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Using examples from literature, media studies, philosophy, performance arts, and social science, this collection underlines how bodily models and transformations thought until recently to be fictional have become a part of our reality. It provides a spectrum of perspectives on how the body emerges as a transitional environment.
This book enquires from a sociological perspective into contemporary corporeal transformations brought about by exoskeletal devices. Challenging material boundaries of human bodies, their capacities, (in)abilities and skills, exoskeletal devices question social norms of corporeal “deviance” and “extension.” Through multi-sited ethnography, interviews and analyses of contemporary science and technology studies (STS), sociological literature and current approaches from the phenomenology of the body, this book shows how exoskeletons contribute to forging three contemporary “corporeal worlds”: impairment, ability and above-average ability. The text questions deeply held ideas about enhancement and augmentation, corporeal deviance and “normality,” in the three studied fields of rehabilitation, industry and the armed forces. It will appeal to scholars and advanced students across the social sciences and humanities, including from sociology, philosophy, body studies, and science and technology studies.
"This book enquires from a sociological perspective into contemporary corporeal transformations brought about by exoskeletal devices. Challenging material boundaries of human bodies, their capacities, in/abilities and skills, exoskeletal devices question social norms of corporeal 'deviance' and 'extension'. Through multi-sited ethnography, interviews, and analysis of contemporary STS, sociological literature, and current approaches from the phenomenology of the body, this book shows how exoskeletons contribute to forging three contemporary 'corporeal worlds': impairment, ability and above-average ability. The text questions deeply held ideas about enhancement and augmentation, corporeal deviance and "normality", in the three studied fields of rehabilitation, industry and the armed forces. It will appeal to scholars and advanced students across the social sciences and humanities, including from sociology, philosophy, body studies, and science and technology studies"--
Relevance drives our actions and channels our attention; it shapes how we make sense of the world and communicate with each other. Irrelevance spreads a twilight which blurs the line between information we do not want to access and information we cannot access. In disciplines as diverse as philosophy, sociology, the information sciences and linguistics, “relevance” has been proposed as a key concept. This book is the first to bring together the often unrelated traditions. Researchers from different fields discuss relevance and relate it to the challenges of “irrelevance”, which have so far been neglected despite their significance for our chances of making well-informed decisions and understanding others. The contributions focus on theoretical and conceptual questions, on specific factors and fields, and on practical and political implications of relevance and irrelevance as forces which are even stronger when they remain in the background.
In the past decades, developments in the fields of medicine, new media, and biotechnologies challenged many representations and practices, questioning the understanding of our corporeal limits. Using concrete examples from literary fiction, media studies, philosophy, performance arts, and social sciences, this collection underlines how bodily models and transformations, thought until recently to be only fictional products, have become a part of our reality. The essays provide a spectrum of perspectives on how the body emerges as a transitional environment between fictional and factual elements, a process understood as faction.
This book is a study of class formation at the top of the social hierarchies during the turbulent and changing early twenty-first century. Contrary to perceptions that privileged individuals exist according to little more than market and economic logics, the book provides evidence that they are by no means absent from politics and civic engagement. Adopting a focus on reproduction, distinction, and politics, it delves into the complex relationship between cohesion and fragmentation that exists within the most privileged groups formed over the course of the contemporary neoliberal period. By knitting a dialogue between spatial analysis, multiple correspondence analysis, and in-depth interview...
This book analyzes the culture wars as those struggles for the monopoly of the legitimate representation of the world in the normative elucidation of controversial issues linked to values. Public culture in this context would consist of a set of complex classificatory systems of symbols and meanings that constitute a semantic field in permanent dynamic tension. In this work we analyze a whole series of lines of cultural conflict such as the social and semantic genesis of the different forms of “culture war” from the thesis of “modern polytheism” pointed out by Max Weber at the beginning of the 20th century to the national culture wars and the current global culture wars; the social p...
This book critically explores Global South perspectives, examining marginalised voices and issues whilst challenging the supremacy of Global North perspectives in literature. The unique value of this book lies in its extensive coverage of various Southern challenges, including disaster management, climate change, communication, resilience, gender, education, and disability. It also underscores the relevance of indigenous philosophies such as animism, Buen Vivir, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Neozapatism, Qi vitality, Taoism, and Ubuntu. Stemming from regions as diverse as Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, these philosophies are brought into public discourse. By demonstrating the...
This book deals with social protection programmes targeted to people trafficked for the scope of sexual exploitation. It provides empirical evidence on the N.A.Ve programme, in the north-eastern Italian Veneto Region, and its evolution. It elaborates on the programme by narrating the subjective experiences of practitioners and of a specific group of beneficiaries: young Nigerian women - some in transition towards the majority age. The book builds on qualitative research, including a long institutional ethnographic research and semi-structured interviews carried out in the period 2019-2021, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. It takes an intersectional, social work and humanitarian gover...