Putting Knowledge To Work And Letting Information Play

These collected papers are critical reflections about the rapid digitalization of discourse and culture. This disruptive change in communicative interaction has swept rapidly through major universities, nation states, learned disciplines, leading businesses, and government agencies during the past decade. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Center for Digital Discourse and Culture (CDDC) at Virginia Tech, which has been a pioneering leader for many of these changes in university settings, the contributors to this volume examine the transformative implications of digitalizing discourse and culture inside and outside of the academic arena. These technologies of digitalization have created new communities of users, which are highly engaged with their new communicative possibilities, informational content, and discursive forms. Few have asked what these changes will mean, and many of the most important voices engaged in debates about this critical transformation are gathered here in this volume. Each author in his or her own way considers what accepting digital discourse and informational culture now means for contemporary economies, governments, and societies.

Viral modernity is a concept based upon the nature of viruses, the ancient and critical role they play in evolution and culture, and their basic application to understanding the role of information and forms of bioinformation in the social world. The concept draws a close association between viral biology on the one hand and information science on the other to understand ‘viral’ technologies, conspiracy theories and the nature of post-truth. The COVID-19 pandemic is a major occurrence and momentous tragedy in world history, with millions of infections and many deaths worldwide. It has disrupted society and caused massive unemployment and hardship in the global economy. Michael A. Peters and Tina Besley explore human resilience and the collective response to catastrophe, and the philosophy and literature of pandemics, including ‘love and social distancing in the time of COVID-19’. These essays, a collection from Educational Philosophy and Theory, also explore the politicization of COVID-19, the growth of conspiracy theories, its origins and the ways it became a ‘viral’ narrative in the future of world politics.

Inspired by the new diversity of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in the twenty-first century, Hot Equations: Science, Fantasy, and the Radical Imagination on a Troubled Planet confronts the kinds of literary and political “realism” that continue to suppress the radical imagination. Alluding both to the ongoing climate catastrophe and to Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations”—that famous touchstone of “hard science fiction”—Hot Equations reads the crises of our "post-normal" moment via works that increasingly subvert genre containment and spill out into the public sphere. Drawing on archives and contemporary theory, author Jesse S. Cohn argues that these imaginative works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror strike at the very foundations of modernity, calling its basic assumptions into question. They threaten the modern order with a simultaneously terrible and promising anarchy, pointing to ways beyond the present medical, ecological, and political crises of pandemic, climate change, and rising global fascism. Examining books ranging from well-known titles like The Hunger Games and The Caves of Steel to newer works such as Under the Pendulum Sun and The Stone Sky, Cohn investigates the ways in which science fiction, fantasy, and horror address contemporary politics, social issues, and more. The “cold equations” that established normal life in the modern world may be in shambles, Cohn suggests, but a New Black Fantastic makes it possible for the radical imagination to glimpse viable possibilities on the other side of crisis.

A look at how IPS builds specific information and tools directly into business processes and systems, enabling workers to independently solve problems on the job. A company's success ultimately depends on each worker's completion of an infinite series of little "now's." To achieve peak efficiency in a climate of "now," organizations must use all possible resources to support each individual's performance of various tasks. "Integrated Performance Support" (IPS), a new concept developed by Andersen Consulting, helps employees perform to their optimum capability. This book shows how IPS builds specific information and tools directly into business processes and systems, enabling workers to independently solve problems on the job.

The second Canadian edition of CB is an innovative, hybrid-learning package that was created by the continuous feedback of our “student-tested, faculty-approved” process, unique to Nelson’s 4ltr Press series. CB delivers comprehensive content in a visually appealing, succinct print component paired with a high-value online offering - MindTap - that includes an integrated eReader and a set of interactive digital tools that appeal to a wide range of learning styles and needs, all at a value-based price. This winning combination is proven to increase engagement and lead to better outcomes. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.