New Free Book: Alienation And Digital Machines

international | arts and media | press release Wednesday January 20, 2021 16:55 by 1 of indy

It is not often that people write important books and then make them freely available under Creative Commons Attribution + Noncommercial + NoDerivatives 4.0 license so it can be accessed and downloaded (without cost) in various forms but that is exactly the case here.

The author Dr Mike Healy has written goes by the title "Marx and Digital Machines Alienation, Technology, Capitalism" and it explores digital technology and alienation. The book is peer reviewed and has been published by University of Westminster press.

This book explores the fundamental contradiction at the heart of the digital environment: technology offers all manner of promises, yet habitually fails to deliver. This failure often arises from numerous problems: the proficiency of the technology or end-user, policy failure at various levels, or a combination of these. Solutions such as better technology and more effective end-user education are often put into place to solve these failures.

Mike Healy argues that such approaches are inherently faulty drawing upon qualitative research informed by Marx’s theory of alienation. Using Marx’s theory, he considers participants in three distinct settings: the workplace of information and communications technology (ICT) professionals; university scholars researching the ethical and societal implications of our digital environment; and a group of pensioners living in South London, UK, undertaking ICT training. By delving beneath the surface of how digital technologies are created, researched and experienced, this study illustrates the contradictory nature of our digital lives, as they directly arise from the needs of capitalism.

The book also places Marx’s theory in contrast to the mainstream approaches derived from Seaman and Blauner. In researching and comprehending ICT, this book reaffirms the superior explanatory power of Marx’s theory of alienation.

Contents

1. Introduction: Contradictions of ICT
2. Theories of Alienation -Seeman and Marx
3. Researching Alienation
4. Alienation and Work: ICT Professionals
5. Researching ICT: The Scholars's Alienated Experience
6. Alienation and Work: A Common View
7. ICT, Senior End-users and Alienation
8. Critique and Conclusion

You can download the book at the link below