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Gary Genosko

Autor(a) de After the future

20 Works 258 Membros 3 Reviews

About the Author

Gary Genosko is Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Toronto, Canada

Includes the name: Gary Genosko (ed.)

Obras de Gary Genosko

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
Canada

Membros

Resenhas

One thing I love is that this is printed to look like an old-timey newspaper so you can imagine all the articles are like "The political semiosis of ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND ASSASSINATED IN SARAJEVO." That's fun. Anyway, this has an article by Samir Gandesha that starts as kind of a trundling theoresy version of the advent of Euro-right-populism circa 2003, which means Jörg Haider, Jean-Marie Le Pen, etc. ("The political semiosis of FPÖ INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN COALITION GOVERNMENT" but then pulls in some of the usual academic suspects of the day (Hardt and Negri's handwavey "we are losing on all fronts but it is part of a creative dialectic," Giddens's "ontological security," Kristeva's "ab-jection" as a way of understanding the security state and the immigrant-terrorist-browndudes it rejects) globalization as a process of simultaneous integration and fragmentation, etc.) in a breezy way that makes you imagine what a Marxist version of The Economist might look like. It's not bad. But then it is followed up with a self-satisfied article by Paul Patton that refers to Deleuze and the rotation of the Earth to somehow argue that the failure of political action contra globalization everywhere is somehow mitigated by its making us "become-revolutionary"; and two-count-em-two articles on reality TV (one as a continuation of the early modern European zooanthropological impulse, from the Hottentot Venus to Survivor season 1, the other in reference to "reality" strains in pre-reality TV--so one that is learned but pedestria, the other that mistakes pop culture nostalgia for real academic work. At least that particular post-historical kind of smug trivia party, characteristic of the 90s, doesn't happen so much anymore since the ugly economic dividends of the end of the postwar consensus really came in hard last decade). They are uninspired and of their time and they didn't even tell me if the war would be over by Christmas.… (mais)
 
Marcado
MeditationesMartini | Nov 10, 2014 |
I had to read it for a class, and while I did not enjoy the middle sections of the book, it did make me think and it challenged some of my views.
 
Marcado
thedreadlink | May 16, 2014 |
This book is confused. It gives the impression – from the title and the Guy Fawkes character on the cover – that it will be about subversive dissent using technology in innovative ways. Leveraging technology the way the mainstream wishes you hadn’t. Or couldn’t.But this is not what the book is about at all.

Genosko takes mostly minor players who didn’t accomplish much, and uses them to show a pattern of “weakness and failure”. I don’t know what he expected, but I appreciate any sort of attempt at innovation because you never know where it might lead. I particularly liked phone phreaking in its day, because it put the blind front and center for their 15 minutes of fame and respect (and employment). Allowing mass live chats by everyone phoning the same numbers at the same time was brilliant. I met many people that way. It was the rave invitation of the 70s. Subversive, illegal of course, and great, totally harmless fun.

In “Hacking the Grid”, Genosko makes the simple mistake of greed vs good. In internet hacks, there is no immediate gain for the hacker. Same for urban explorers; their wanderings profit no one and are interesting at all only to a tiny subset of readers. Whistleblowers not only don’t profit, theyface persecution. Hacking your electric meter though, is straight theft for immediate personal gain. It doesn’t belong in the same book.

But the most confusion comes from the first chapter, lovingly dedicated to the (non existent) toe mouse. That a computer mouse manipulated by a toe would free our two hands is interesting, but hardly the leadoff for a book called“When Technocultures Collide”. It gets plenty of play in the (endless, dense) intro, and the conclusion too. It’s important, I guess.

At the other end he goes on at length about whistleblowing, without ever mentioning Edward Snowden. This is like profiling Hitler without ever mentioning World War II. Lots of Manning,Assange, even Ellsberg, but no Snowden. I guess he was just another failure in Genosko’s terms. Or maybe Snowden was a success and would ruin the flow. He never breathes the name, so we’ll never know.

I’m not sure why anyone should buy this book. Its conclusions are weak and negative. There’s nothing to take away, no discovery to cite.There are no collisions of technocultures.

David Wineberg
… (mais)
 
Marcado
DavidWineberg | Nov 17, 2013 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
20
Membros
258
Popularidade
#88,950
Avaliação
½ 3.3
Resenhas
3
ISBNs
49
Idiomas
2

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