Author: Wayne RumblesPublisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1848880677
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 165
Book Description
This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2011. Cultural Cyborgs: Life at the Interface is a collection of essays arising from the 6th Global Conference on Cybercultures: Exploring Critical Issues, held as a part of Cyber Hub activity in Prague, Czech Republic in March 2011. The papers explore the augmented lives of people, communities and society at the interface between cyberspace and ‘real space.’ This edge between realms allows for cultural hybridisation, which can enhance the lives, relationships and understanding of those who actively engage. However, this augmentation has far reaching implications not only for the lives of the cultural cyborgs, but also for the political, commercial and legal sectors and even the way we conceptualise and construct cyberspace itself. The ebook begins by questioning identity formation in this hybridised existence, and many of the essays continue to explore how certain communities (disabled people, people with eating disorders, parts of the gay community, indie music bands and even horror movie fans) use cyberspace to enhance and support their online/offline identities. Other essays question how we conceptualise our interactions in cyberspace, from visions of the space itself, through to representations of bodies made corporal, online scandals, and constructions of hacker identities in the courtroom. The book concludes with a series of papers which investigate how offline activities are co-opting social networking in the areas of corporate communication, civic engagement and political campaigning. Each essay explores a different aspect of the hybrid cultural and social existence which is cyberculture, and together they form a fascinating glimpse at this rich, diverse and rapidly developing cultural formation.
