Uncoding the Digital: Technology, Subjectivity and Action in the Control Society

by D. Savat

Overview

Digital media are having an enormous impact on the world. From the seemingly mundane, like playing World of Warcraft, to posting a message on Twitter or Facebook, to the operation of financial markets, to transformations in science and the economy - digital media continue to revolutionize how people live their daily life. This book challenges how we understand our relationship with our digital machines, and shows how they open up a new capacity for action in the world. A capacity for action that we should no longer simply think of in terms of movement and force, but also in terms of flow and viscosity. A capacity for action that produces a politics of fluids, and finds its expression not only in new forms of social control, but also in a renewed ability for people to engage with the world and each other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349326013
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Edition description:	1st ed. 2013
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

DAVID SAVAT is a lecturer in Communication Studies at the University of Western Australia. He is executive editor of the journal Deleuze Studies, and co-editor with Mark Poster of the collectionDeleuze and New Technology (2009).

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: THE DATABASE The Emergence of Modulation Dividuality PART II: THE INTERFACE The Human-machine Assemblage Mechanical Being Digital Being PART III: THE NETWORK Solid Politics Fluid Politics The Boundary Layer Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'This book is a very sophisticated and polished contribution to the rapidly growing field of study around the theme generally referred to now as 'technics' (after Stiegler's work) but is also sometimes referred to as the philosophy of technology. What sets this book apart is the fact that it is equally sophisticated in its dealing with philosophy as it is with technology, and that is extremely rare. It offers a powerful counternarrative to the technological-determination narrative which dominates the headlines, ie the idea that is it technological change that drives changes in society, rather than the other way round.'

- Ian Buchanan, University of Wollongong, Australia

From the Publisher