedented and unique. This book proposes a radical rethinking of the history, present and future of our relations with the digital, spatial technologies that increasingly mediate our everyday lives. From smartphones to surveillance cameras, to navigational satellites, these new technologies offer visions of integrated, smooth and efficient societies, even as they directly conflict with the ways users experience them. Recognising the potential for both control and liberation, the authors argue against both acquiescence to and rejection of these technologies. Through intentional use of the very systems that monitor them, activists from Charlottesville to Hong Kong are subverting, resisting and repurposing geographic technologies. Using examples as varied as writings on the first telephones to the experiences of a feminist collective for migrant women in Spain, the authors present a revolution of everyday technologies. In the face of the seemingly inevitable dominance of corporate interests, these technologies allow us to create new spaces of affinity, and a new politics of change.

Sinceits founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline.

Yu gives Western readers a full view of China's science and technology policy, plus a historical perspective on the development of her science, technology, and industrial enterprises. A realistic, objective review that will help overcome tendencies to under- or overestimate China's technological and industrial strength and potential for the future, his book focuses on the transition of her scientific, technological, and industrial systems from a planned to a market economy. It identifies the latest science-technology policy readjustment in China and gives Westerners a way to assess the successes and failures of technological-industrial development attributable to policy causes.

Yu describes the evolution of China's scientific and technological systems before and after her economic reforms. He covers changes in science-technology policy in their socioeconomic context, and highlights all major steps in her economic development that have spurred China's scientific-technological progress. Mr. Yu views these as a driving force for economic development, while the success of science-technology policy is determined by its effectiveness in implementing various economic activities. His book also provides in-depth coverage of changes in major industrial sectors, including agriculture, infrastructure, mainstay, high-tech, and township industries and non-governmental science-technology enterprises. The result is a unique opportunity to gain an authoritative, reliable understanding of China's scientific and technological activities, her industrial development, and the interaction between them.

First published in 1906, these four lectures were originally delivered in the Vacation Term for Biblical Study at Cambridge. Evidence is derived from the native tribes of Australia in particular, whom Jevons compares for his discussion. The first lecture considers whether religion has evolved from, or was preceded by a pre-religion, or non-religious, stage of humankind. The following lectures discuss the science of religion and the theory of Evolution, and the relationship between the evolution of religion and the philosophy of religion. This is a fascinating text that will be of particular value to students interested in the history and development of religion in general.

Gizmos or: The Electronic Imperative offers a concise series of analyses on the transformative impact of digital devices on American society. With approaches ranging from semiotic theory to psychoanalytic theory, sociological theory to personal reflection, Berger taps the span of knowledge from his prolific career to help readers better understand the role digital devices play both in their technologic, economic, and common-use forms. Using accessible, conversational language and numerous illustrations, Berger deconstructs familiar objects and media for readers ranging from field specialists to everyday cultural consumers alike.

This book critically examines the phenomenon and the consequences of the increasing inter-dependence between industry, universities and national laboratories. It explores the contrasts and similarities between the patterns of formal and informal links in a technologically dynamic industry (electronic components) with those in a traditional industry (flow measurement) in the UK, France and Belgium. It uses evidence from interviews with firms, academics and industry organisations in the three countries to identify the major factors which regulate links.

This book examines the role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play in growth and economic development promotion, specifically for developing countries. It highlights multiple methodologies for quantifying the impact of ICTs. This includes quantitative and qualitative methods, but also novel, conclusive and informative methodological approaches for measuring ICTs influence on economic development. The book highlights trends, perspectives, and success stories for different developing countries. ICTs bring new business models, innovations, capital-labor substitution, improved goods and services to developing markets. Because they can spread rapidly, with little cost and require minimal skills for usage, ICTs create a solid background for social and economic gains. They enable significant reduction in information asymmetries, which improves access to economic activities for multitude of agents, fostering participation, inter alias in labor market of disadvantaged societal groups. After almost two decades of rapid diffusion of ICT in developing world, this book seeks to assess the real benefits and consequences of ICTs adoption in developing countries. The chapters use broad, real-world based evidence to provide a better understanding of the precise nature of new technologies and their impact of the country`s economy and society.

The articles collected in this volume point out that society as a whole is changing. Social change is due not only to changes in technology and economy, but also to the changing strategies and discourses of social scientists. To what exactly will this change lead in the 21st century? What kind of society lies ahead? In this book the reader will find many arguments and hints pertaining to these questions. She/he will be confronted by a plethora of enriching conceptions of the relationships between social sciences and social changes.

Sinceits founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline.

This book analyzes mobile gaming in the Asian context and looks into a hitherto neglected focus of inquiry - a localized mobile landscape, with particular reference to young Asians' engagement with mobile gaming. This edition focuses not only on the remarkable success of local mobile games, but also on the significance of social milieu in the development of Asian mobile technologies and gaming culture. It analyzes the growth of the current mobile technologies and mobile gaming not as separate but as continuous developments in tandem with the digital economy. It is of interest to both academics and a broader readership from the business, government, and information technology sectors

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

While corporate governance has been a successful concept throughout the centuries, it is in question whether this concept can remain sustainable in the digital era and during a time of technological and managerial disruption. Under the pressure of new economic, social, and ecologic challenges, it is vital to understand how this concept needs to transform. Challenges and Opportunities of Corporate Governance Transformation in the Digital Era is an essential reference source that discusses concepts, trends, and forecasts of corporate governance and examines its transformation under the pressure of new technologies and economic changes. Featuring research on topics such as corporate identity, e-commerce, and cost management, this book is ideally designed for corporate leaders, managers, executives, business professionals, consultants, professors, researchers, and students.

The influence of scientific paradigms is much more widespread than usually realized. According to Harris, it permeates the whole of the culture of which science is an integral part. The paradigm of Newtonian science was essentially mechanistic and atomistic, and thinking in these terms not only penetrated philosophy, economics, morals and politics for the next three centuries, but remains latent in 20th century ways of thought.

As Harris illustrates, the Newtonian paradigm is obsolete in confronting today's global problems. While Planck and Einstein introduced a new scientific revolution at the beginning of the century, it has yet to be reflected in common habits of thinking. It is now urgently necessary to adopt the new conceptual scheme in other fields as it has come to dominate science if global issues are to be resolved. A provocative analysis that will be of particular interest to students, teachers, and policymakers involved with public policy, the history of science and philosophy, and ethics.

This book explores the ethical governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) in healthcare. AI/ML usage in healthcare as well as our daily lives is not new. However, the direct, and oftentimes long-term effects of current technologies, in addition to the onset of future innovations, have caused much debate about the safety of AI/ML. On the one hand, AI/ML has the potential to provide effective and efficient care to patients, and this sways the argument in favor of continuing to use AI/ML; but on the other hand, the dangers (including unforeseen future consequences of the further development of the technology) leads to vehement disagreement with further AI/ML usage. Due to its potential for beneficial outcomes, the book opts to push for ethical AI/ML to be developed and examines various areas in healthcare, such as big data analytics and clinical decision-making, to uncover and discuss the importance of developing ethical governance for AI/ML in this setting.

Many debates about the moral status of things-for example, debates about the natural rights of human fetuses or nonhuman animals-eventually migrate towards a discussion of the capacities of the things in question-for example, their capacities to feel pain, think, or love. Yet the move towards capacities is often controversial: if a human's capacities are the basis of its moral status, how could a human having lesser capacities than you and I have the same "serious" moral status as you and I? This book answers this question by arguing that if something is human, it has a set of typical human capacities; that if something has a set of typical human capacities, it has serious moral status; and thus all human beings have the same sort of serious moral status as you and I. Beginning from what our common intuitions tell us about situations involving "temporary incapacitation"-where a human organism has, then loses, then regains a certain capacity-this book argues for substantive conclusions regarding human fetuses and embryos, humans in a permanent vegetative state, humans suffering from brain diseases, and humans born with genetic disorders. Since these conclusions must have some impact on our ongoing moral and political debates about the proper treatment of such humans, this book will be useful to professionals and students in philosophy, bioethics, law, medicine, and public policy.

The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems- both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.

A shrewd and compelling examination of how political figures throughout history have used scientific findings to achieve their objectives-just as scientists have often put political forces to work to achieve their own goals. The U.S. government has historically been the engine of American scientific achievement, from the birth of nuclear technology to the "space race." However, at times, our government has also misrepresented scientific evidence to advance a political agenda. Science and Political Controversy: A Reference Handbook examines how the government has facilitated research for the public good and the ways in which politicians have manipulated data to serve political ends around a broad array of controversies, from stem cell research to energy development, chemical health risks, and climate change. Written specifically for high school students and general readers without specialized background knowledge on the subject, the work presents perspective essays authored by representatives from governmental agencies, politicians, political scientists, experts in the physical and life sciences, and other stakeholders concerned with the intersection of politics and science. The first section of the book provides background information on the topic that overviews the current problems and issues related to the interaction of science and politics. The second section supplies resources that readers can use for their own research, such as an annotated bibliography, profiles of important individuals and organizations, a chronology of important events, and a glossary of key terms. Supplies a detailed review of the past decade during which politicians have misused and misrepresented scientific knowledge Describes events going back to ancient Greece during which use or misuse of scientific or political power occurred, underscoring how these behaviors are well-established "means to an end" Includes biographical sketches of individuals who have been involved in such activities

Sinceits founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline.