Science parks are becoming established in increasing numbers in almost all parts of the world. Promoted as places on the frontiers of science where a new breed of scientist-entrepreneur invents a new future, extolled as high-status workplaces where a new style of employee and flexible labour process is in the making, they are seen as the potential saviours of local and national economies. High-Tech Fantasies criticises the divisive hype of science parks arguing that both the theory and practice are unproductive for the economy and for any socially progressive science and technology. Questioning responsibility, innovation and symbolism, the authors explore the mutual determination of society, science and space.
Essays on social implications of technological change in the USA, partic. Effects on urban development and regional development - presents empirical findings on the locational patterns (location of industry) and regional level impact of microelectronics manufacturing, and the influence of military expenditure on industrial production of technology and the patterning of human settlements; examines changes in the service sectors, incl office automation and the introduction of information technology and improved telecommunications. References.
Over the last decade or so, the field of science and technology studies (STS) has become an intellectually dynamic interdisciplinary arena. Concepts, methods, and theoretical perspectives are being drawn both from long-established and relatively young disciplines. From its origins in philosophical and political debates about the creation and use of scientific knowledge, STS has become a wide and deep space for the consideration of the place of science and technology in the world, past and present. The Routledge Handbook of Science, Technology and Society seeks to capture the dynamism and breadth of the field by presenting work that pushes the reader to think about science and technology and their intersections with social life in new ways. The interdisciplinary contributions by international experts in this handbook are organized around six topic areas: embodiment consuming technoscience digitization environments science as work rules and standards This volume highlights a range of theoretical and empirical approaches to some of the persistent – and new – questions in the field. It will be useful for students and scholars throughout the social sciences and humanities, including in science and technology studies, history, geography, critical race studies, sociology, communications, women’s and gender studies, anthropology, and political science.
Rural America is at a crossroads in its economic development. Like regions of other First World nations, the traditional economic base of rural communities in the United States is rapidly deteriorating. Natural resources, including agriculture, show little prospect for generating future job growth, and manufacturing has become a new source of instability. Faced with these changes and an increasing vulnerability to international economic events, rural communities have begun to seek high-technology industries and advanced services as candidates for job growth and economic stability. What is the potential for high-tech growth outside the largest cities? What is the role of high-tech industry in the economic development of non-metropolitan America? This book provides a hard-nosed look at the high-tech potential in rural economic development. Some of the questions Glasmeier addresses include: Are rural areas attractive to high tech? Will high tech follow earlier patterns and filter down the lowest-paid jobs to rural areas? Will rural communities be bypassed completely for even lower-wage Third World locations? Glasmeier answers in a sober analysis that separates fact from myth. Empirical data reveals the kinds of high-tech jobs that locate in rural areas, and the kinds of rural areas that attract high-tech jobs. This analysis leads to a highly critical evaluation of state and local economic development policy and recommendations for its improvement. This book is a must for policymakers, practitioners, scholars, and an informed public interested in the promise of high tech and the future of US economic development.
This book, originally published in 1988, reviews the development of high technology industries at global and selected national and local levels, providing a unique insight into reasons for and consequences of such modern industrial development. It appraises government policies for assisting the development of this sector and focuses on the fact that high tech industry tends to be concentrated in particular regions of countries which attain the status of 'successful populations'. High technology industry seems to offer little benefit to declining manufacturing areas and the book offers explanations for these regional concentrations and assesses the likely consequences.
Subtitled, Society, space and semiconductors in the restructuring of the modern world. Through his study of semi-conductors, the author concludes that conventional ways of understanding how transnational corporations organize their global operations need to be re-thought.
Overview of Space Technology It has been over 50 years since the rst satellite was sent into orbit, and the impact of space technology can be felt in many aspects in our day to day life. In addition to the convenience of knowing exactly where we are on the planet via GPS satellites; or deciding what to pack for a trip based on forecasts from weather satellites; watching CNNinaremotevillageviabroadcasting satellites;therearenowsomecrucialen- ronmental uses of Space technologies in the areas of natural resources management and environmental monitoring. Remotely sensed data reveals an unparallel view of the Earth for systems that require synoptic or periodic observations such as inv- tory control, surveying, agriculture, business, mineralogy, hydrography, geology, land mass cover, land utilization and environment monitoring. The advancement of remote sensing has made remote sensed data more affordable and available to merge with a variety of data sources to create mash-ups. The amalgamation of these data sources into disciplines such as agriculture, urban planning, web applications, cartography, geodetic reference systems, and global navigation satellite systems, are an important advancement of space applications and space science. Space Technology and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) The MDGs are a set of time-bound, measurable goals and targets that are global as well as country-speci c for combating poverty, hunger, diseases, illiteracy, envir- mental degradation and discrimination against women.
This book examines the interrelationship between telecommunications and tourism in shaping the nature of space, place and the urban at the end of the twentieth century. They discuss how these agents are instrumental in the production of homogenous world-spaces, and how htese, in turn, presuppose new kinds of political and cultural identity. Virtual Geographies explores how new communication technologies are being used to produce new geographies and new types of space. Leading contributors from a wide range of disciplines including geography, sociology, philosophy and literature: * investigate how visions of cyberspace have been constructed * offer a critical assessment of the status of virtual environments and geographies * explore how virtual environments reshape the way we think and write about the world. This book sets recent technological developments in a historical and geographical perspective to offer a clearer view of the new vistas ahead.
Telecommunications and the City provides the first critical and state-of-the-art review of the relations between telecommunications and all aspects of city development and management. Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches and a wide body of recent research, the book addresses key academic and policy debates about technological change and the future of cities with a fresh perspective. Through this approach, the complex and crucial transformations underway in cities in which telecommunications have central importance are mapped out and illustrated. Key areas where telecommunications impinge on the economic, social, physical, enviromental and institutional development of cities are illustrated by using boxed extracts and wide range of case study examples from Europe, Japan and North America. Rejecting the extremes of optimism and pessimism in current hype about cities and telecommunications, Telecommunications and the City offers a sophisticated new perspective through which city-telecommunications relations can be understood.
