Patterns - Theory of the Digital Society

Informationen zum Autor Armin Nassehi  is Professor of Sociology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Klappentext We're inclined to assume that digital technologies have suddenly revolutionized everything in just a few years, including our relationships, our forms of work and leisure and even our democracies. Armin Nassehi puts forward a new theory of digital society which turns this assumption on its head. Rather than treating digital technologies as an independent causal force that is transforming social life, he asks: for which problem is digitization a solution?When we pose the question in this way, we can see, argues Nassehi, that digitization helps societies deal with, and reduce, complexity by using coded numbers to process information about society. We can also see that modern societies already had a digital structure long before modern computer technologies were developed - already in the nineteenth century, for example, statistical pattern recognition technologies were being used in functionally differentiated societies in order to recognize, monitor and control forms of human behaviour. Digital technologies were so successful in such a short period of time, and were able to penetrate so many areas of society so quickly, precisely because of a pre-existing sensitivity that prepared modern societies for digital development.This highly original book lays the foundations for a theory of digital society that will be of value to everyone interested in the growing presence of digital technologies in our lives. Zusammenfassung We are inclined to assume that digital technologies have suddenly revolutionized everything - including our relationships, our forms of work and leisure, and even our democracies - in just a few years. Armin Nassehi puts forward a new theory of digital society that turns this assumption on its head. Rather than treating digital technologies as an independent causal force that is transforming social life, he asks: what problem does digitalization solve?When we pose the question in this way, we can see, argues Nassehi, that digitalization helps societies to deal with and reduce complexity by using coded numbers to process information. We can also see that modern societies had a digital structure long before computer technologies were developed - already in the nineteenth century, for example, statistical pattern recognition technologies were being used in functionally differentiated societies in order to recognize, monitor and control forms of human behaviour. Digital technologies were so successful in such a short period of time and were able to penetrate so many areas of society so quickly precisely because of a pre-existing sensitivity that prepared modern societies for digital development.This highly original book lays the foundations for a theory of the digital society that will be of value to everyone interested in the growing presence of digital technologies in our lives. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface to the English Edition Preface Introduction How to think about digitalisation? A technological-sociological kind of intuition Early technology pushes Original and copy Productive wrong and predetermined breaking point 1 The Reference Problem of Digitalisation Functionalist questions Connecting data - offline What is the problem? The uneasiness with the digital culture The digital discovery of `society¿ Empirical social research as the identification of patterns `Society¿ as digitalisation material The cyborg as a means of overcoming society? 2 The Idiosyncracy of the Digital The inexact exactness of the world The particular idiosyncracy of data Cybernetics and the feedback of information The digitalis...

List of contents

Preface to the English Edition
 
Preface
 
Introduction
 
How to think about digitalisation?
 
A technological-sociological kind of intuition
 
Early technology pushes
 
Original and copy
 
Productive wrong and predetermined breaking point
 
1 The Reference Problem of Digitalisation
 
Functionalist questions
 
Connecting data - offline
 
What is the problem?
 
The uneasiness with the digital culture
 
The digital discovery of `society´
 
Empirical social research as the identification of patterns
 
`Society´ as digitalisation material
 
The cyborg as a means of overcoming society?
 
2 The Idiosyncracy of the Digital
 
The inexact exactness of the world
 
The particular idiosyncracy of data
 
Cybernetics and the feedback of information
 
The digitalisation of communication
 
The dynamic of closure
 
The self-referentiality of the world of data
 
3 Multiple Duplications of the World
 
Data as observers
 
Duplications
 
Disturbances
 
Transverse data-like duplications
 
The trace of the trace and discrete duplications
 
Traces, Patterns, Networks
 
4 Simplicity and Multiplicity
 
Medium and form
 
Coding and programming
 
The digital simplicity of society
 
Increased options
 
Sapere aude as it is reflected in digitalisation
 
Excursus: Digital Metabolism
 
5 Functioning Technology
 
The function of the technological
 
Digital technology
 
Communicating technology
 
The function of functioning
 
Low-level technology
 
Demonised technology
 
Invisible technology and the Turing test
 
The privilege of making mistakes
 
6 Learning Technology
 
Decisions
 
Abductive machines?
 
Distributed intelligence?
 
Anthropological and technological questions
 
Experiencing and acting machines
 
Incompleteness, temporariness, systemic paradoxes
 
Artificial, bodily, incomplete intelligence
 
7 The Internet as a Mass Media
 
Surplus of meaning deals
 
Synchronisation function
 
Synchronisation and socialisation
 
Selectivity, mediality and voice in the Internet
 
Watching the watching
 
Complexity and overheating
 
The Internet as an archive of all kinds of statements
 
Intelligence in the mode of Future perfect
 
8 Endangered Privacy
 
The improbability of informational self-determination
 
A new structural change of the public?
 
Hazards
 
Privacy 10
 
Privacy 10 as a result of Big Data?
 
Big Data and privacy 20
 
Rescuing privacy?
 
9 Debug: Sociology Reborn from the Spirit of Digitalisation
 
Digital dynamic and social complexity
 
An opportunity for sociology
 
Notes
 
Index

Report

"Nassehi's theory is neither dystopic nor utopic, but asks what digital technology is for. Here the ultimate simplicity of zeros and ones describes an infinite complexity, itself structured into patterns. These patterns are the data that pervade, indeed are constitutive of, the entire social life as we know it. A mind-numbingly simple thesis that indeed works. Read this book."
Scott Lash, Oxford University
"The pandemic showed how much we depend on digital technologies for our connections to others, and at the same time many areas of the world and disadvantaged social groups continue to experience digital social inequities. Armin Nassehi offers a fresh perspective on digital societies through the lens of European sociological theories that have, until now, been little adopted in this area of inquiry."
Deborah Lupton, UNSW Sydney

Product details

• Authors: Armin Nassehi, Armin (Ludwig Maximilian University of Mu Nassehi
• Assisted by: Mirko Wittwar (Translation)
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 10.05.2024
• EAN: 9781509558223
• ISBN: 978-1-5095-5822-3
• No. of pages: 268
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Soziologie, Informationsgesellschaft, Media Studies, Sociology, Medienforschung, Mediensoziologie, Media studies: internet, digital media and society, Impact of science and technology on society, Communication & Media Studies, Kommunikation u. Medienforschung, Zeitgenössische Sozialtheorie, Contemporary Social Theory, Sociology of the Media