04305nam a22005895i 4500 978-981-97-8708-1 DE-He213 20251030114941.0 cr nn 008mamaa 250212s2024 si | s |||| 0|eng d 9789819787081 978-981-97-8708-1 10.1007/978-981-97-8708-1 doi GN397-397.7 JHM bicssc SOC002000 bisacsh JHM thema Batteau, Allen. author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut 90764 Tools, Totems, and Totalities [electronic resource] : The Modern Construction of Hegemonic Technology / by Allen Batteau, Christine Z. Miller. 1st ed. 2024. Singapore : Springer Nature Singapore : Imprint: Springer, 2024. XXI, 210 p. 36 illus., 29 illus. in color. online resource. text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier text file PDF rda Technology and Cultural Imagination -- The Invention of Technology -- The Prehistory of Technology -- Perspectives: Engineering -- Perspectives: Philosophy -- Perspectives: Sociology and Anthropology -- Technology and Economic Values -- Technology and Citizenship -- Technology and the Human Community -- Optimization and Brittleness -- Techno-narcissism -- Conclusion: Toward the Post-Technological Age. This book provides a critical perspective on technology, answering the questions of why technologies often disappoint. It takes a sociotechnical and historical perspective on technology, as developed by an engineer–anthropologist and a design anthropologist, to answer questions not only about why modern societies have great expectations of technology, but also of why these technologies often fail to meet expectations. Modern societies often search for technological solutions (“technofixes”) to what are institutional problems, which include border crossings or urban mobility, or improvements in productivity or improved communication. It is disappointing when technofixes, whether border walls or driverless cars or social media, fail to live up to their promises of greater personal autonomy (such as afforded by driverless cars) or improved social harmony through social media. Examining technology from the perspectives of instrumentality (“tools”), identity (“totems”), and world-defining systems (“totalities”) develops a comprehensive perspective that is at once historically informed and cross-culturally accurate. Although instrumentality is obvious and is at the core of any understanding of technology, identity is less so; yet many modern “tribes” create their identity in terms of technological objects and systems, whether transport systems (cars and airplanes) or social media or weapons (guns). Further, modern technologies span the globe, so that they exert imperative coordination over distant populations; the use of cell phones around the world is testimony to this fact. Such a critical perspective on technology can be useful in policy discussions of numerous issues affecting contemporary institutions. Applied anthropology. Ethnology. 58687 Science History. 65232 Technology. 58482 History. Technology Philosophy. 68026 Applied Anthropology. Sociocultural Anthropology. 71227 History of Science. 66101 History of Technology. 66100 Philosophy of Technology. 68027 Miller, Christine Z. author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut 71568 SpringerLink (Online service) Springer Nature eBook Printed edition: 9789819787074 Printed edition: 9789819787098 Printed edition: 9789819787104 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-8708-1 ZDB-2-SLS ZDB-2-SXS 66692 66692