ABSTRACT

Digitalization is shaping our everyday lives, yet navigating the changes it entails can feel like trekking into the unknown, where both the possibilities and the consequences are unclear and difficult to grasp. Exploring how digitalization affects all aspects of our lives, from health to culture, this book aims to develop and strengthen the reader’s ability to think critically about such developments.

Written in a clear and concise manner with reference to science fiction and pop culture, this book presents potent theoretical perspectives for understanding digitalization processes as societal change. Various exercises are included throughout to encourage readers to critically explore digitalization in their own lives.

Replete with illustrations and examples, this book is an accessible guide to digitalization in the modern societal context, appealing to students at the undergraduate level as well as general readership.

part 1|41 pages

A Critical Perspective On Digitalization

chapter Chapter 1|20 pages

Getting Lost in the Digital

chapter Chapter 2|19 pages

What Is “Digitalization,” Exactly?

part 2|85 pages

Analytical Tools

chapter Chapter 3|20 pages

A Sociotechnical Perspective on Digitalization

chapter Chapter 4|19 pages

Domestication

User Perspectives on Technology

chapter Chapter 5|14 pages

Script

Technology's Manuscript for Use

chapter Chapter 6|15 pages

Technologies as Normality Machines

chapter Chapter 7|15 pages

Digital Technologies in the Past and Present

part 3|129 pages

Empirical Cases

chapter Chapter 8|26 pages

Digitalization of Health

Networks of Care and Technology

chapter Chapter 9|24 pages

Digitalization of Work

Automation, Responsibility, and Reskilling

chapter Chapter 10|23 pages

Digitalization of Control

Surveillance, Automation, and Algorithms

chapter Chapter 11|30 pages

Digitalization of Culture

Remix, Community, and Prosumers

chapter Chapter 12|24 pages

Digitalization of the Self

Selfies, Influencers, and the Quantified Self

part 4|40 pages

Conclusions and Handouts

chapter Chapter 13|17 pages

Digitalization Summarized

chapter Chapter 14|11 pages

Analytical Cheat Sheet

A Guide for Thinking Critically about Digitalization

chapter Chapter 15|10 pages

Methods Cheat Sheet

How to Study Digitalization