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.

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*!