Technology As Magic: The Triumph of the Irrational - Couverture rigide

Stivers, Richard

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0826412114 ISBN 13 : 9780826412119

Editeur : Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2001

Synopsis

At first glance, technology and magic would seem to be opposites. Technology is perceived to be rational, scientific and efficacious, whereas magic is thought to be irrational, superstitious and ineffective. Richard Stivers shows how technology and magic, while separate and distinct, are now related to one another in such a way that each has come to take on important characteristics of the other. His argument is that our expectations for technology have become magical to the point that they have generated a multitude of imitation technologies that function as magical practices. These imitation technologies flourish in the fields of psychology, management (or administration) and the mass media, and their paramount purpose is human adjustment and control. Advertising and television programmes, in particular, contain the key magical rituals of our technological civilization. Through dramatized information, they symbolically connect consumer goods and services to desired outcomes - the utopian goals of success, happiness and health - thus enveloping technology, both real and imitation, in a magical cocoon.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Peter M.R. Stirk is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for the History of Political Thought at Durham University, UK. His previous books include Max Horkheimer: A New Interpretation (1992) and, as co-editor, An Introduction to Political Ideas (Pinter, 1995).

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
• Date d'édition: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0826412114
• ISBN 13: 9780826412119
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 240
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Purmerul LTD; https://strengholt.nl/en/; ; 22 Liuleburgaz Str., floor 4, app. 9; Plovdiv; 4000; Bulgarie