In an era of digital revolution, artificial intelligence, big data and augmented reality, technology has shifted from being a tool of communication to a primary medium of experience and sociality. Some of the most basic human capacities are increasingly being outsourced to machines and we increasingly experience and interpret the world through digital interfaces, with machines becoming ever more ‘social’ beings. Social interaction and human perception are being reshaped in unprecedented ways. This book explores this technologisation of the social and the attendant penetration of permanent liminality into those aspects of the lifeworld where individuals had previously sought some kind of stability and meaning. Through a historical and anthropological examination of this phenomenon, it problematises the underlying logic of limitless technological expansion and our increasing inability to imagine either ourselves or our world in other than technological terms. Drawing on a variety of concepts from political anthropology, including liminality, the trickster, imitation, schismogenesis, participation, and the void, it interrogates the contemporary technological revolution in a manner that will be of interest to sociologists, social and anthropological theorists and scholars of science and technology studies with interests in the digital transformation of social life.

Somatechnics highlights the reciprocal bond between the sôma and the techné of 'the body' and the techniques in which bodies are formed and transformed as crafted responses to the world around us. Structured around the themes of the governance of social bodies, the gendering of sexed bodies and the techniques associated with the formation of the self, Somatechnics presents a groundbreaking study of body modification. Its contributions to the work of Spinoza, Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, Deluze and Guattari make it a must read for scholars of sociology, cultural and queer studies and philosophy.

Across Europe, there is an intense search for new and sustainable approaches to providing welfare. Demographic change, new social risks and other factors call for new ideas to maintain and enhance the performance and quality of social services and to enable the participation of all citizens in an inclusive society. Against this background, and based on the findings of the EU research platform INNOSERV and empirically obtained research results from text and video material, this book provides insights into current approaches and practices to improve and transform social services.

This handbook provides an authoritative and cutting-edge overview of current research and trends related to the emerging field of digital technology and social work. This book is divided into six sections: Reframing Social Work in a Digital Society Shaping a Science of Social Work in the Digital Society Digital Social Work in Practice The Ethics of Digital Social Work Digital Social Work and the Digitalization of Welfare Institutions: Opportunities, Challenges and Country Cases Digital Social Work: Future Challenges, Directions and Transformations This book, comprised of 40 specially commissioned chapters, explores the main intersections between social work theory and practice in an increasingly digitized world. Bringing a critical focus to how social work as a profession is adapting exponentially to embrace the benefits of technology, it gives specific consideration to the digitalization of the social work profession, including the ways in which social workers are using different forms of technology to provide effective services and innovative practice responses. With chapters on big data, digital archiving, e-citizenship and inclusion, gerontechnology, children and technology, and data ethics, this book will be of interest to all social work scholars, students and professionals as well as those working in science and technology studies more broadly.

Text and Practices provides an essential introduction to the theory and practice of Critical Discourse Analysis. Using insights from this challenging new method of linguiistic analysis, the contributors to this text reveal the ways in whcih language can be used as a means of social control. The essays in Text and Practices: * demonstrate how critical discourse analysis can be applied to a variety of written and spoken texts * deconstruct data from a range of contexts, countries and spheres * expose hidden patterns of discrimination and inequalities of power Texts and Practices, which includes specially commissioned papers from a range of distinguished authors, provides a state-of-the-art introduction to critical discourse analysis. As such it represents an important contribution to this developing field and an essential text for all advanced students of language, media and cultural studies.

A collection of papers that introduces the notion of the technosoma (techno body) into discussions on the representations of the body in classical antiquity. By applying the category of the technosoma to the ‘natural’ body, this volume explicitly narrows down the discussion of the technical and the natural to the physiological body. In doing so, the present collection focuses on body technologies in the specific form of beautification and body enhancement techniques, as well as medical and surgical treatments. The volume elucidates two main points. Firstly, ancient techno bodies show that the categories of gender and sexuality are at the core of the intersection of the natural and the technical, and intersect with notions of race, age, speciesism, class and education, and dis/ability. Secondly, the collection argues that new body technologies have in fact a very ancient history that can help to address the challenges of contemporary technological innovation. To this end, the volume showcases the intersection of ‘natural’ bodies with technology, gender, sexuality and reproduction. On the one hand, techno bodies tend to align with normative ideas about gender, and sexuality. On the other hand, body modification and/or enhancement techniques work hand in hand with economic and political power and knowledge, thus they often produce techno bodies that are shaped according to individual needs, i.e. according to a certain lifestyle. Consequently, techno bodies threaten to alter traditional ideas of masculinity, femininity, male and female sexuality and beauty.

Now available in paperback, the Encyclopedia of International Sports Studies is the most authoritative and comprehensive single-volume reference work ever published on sport. With over one million words of text arranged into more than 1000 entries and articles, it covers the full range of sub-disciplines within sports studies; including scientific, social scientific and medical approaches. The encyclopedia is alphabetically organized and consists of: principal articles covering key disciplinary areas, such as sports economics and sports history large topical entries on central subjects such as resistance training and the diagnosis of sports injuries smaller topical entries on subjects such as cross training and projectile motion short overviews of other important terms and concepts, from metabolism and motivation to muscle tension-length relationship. With over 150 contributing authors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong and continental Europe, the Encyclopedia of International Sports Studies is an unparalleled work of sports scholarship. Accessibly written, facts-fronted and including full cross-referencing and guides to further reading throughout, this is an essential addition to the bookshelf of any student, researcher, teacher or professional working in sport.