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"Atom," "byte" and "gene" are metonymies for techno-scientific developments of the 20th century: nuclear power, computing and genetic engineering. Resistance continues to challenge these developments in public opinion. This book traces historical debates over atoms, bytes and genes which raised controversy with consequences, and argues that public opinion is a factor of the development of modern techno-science. The level and scope of public controversy is an index of resistance, examined here with a "pain analogy" which shows that just as pain impacts movement, resistance impacts techno-scientific mobilization: it signals that something is wrong, and this requires attention, elaboration and a response to the challenge. This analysis shows how different fields of enquiry deal with the resistance of social-psychological mentalities in the face of industrial, scientific and political activities inspired by projected futures.
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others” once remarked Winston Churchill. In this day and age this quotation resonates more than ever. This book explores democracy from the perspective of social and cultural psychology, highlighting the importance of the everyday basis of democratic practices. This approach takes us beyond the simple understanding of democracy in its institutional guise of free elections and public accountability, and towards a focus on group dynamics and personal characteristics of the democratic citizen, including their mentalities, habits and ways of relating to others. The book features discussions of the two-way street between democracy and dictatorship; conflicts within protests, ideology and public debate; and the psychological profile of a democratic citizen and its critique. While acknowledging the limitations of today’s democratic systems, this volume aims to re-invigorate democracy by bringing psychology to the table of current debates on social change and citizenship.
In a fast-moving world, the necessity of making decisions, and preferably good ones, has become even more difficult. One reason is the variety and number of choices perhaps available which often are not presented or understood. Alternatives are often unclear and complex paths to them confusing and misleading. Thus the process of decision making itself requires analysis on an ongoing basis. Decision making is often made based on cultural factors whereas the best alternative might be quite different. The subject touches ethics aspects as well as psychological considerations. This book presents important research on the psychology of decision making related to economics, business and finance.
Two decades after the Brundtland Commission's Report "Our Common Future" adopted the concept of 'sustainable development', this book provides a renewal of the concept exploring the potential for new practices and fields for those involved in sustainability activity. The book addresses a number of themes concerning firstly, the provision of a "next generation perspective", which was a central, and still unresolved, notion of the original Brundtland definition and, secondly the provision of new milestones for policy and research that can expand the discussion on this second generation concept on sustainability. The material dealt with in the book offers a wide variety of perspectives on sustainability and reflects the importance of interdisciplinary and transdiciplinary work in the field. Suggesting targets for future analytical and political efforts in achieving global sustainability, this book offers new analytical opportunities for holistic politics and research at a general and sector level.
The first book dedicated specifically to research methods in the political economy of media and communication, it provides a methodological toolkit to investigate the functioning of media, technology, and cultural industries in their historical, institutional, structural, and systemic contexts. Featuring contributions from across the globe and a variety of methodological perspectives, this volume presents the state of the art in political economy of media and communication methods, articulating those methods with adjacent approaches, to study concentration of ownership and power, pluralism and diversity, regulation and public policies, governance, genderization, and sustainability. This coll...
Increasing knowledge of the biological is fundamentally transforming what life itself means and where its boundaries lie. New developments in the biosciences - especially through the molecularisation of life - are (re)shaping healthcare and other aspects of our society. This cutting edge volume studies contemporary bio-objects, or the categories, materialities and processes that are central to the configuring of 'life' today, as they emerge, stabilize and circulate through society. Examining a variety of bio-objects in contexts beyond the laboratory, Bio-Objects: Life in the 21st Century explores new ways of thinking about how novel bio-objects enter contemporary life, analysing the manner i...
The mass media are playing an increasingly central role in modern political life that expands beyond their traditional function as mediators between the world of politics and the citizens. This volume explores the extent and circumstances under which the media affects public policy; whether the political impact of the media is confined to the public representation of politics or whether their influence goes further to also affect the substance of political decisions. It provides an in-depth understanding of the conditions under which the media might, or might not, play a role in the policy process and what the nature of their influence is. Bringing together conceptual and methodological approaches from both political science and communications studies, this book presents an interdisciplinary perspective. It presents empirical evidence of the processes involved in the interaction between mass communication and policy and features case studies from Western Europe and the US and across different policy fields. The book will be of interest to students of public policy, political communication and comparative politics.
Biotechnology is one of the most important new issues to emerge in the knowledge economy. The Politics of Biotechnology in North America and Europe provides analysts with a perspective on policy-making in scientifically advanced countries that integrate the insights of several approaches and that display a particular sensitivity to the complexity of policy-making conjectures. This perspective allows going beyond the simplistic understandings of biotechnology policy currently prevailing. This volume provides a rigorous analysis and detailed information on biotechnology policy in nine countries. The essays included here present the results of in-depth empirical research in the area of biomedicine and agro-food biotechnology. The book is, therefore, not only of interest to policy-makers and policy analysts, but also to anyone with an interest in biotechnology.
Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: This study set out to explore representations of the new economy amongst business professionals in Internet enabled business. Going beyond the new economy- hype , the study was aimed at understanding the ways that business professionals make sense of the contemporary economy. In doing so, a social psychological perspective was taken, allowing multiple realities to emerge. Behavioural economists and economic psychologists conceptualisations of economic life are challenged. They hinge on the presumption that individuals act independently from their social environment and deviate as cognitive misers from a single legitimate economic rationality. By contrast, this study d...