Confrontation between science and religion has defined much public debate about religion in recent years, most lately in bestsellers portraying a clash between scientists and religious believers, such as Richard Dawkins The God Delusion and Sam Harriss The End of Faith or Letter to a Christian Nation. But what does this clash mean for society? This collection of essays gives voice to social scientists, natural scientists and theologians whose experience holds direct relevance on these major issues, and encourages a new, more forgiving dialogue between these two huge forces in modern society.

The Internet is having an increasing influence on our lives, but what implications does it hold for human rights? How can it be used to promote and protect them? This book, written by an accomplished group of activists, writers, and academics, describes the development and use of the Internet for human rights, examines its impact across the world and upon various sectors of society, and discusses current and future trends in human rights promotion and protection.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, typical households were equipped with a landline telephone, a desktop computer connected to a dial-up modem, and a shared television set. Television, radio and newspapers were the dominant mass media. Today, homes are now network hubs for all manner of digital technologies, from mobile devices littering lounge rooms to Bluetooth toothbrushes in bathrooms-and tomorrow, these too will be replaced with objects once inconceivable. Tracing the origins of these digital developments, Jenny Kennedy, Michael Arnold, Martin Gibbs, Bjorn Nansen, and Rowan Wilken advance media domestication research through an ecology-based approach to the abundance and materiality of media in the home. The book locates digital domesticity through phases of adoption and dwelling, to management and housekeeping, to obsolescence and disposal. The authors synthesize household interviews, technology tours, remote data collection via mobile applications, and more to offer readers groundbreaking insight into domestic media consumption. Chapters use original case studies to empirically trace the adoption, use, and disposal of technology by individuals and families within their homes. The book unearths social and material accounts of media technologies, offering insight into family negotiations regarding technology usage in such a way that puts technology in the context of recent developments of digital infrastructure, devices, and software-all of which are now woven into the domestic fabric of the modern household.

Learn how computer technology is helping school social workers collect information and synthesize it into meaningful data! Technology-Assisted Delivery of School Based Mental Health Services: Defining School Social Work for the 21st Century explores the many technological advances in school social work practices. This book also illustrates the ways technology is being used to manage and evaluate services provided by school social workers. This vital book contains: ways to use new technology to prevent and treat mental health issues in children through safe and effective learning experiences information on how biofeedback can be used to empower children to become more aware of their physical and emotional reactions to environmental stimuli an annotated bibliography of Internet sites covering topics and issues frequently encountered by social workers examinations of exciting software applications, including BARN, From Mad to Worse, Conflict Management, and Smart Team methods of online data collection for use in school social work practices and more!

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is perhaps the best-known and most widely studied literary representation of science. Yet it is by no means the only text of its time to fictionalize the latest experiments and discoveries of natural philosophers. Science was burgeoning in the years 1760-1840, revolutionising how people saw the world around them, and this extended to the literary world.
This five volume set is divided into sections by scientific discipline, each illuminating a context of current interest to literary scholars. An extensive introduction is included in the first volume giving a brief history of the development of various scientific fields - including Geology, Palaeontology, Chemistry and Physics - resumes of the central texts/discoveries and their significance, and an account of their impact on literature - and sometimes, literature's impact on science. A bibliography of major scientific works and suggestions for critical reading is also provided and the set is completed with a detailed index.
The set is divided as follows:
Volume 1:
Science and Politics; Medicine; Mesmerism; Electricity/Electro-Chemistry/Galvanism and Magnetism
Volume 2:
Chemistry; Heat and Light
Volume 3:
Astronomy; Mensuration/Instruments; Women in Science; Science and Social Change; Institutionalization; Philosophy of Science and Engineering and Technology
Volume 4:
Manufactures; Botany; Natural History and Meteorology; Exploration and the Races of Humankind: Craniology, Physiognomy, Phrenology
Volume 5:
Theories of Life; Comparative Anatomy and Geology/Palaeontology

The impact of technological change on the wider economy, especially its impact on economic growth, has been one of the key themes in the transition from the industrial age to the information age.

The impact of technological change on the wider economy, especially its impact on economic growth, has been one of the key themes in the transition from the industrial age to the information age.

A thought-provoking compendium exploring differing views, possible social impacts, and government policy decisions involving the impact of science and technology on human life. Social Issues in Science and Technology explores the controversies involving the impact of science and technology on human life. Each entry provides the basic scientific background needed to understand the issue involved and its social, political, and economic implications. The coverage presents an unbiased summary of differing views, possible social impacts, and government policy decisions.

"Marxism after Modernity" is concerned with the ways in which Marxist theory has responded to the major social, economic and technological transformations of capitalism which have occurred in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The main themes of the book are: Marxism and Postmodernism; Media, Aesthetics and Mass Culture; Capitalism and Technology; Globalization and Political Resistance; and Marxism, Postmodernism and the Political. Each section begins with a review of Marx's writing on the theme under discussion, and then proceeds to examine the relationship of postmodernist thought to his critiques of capitalism, bourgeois culture, ideology and revolution.

'Bored and Brilliant is full of easy steps to make each day more effective' Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit It's time to move `doing nothing' to the top of your to-do list Have you ever noticed how you have your best ideas when doing the dishes or staring out the window? It's because when your body goes on autopilot, your brain gets busy connecting ideas and solving problems. However in the modern world it often feels as though we have completely removed boredom from our lives; we are addicted to our phones, we reply to our emails twenty-four hours a day, tweet as we watch TV, watch TV as we commute, check Facebook as we walk and Instagram while we eat. Constant stimulation has become our default mode. In this easy to follow, practical book, award-winning journalist Manoush Zomorodi explores the connection between boredom and original thinking, and will show you how to ditch your screens and start embracing time spent doing nothing. Bored and Brilliant will help you unlock the way to becoming your most productive and creative self.

*A WATERSTONES 'BEST POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR'* *A TIMES 'BEST PHILOSOPHY AND IDEAS' BOOK OF 2021* *A GUARDIAN 'BEST POLITICS BOOKS OF THE YEAR'* LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BUSINESS BOOK AWARD 'A brilliant manifesto explaining why women are still so underestimated and overlooked in today's world, but how we can also be hopeful for change' - Philippa Perry 'An impassioned, meticulously argued and optimistic call to arms for anyone who cares about creating a fairer society' - Observer __________ Imagine living in a world in which you were routinely patronised by women. Imagine having your views ignored or your expertise frequently challenged by them. Imagine people always addressing the woman you are with before you. Now imagine a world in which the reverse of this is true. The Authority Gap provides a startling perspective on the unseen bias at work in our everyday lives, to reveal the scale of the gap that still persists between men and women. Would you believe that US Supreme Court Justices are interrupted four times more often than male ones... 96% of the time by men? Or that British parents, when asked to estimate their child's IQ will place their son at 115 and their daughter at 107? Marshalling a wealth of data with precision and insight, and including interviews with pioneering women such as Baroness Hale, Mary Beard and Bernadine Evaristo, Mary Ann exposes unconscious bias in this fresh feminist take on how to address and counteract systemic sexism in ways that benefit us all. Includes interviews with pioneering women such as: Baroness Hale Mary Beard Bernadine Evaristo Mary McAleese Julia Gillard Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes Cherie Blair Liz Truss Amber Rudd Frances Morris Laura Bates __________ 'Hugely exciting' - Emily Maitlis 'Deeply researched, profoundly thoughtful and a book very much for the here and now: Mary Ann Sieghart's The Authority Gap is the book she was probably born to write' - Andrew Marr 'At last here is a credible roadmap that is capable of taking women from the margins to the centre by bridging the authority gap that holds back even the best and most talented of women. - Mary McAleese, Former President of Ireland

Politics continues to evolve in the digital era, spurred in part by the accelerating pace of technological development. This cutting-edge Handbook includes the very latest research on the relationship between digital information, communication technologies and politics. Written by leading scholars in the field, the chapters explore in seven parts: theories of digital politics, government and policy, collective action and civic engagement, political talk, journalism, internet governance and new frontiers in digital politics research. The contributors focus on the politics behind the implementation of digital technologies in society today. All students in the fields of politics, media and communication studies, journalism, science and sociology will find this book to be a useful resource in their studies. Political practitioners seeking digital strategies, as well as web and other digital practitioners wanting to know more about political applications for their work will also find this book to be of interest. Contributors include: E. Amna, N. Anstead, N. Benn, W.L. Bennett, C. Birchall, L. Bode, A. Bruns, S. Coleman, N. Couldry, K.B. Culver, P. Dahlgren, E. Dubois, W.H. Dutton, S. Edgerly, D. Freelon, C. Fuchs, S. Gonzalez-Bailon, T. Graham, T. Hall, A. Hanna, T. Highfield, F. Hirzalla, Y. Kim, D. Kreiss, T. Mcafee, G. Moss, B. O'Loughlin, K. Parry, R. Petchler, J. Schradie, A. Segerberg, D.V. Shah, K. Thorson, N. Thurman, E. Vraga, C. Wells, S. Wright, M.A. Xenos, J. Yang, L. van Zoonen

The cross-cultural study of religion has always gone hand in hand with the worldview, sciences, or intellectual frameworks of the time. These frames, whether focused on psychology or politics, gender or colonialism, bring out perspectives for understanding religious behavior. Today one of our common civic worldviews is represented in the shift from scriptural to evolutionary history. This volume brings together in one place key essays by professor emeritus William Paden, showing a progression of steps he has taken in exploring bridgeworks between comparative religion and evolutionary models of religious behavior. One of the leading scholars in religious studies, Paden shows ways that religion can be contextualized as part of the natural world and thus seen as reflecting the ingrained sociality and world-making drive of the human species. Paden argues that although comparativism has been challenged as too culture-bound, too western, or too gendered, cross-over categories and concepts between religious traditions cannot be avoided. Arguing that there are recurrent patterns of human behavior common to our species and that thereby underlie all cultures, he proposes that the missing link in the Religion Evolution debate is comparative religion, a global, cross-cultural perspective on religious behaviours throughout time. Each article is contextualized within this overall trajectory of thought within Paden's work and the history of the discipline as a whole.

In the fifteenth century the printing press was the 'new technology'. The first ever information revolution began with the advent of the printed book, enabling Renaissance scholars to formulate new ways of organising and disseminating knowledge.
As early as 1500 there were already 20 million books in circulation in Europe. How did this rapid explosion of ideas impact upon the evolution of new disciplines?
The Renaissance Computer looks at the fascinating development of new methods of information storage and retrieval which took place at the very beginning of print culture. And it asks some crucial questions about the intellectual conditions of our own digital age. A dazzling array of leading experts in Renaissance culture explore topics of urgent significance today, including:
* the contribution of knowledge technologies to state formulation and national identity * the effect of multimedia, orality and memory on education * the importance of the visual display of information and how search engines reflect and direct ways of thinking.

In the fifteenth century the printing press was the 'new technology'. The first ever information revolution began with the advent of the printed book, enabling Renaissance scholars to formulate new ways of organising and disseminating knowledge.
As early as 1500 there were already 20 million books in circulation in Europe. How did this rapid explosion of ideas impact upon the evolution of new disciplines?
The Renaissance Computer looks at the fascinating development of new methods of information storage and retrieval which took place at the very beginning of print culture. And it asks some crucial questions about the intellectual conditions of our own digital age. A dazzling array of leading experts in Renaissance culture explore topics of urgent significance today, including:
* the contribution of knowledge technologies to state formulation and national identity
*the effect of multimedia, orality and memory on education
*the importance of the visual display of information and how search engines reflect and direct ways of thinking.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203463307

"Will the ordinary man become a scientist?...Bucchi exposes the inadequacy of the 'technochratic model' but also the weaknesses of contemporary bioethics when facing the increasing dilemmas posed by science and technology to contemporary society." -Il Corriere della Sera [Italian leading newspaper] "Bucchi provides a clear, rigorous and accessible discussion - often enriched by a subtle irony - of complex and ambiguous issues, showing that science and innovation are not neutral terrains, but rather among the key conflictual contexts in which contemporary social and political changes take place." -Italian Review of Sociology "A dense but accessible book...Bucchi acutely describes the shortcomings of the technocratic and ethical responses to the contemporary dilemmas of science and technology." -Italian Edition of the New York Review of Books Nuclear energy, stem cell technology, GMOs: the more science advances, the more society seems to resist. But are we really watching a death struggle between opposing forces, as so many would have it? Can today's complex technical policy decisions coincide with the needs of a participatory democracy? Are the two sides even equipped to talk to each other? Beyond Technocracy: Science, Politics and Citizens answers these questions with clarity and vision. Drawing upon a broad range of data and events from the United States and Europe, and noting the blurring of the expert/lay divide in the knowledge base, the book argues that these conflicts should not be dismissed as episodic, or the outbursts of irrationality and ignorance, but recognized as a critical opportunity to discuss the future in which we want to live. Massimiano Bucchi's analysis covers the complex realities of post-academic science as he: Explores the widely debated theme of science and democracy across a broad range of technological controversies. Overviews issues raised by the current relationship among scientists, policymakers, business interests, and the public. Dispels stereotypes of the detached scientific community versus the uninformed general public. Examines the role of the media in framing scientific debate. Addresses the question of how to move beyond technocracy to a more fruitful collaboration between scientists and citizens. Offers a bold vision for a future in which the scientific and public spheres regard each other as partners working toward a shared purpose. Beyond Technocracy: Science, Politics and Citizens has great value as a postgraduate text for courses in technology and society, political science, and science policy. It will also find an interested audience among scientists, policymakers, managers in the technological sector, and concerned lay readers. "In his brilliant new book, Beyond Technocracy: Science, Politics and Citizens, Massimiano Bucchi opens for the reader the Pandora's box of the complex relationship between scientists and citizens in contemporary, democratic societies. With major corporations owning university labs and academic researchers (and their institutions) pocketing millions (literally) from the proceedings of patents resulting from their scientific work, Bucchi analyzes the implications of contrasting drives toward for-profit and open science, private and public science. Without pulling his punches, and without hiding behind easy, popular solutions, Bucchi clearly lays out the choices we face when confronted with a science whose potential societal impact - positive and negative - is becoming ever greater (e.g., nuclear energy, genetically modified foods, genetic engineering). Based on a wealth of empirical evidence and case studies, the book is extremely accessible and well written, making it an ideal introduction to the issues. I would highly recommend it to specialists and non-specialists alike!" -Roberto Franzosi, Professor in Department of Sociology at Emory University

Technology and In/equality explores the diverse implications of the new information and communication technologies through case studies of their applications in three main areas - media, education and training, and work. Questions of access to and control over crucial resources such as information, knowledge, skills and income ae addressed drawing upon insights from science and technology studies, innovation theory, sociology and cultural studies. All of the chapters question the meanings of the terms 'technology' and 'inequality' and of the widespread association of technology with progress. Written with a non-specialist readership in mind, all complex theories and key concepts are carefully explained making the book easily accessible and relevant to a wide range of courses.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203134508

The benefits of modern technology often involve health, safety and environmental risks that produce public suspicion of technologies and aversion to certain products and substances. Amplified by the pervasive power of the media, public concern about health and ecological risks can have enormous economic and social impacts, such as the 'stigmatization' experienced in recent years with nuclear power, British beef and genetically modified plants. This volume presents the most current and comprehensive examination of how and why stigma occurs and what the appropriate responses to it should be to inform the public and reduce undesirable impacts. Each form of stigma is thoroughly explored through a range of case studies. Theoretical contributions look at the roles played by government and business, and the crucial impact of the media in forming public attitudes. Stigma is not always misplaced, and the authors discuss the challenges involved in managing risk and reducing the vulnerability of important products, industries and institutions while providing the public with the relevant information they need about risks.

We are living in a world of transformation, and the world tomorrow will be very different from the world today, or the world of yesterday. This extraordinary book will be fascinating to anyone concerned about the future of our world. Defining 6 key areas to discuss; society, religion, environment, science& technology, business, and politics, the authors draw a roadmap to the future. They investigate how unexpected changes and developments are transforming the social and business landscape of the 21st century. They have invited some of the world experts and specialists to contribute to this book, creating a virtual team spanning over all continents.

The diffusion of information and communication technologies is rapidly changing the structure of advanced economies, raising new problems of technological unemployment. The view that market forces can easily counterbalance the labour-saving impact of innovation is contrasted in this book with empirical findings on aggregate compensation effects and on the consequences of product, process and organizational innovation in industries and services. After examining several policy aspects, new employment-friendly economic and innovation policies are proposed.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203458680