This volume fills a major gap in publications on migration and digital media worlds by bringing information and communication technology (ICT) to the fore of our understanding of migrants’ experiences in, and practices of, connectivity and mobility. During recent decades, migration within and from East Asia has become paradigmatic of the changing substance and patterns of global mobility. Focusing on migration within and beyond East Asia, a region defined by its global migration and its leading role in ICT use and development, this volume explores the pervasive use of smartphones as an everyday reality for East Asian migrants, advocating the necessity of understanding how they live their lives both online and offline. In this respect, the originality of this volume lies in its interdisciplinary analysis of migrants’ activities at the crossroads between physical and digital spaces. Our theoretical innovation and empirical findings will open an avenue to investigate the novel shape and scales of contemporary connectivity and mobility.
From the visionary bestselling author of The Second World and How to Run the World comes a bracing and authoritative guide to a future shaped less by national borders than by global supply chains, a world in which the most connected powers—and people—will win. Connectivity is the most revolutionary force of the twenty-first century. Mankind is reengineering the planet, investing up to ten trillion dollars per year in transportation, energy, and communications infrastructure linking the world’s burgeoning megacities together. This has profound consequences for geopolitics, economics, demographics, the environment, and social identity. Connectivity, not geography, is our destiny. In Connectography, visionary strategist Parag Khanna travels from Ukraine to Iran, Mongolia to North Korea, Pakistan to Nigeria, and across the Arctic Circle and the South China Sea to explain the rapid and unprecedented changes affecting every part of the planet. He shows how militaries are deployed to protect supply chains as much as borders, and how nations are less at war over territory than engaged in tugs-of-war over pipelines, railways, shipping lanes, and Internet cables. The new arms race is to connect to the most markets—a race China is now winning, having launched a wave of infrastructure investments to unite Eurasia around its new Silk Roads. The United States can only regain ground by fusing with its neighbors into a super-continental North American Union of shared resources and prosperity. Connectography offers a unique and hopeful vision for the future. Khanna argues that new energy discoveries and technologies have eliminated the need for resource wars; ambitious transport corridors and power grids are unscrambling Africa’s fraught colonial borders; even the Arab world is evolving a more peaceful map as it builds resource and trade routes across its war-torn landscape. At the same time, thriving hubs such as Singapore and Dubai are injecting dynamism into young and heavily populated regions, cyber-communities empower commerce across vast distances, and the world’s ballooning financial assets are being wisely invested into building an inclusive global society. Beneath the chaos of a world that appears to be falling apart is a new foundation of connectivity pulling it together. Praise for Connectography “Incredible . . . With the world rapidly changing and urbanizing, [Khanna’s] proposals might be the best way to confront a radically different future.”—The Washington Post “Clear and coherent . . . a well-researched account of how companies are weaving ever more complicated supply chains that pull the world together even as they squeeze out inefficiencies. . . . [He] has succeeded in demonstrating that the forces of globalization are winning.”—Adrian Woolridge, The Wall Street Journal “Bold . . . With an eye for vivid details, Khanna has . . . produced an engaging geopolitical travelogue.”—Foreign Affairs “For those who fear that the world is becoming too inward-looking, Connectography is a refreshing, optimistic vision.”—The Economist “Connectivity has become a basic human right, and gives everyone on the planet the opportunity to provide for their family and contribute to our shared future. Connectography charts the future of this connected world.”—Marc Andreessen, general partner, Andreessen Horowitz “Khanna’s scholarship and foresight are world-class. A must-read for the next president.”—Chuck Hagel, former U.S. secretary of defense This title has complex layouts that may take longer to download.
Social media's connectivity is often thought to be a manifestation of human nature buried until now, revealed only through the diverse technologies of the participatory internet. Rather than embrace this view, Inhuman Networks: Social Media and the Archaeology of Connection argues that the human nature revealed by social media imagines network technology and data as models for behavior online. Covering a wide range of historical and interdisciplinary subjects, Grant Bollmer examines the emergence of “the network” as a model for relation in the 1700s and 1800s and follows it through marginal, often forgotten articulations of technology, biology, economics, and the social. From this history, Bollmer examines contemporary controversies surrounding social media, extending out to the influence of network models on issues of critical theory, politics, popular science, and neoliberalism. By moving through the past and present of network media, Inhuman Networks demonstrates how contemporary network culture unintentionally repeats debates over the limits of Western modernity to provide an idealized future where “the human” is interchangeable with abstract, flowing data connected through well-managed, distributed networks.
Mixed Media in Contemporary American Literature: Voices Gone Viral investigates the formation and formulation of the contemporary novel through a historical analysis of voice studies and media studies. After situating research through voices of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, this book examines the expressions of a multi-media vocality, examining the interactions among cultural polemics, aesthetic forms, and changing media in the twenty-first century. The novel studies shown here trace the ways in which the viral aesthetics of the contemporary novel move language out of context, recontextualizing human testimony by galvanizing mixed media forms that shape contemporary literature in our age of networks. Through readings of American authors such as Claudia Rankine, David Foster Wallace, Jennifer Egan, Junot Díaz, Michael Chabon, Joseph O’Neill, Michael Cunningham, and Colum McCann, the book considers how voice acts as a site where identities combine, conform, and are questioned relationally. By listening to and tracing the spoken and unspoken voices of the novel, the author identifies a politics of listening and speaking in our mediated, informational society.
Transdisciplinary Journeys in the Anthropocene offers a new perspective on international environmental scholarship, focusing on the emotional and affective connections between human and nonhuman lives to reveal fresh connections between global issues of climate change, species extinction and colonisation. Combining the rhythm of road travel, interviews with local Aboriginal Elders, and autobiographical storytelling, the book develops a new form of nature writing informed by concepts from posthumanism and the environmental humanities. It also highlights connections between the studied area and the global environment, drawing conceptual links between the auto-ethnographic accounts and international issues. This book will be of great interest to scholars and postgraduates in environmental philosophy, cultural studies, postcolonial theory, Australian studies, anthropology, literary and place studies, ecocriticism, history and animal studies. Transdisciplinary Journeys in the Anthropocene may also be beneficial to studies in nature writing, ecocriticism, environmental literature, postcolonial studies and Australian studies.
This edited volume examines the social networks of older people in nine countries from a range of perspectives in order to determine the potential of informal support structures to deliver the bulk of care in today's society. Researchers from the United States, Canada, England and Wales, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and Israel present up-to-date analyses of support networks in each of their countries. The social policy implications of the comparative data are critically reviewed. The findings clearly suggest that social network availability is diminishing for a significant minority of elderly people. However, current practice in most countries reveals little purposive interweaving of formal services and informal networks, in order to strengthen the function of the latter and to prolong their presumed benefits.
Manifestos, Reinventions & Declarations is a commentary on this unprecedented moment in history. This is a book about Now. The New Now we’re living in and going through. We’re living in a time when a day can feel like it goes on forever. And since billions of us are going through the same experience at the exact same moment in history, we can all be shifting the world culture together. With a global pandemic rolling across and ravaging our land, we can more easily understand how historic and pre-historic events actually happened. Now, with deeply embedded wrongheaded cultural norms being pushed against as never before, we can also understand how societal shifts sometimes happened in past centuries, within months, days, or hours, or when a tipping point was finally reached. Collectively, in the back of our minds, a part of us knew a massive shift could or would eventually happen. We’ve all been dreaming of, or expecting some type of change to happen. Although we weren’t expecting anything as drastic and cultural/world shifting as what did happen. We all want to change our own lives for the better, and now it truly feels like it should also include the lives of others. Without time to plan for this, it felt like it happened in an instant. So, if anyone needed any proof, yes, we are definitely all one. If we believe we possess the power to change ourselves, then the same has to be true for positively shifting the culture. Transforming our culture into a more empathetic, generous, and tolerant culture is worth the effort. And this is the ideal historic moment to do so. If not now, when?
Unlock the full potential of your home with *Building Smart Devices and Home Automation Systems with Raspberry Pi and IoT*—a comprehensive guide that takes you from novice to smart home expert. This eBook is your gateway to the exciting world of home automation, designed to make your life easier, safer, and more enjoyable. Start your journey by understanding the basics of smart home technology, its numerous components, and the undeniable advantages of turning your regular house into a smart one. Get hands-on experience with the versatile Raspberry Pi, learning how to set it up and create introductory projects that lay the groundwork for more complex systems. Dive into the fascinating Internet of Things (IoT), demystifying its role in home automation and getting familiar with key concepts and terminology. Navigate the sometimes overwhelming choice of sensors and actuators, selecting the right tools to build and customize your unique projects. Network setup can be daunting, but our step-by-step guide on configuring your home network ensures a secure and efficient connection for all your smart devices. Take control of your environment with mobile app integration and explore the power of voice control using AI assistants. Transform your lighting with smart, customizable systems, bolster your security with intelligent doorbells and cameras, and optimize your home climate with automated thermostats and air conditioners. Bring your entertainment system into the future with voice-controlled media centers and enhanced audio-visual setups. For those with green thumbs, our section on smart gardening will help you build automated watering systems and monitor plant health. Manage and monitor energy use effectively to create a more sustainable household. Don't stop at the basics—explore advanced projects like creating a personalized smart mirror or integrating wearable devices into your smart home ecosystem. Troubleshooting, maintenance tips, and security measures ensure your smart home remains efficient and safe. Look ahead to future trends in home automation and arm yourself with resources for continued learning. Transform your home today and step into the future with *Building Smart Devices and Home Automation Systems with Raspberry Pi and IoT*!
Parents face unprecedented challenges in raising their children in today's fast-paced, technology-driven world. "Byte-Sized Parenting: Nurturing Children in a Digital World" is an essential guide for navigating the complexities of parenting in the digital age. This book offers practical strategies and invaluable insights to help parents foster their children's healthy development and prepare them for success in a rapidly changing landscape, with a particular focus on future trends, preparations, and security. The authors delve into how parents can equip their children to thrive in an evolving technological landscape while ensuring their safety. Authors Claude Benson, Charles Hutton, Sahm Morgan, and Courtney Ellis draw upon their diverse expertise and real-world examples to illuminate the profound impact of technology on children's lives. From managing screen time and ensuring online safety to promoting digital literacy and nurturing essential life skills, this book covers many topics at the top of modern parents' minds. "Byte-Sized Parenting" goes beyond simplistic advice, instead providing a nuanced and comprehensive approach. The authors explore emerging technologies' opportunities and risks, offering balanced perspectives and actionable recommendations. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of critical issues such as: Establishing healthy boundaries around technology use Protecting children's privacy and security online Encouraging responsible digital citizenship Fostering critical thinking and creativity in a tech-centric world Preparing kids for future careers in a transforming job market This book is part of a series that includes "Ctrl+Parent: A Parent's Guide to Raising Children in the Tech Era." In this comprehensive guide, the same team of experts in parenting, child development, and digital media provides you with the tools and strategies you need to nurture your child's growth and well-being in the digital age. "Ctrl+Parent" empowers you to take control of your family's digital journey through research-backed insights, practical advice, and real-life examples. Throughout both books, the authors emphasize the importance of open communication, strong family values, and adaptability. Parents can empower their children to thrive online and offline by cultivating trust, empathy, and resilience. Whether you're a tech-savvy parent or overwhelmed by the digital world, "Byte-Sized Parenting" and "Ctrl+Parent" offer the guidance and reassurance you need. With their engaging style, research-backed insights, and practical wisdom from multiple expert authors, these books are indispensable resources for raising confident, compassionate, and future-ready children in the digital age.
This report documents how the ongoing digital transformation is affecting people’s lives across the 11 key dimensions that make up the How’s Life? Well-being Framework (Income and wealth, Jobs and earnings, Housing, Health status, Education and skills, Work-life balance, Civic engagement and ...
