Paul O'Connor – författare

In an era of digital revolution, artificial intelligence, big data and augmented reality, technology has shifted from being a tool of communication to a primary medium of experience and sociality. Some of the most basic human capacities are increasingly being outsourced to machines and we increasingly experience and interpret the world through digital interfaces, with machines becoming ever more ‘social’ beings. Social interaction and human perception are being reshaped in unprecedented ways. This book explores this technologisation of the social and the attendant penetration of permanent liminality into those aspects of the lifeworld where individuals had previously sought some kind of stability and meaning. Through a historical and anthropological examination of this phenomenon, it problematises the underlying logic of limitless technological expansion and our increasing inability to imagine either ourselves or our world in other than technological terms. Drawing on a variety of concepts from political anthropology, including liminality, the trickster, imitation, schismogenesis, participation, and the void, it interrogates the contemporary technological revolution in a manner that will be of interest to sociologists, social and anthropological theorists and scholars of science and technology studies with interests in the digital transformation of social life.

In an era of digital revolution, artificial intelligence, big data and augmented reality, technology has shifted from being a tool of communication to a primary medium of experience and sociality. Some of the most basic human capacities are increasingly being outsourced to machines and we increasingly experience and interpret the world through digital interfaces, with machines becoming ever more ‘social’ beings. Social interaction and human perception are being reshaped in unprecedented ways. This book explores this technologisation of the social and the attendant penetration of permanent liminality into those aspects of the lifeworld where individuals had previously sought some kind of stability and meaning. Through a historical and anthropological examination of this phenomenon, it problematises the underlying logic of limitless technological expansion and our increasing inability to imagine either ourselves or our world in other than technological terms. Drawing on a variety of concepts from political anthropology, including liminality, the trickster, imitation, schismogenesis, participation, and the void, it interrogates the contemporary technological revolution in a manner that will be of interest to sociologists, social and anthropological theorists and scholars of science and technology studies with interests in the digital transformation of social life.

Liminal Politics in the New Age of Disease explores the phenomenon of ‘liminal politics’: an open-ended ‘state of exception’ in which normal rules no longer apply, and things which were previously unimaginable become possible – even appearing remarkably quickly to represent a ‘new normal’. With attention to the emergency measures introduced to counter the spread of Covid-19, it shows how the emergency suspension of democratic accountability, ordinary life and civil liberties, while accidental, can lend itself to orchestration and exploitation for the purpose of political gain by ‘trickster’ or ‘parasitic’ figures. An examination of the cloning of political responses from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, with little consideration of their rational justification or local context, this volume interrogates the underlying dynamics of a global technological mimetism, as novel technocratic interventions are repeated and the way is opened for new technologies to reorganise social life in a manner that threatens the disintegration of its existing patterns. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, social theory and anthropological theory with interests in political expediency and the transformation of social life.

Liminal Politics in the New Age of Disease explores the phenomenon of ‘liminal politics’: an open-ended ‘state of exception’ in which normal rules no longer apply, and things which were previously unimaginable become possible – even appearing remarkably quickly to represent a ‘new normal’. With attention to the emergency measures introduced to counter the spread of Covid-19, it shows how the emergency suspension of democratic accountability, ordinary life and civil liberties, while accidental, can lend itself to orchestration and exploitation for the purpose of political gain by ‘trickster’ or ‘parasitic’ figures. An examination of the cloning of political responses from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, with little consideration of their rational justification or local context, this volume interrogates the underlying dynamics of a global technological mimetism, as novel technocratic interventions are repeated and the way is opened for new technologies to reorganise social life in a manner that threatens the disintegration of its existing patterns. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, social theory and anthropological theory with interests in political expediency and the transformation of social life.

Healthcare simulation is the modern way to educate healthcare providers to achieve high performance and to improve patient safety. It encompasses mannikin based training for teamwork and nontechnical skills, task trainers for procedural skills, simulated participants for communication skills, and virtual/augmented reality simulation. Based on an award-winning postgraduate course, this text provides the background knowledge required to: run a healthcare simulation centre; use simulation for training and education; and support simulation-based quality improvement and research activities.

*Presents a focused and highly practical approach to course material *Offers a detailed guide for anyone who uses healthcare simulation for education, quality improvement, or research *Shows a practical focus for teaching, quality improvement, and research

Healthcare simulation is the modern way to educate healthcare providers to achieve high performance and to improve patient safety. It encompasses mannikin based training for teamwork and nontechnical skills, task trainers for procedural skills, simulated participants for communication skills, and virtual/augmented reality simulation. Based on an award-winning postgraduate course, this text provides the background knowledge required to: run a healthcare simulation centre; use simulation for training and education; and support simulation-based quality improvement and research activities.

*Presents a focused and highly practical approach to course material *Offers a detailed guide for anyone who uses healthcare simulation for education, quality improvement, or research *Shows a practical focus for teaching, quality improvement, and research

This book explores the concept of leisure through the lens of colour, offering a fresh and innovative perspective on how chromatic elements shape our understanding of health, wellbeing, and environmental ethics. By focusing on the material and symbolic significance of hues, particularly blue, green, and grey, the book delves into the ways these colours influence leisure spaces and activities. From children’s play to surfing in artificial wave pools and skateboarding, the chapters examine diverse leisure practices across locations such as the UK, Russia, Turkey, East Asia, and North America. The book also challenges the traditional focus on blue and green spaces by highlighting the potential of grey spaces—urban environments like city streets, rooftops, and industrial landscapes—as sites of healthy and meaningful leisure.

Through 15 chapters based on original empirical research, this book introduces the nascent field of chromatic leisure, offering new conceptual frameworks that add depth and nuance to leisure scholarship. It critically examines how grey spaces, often overlooked in health and well-being discourse, provide alternative ways to frame leisure, embracing ambiguity, hybridity, and complexity. This book is essential reading for students, scholars and policymakers in leisure studies, social geography, urbanism, and health and well-being research.

The chapters in this book were originally published in Leisure Studies and are now accompanied by three new chapters and an updated introduction.

This book explores the concept of leisure through the lens of colour, offering a fresh and innovative perspective on how chromatic elements shape our understanding of health, wellbeing, and environmental ethics. By focusing on the material and symbolic significance of hues, particularly blue, green, and grey, the book delves into the ways these colours influence leisure spaces and activities. From children’s play to surfing in artificial wave pools and skateboarding, the chapters examine diverse leisure practices across locations such as the UK, Russia, Turkey, East Asia, and North America. The book also challenges the traditional focus on blue and green spaces by highlighting the potential of grey spaces—urban environments like city streets, rooftops, and industrial landscapes—as sites of healthy and meaningful leisure.

Through 15 chapters based on original empirical research, this book introduces the nascent field of chromatic leisure, offering new conceptual frameworks that add depth and nuance to leisure scholarship. It critically examines how grey spaces, often overlooked in health and well-being discourse, provide alternative ways to frame leisure, embracing ambiguity, hybridity, and complexity. This book is essential reading for students, scholars and policymakers in leisure studies, social geography, urbanism, and health and well-being research.

The chapters in this book were originally published in Leisure Studies and are now accompanied by three new chapters and an updated introduction.

Questions of home and belonging have never been more topical. Populist politicians in both Europe and America play on anxieties over globalisation by promising to reconstitute the national home, through cutting immigration and ‘taking back control’. Increasing numbers of young people are unable to afford home-ownership, a trend with implications for the future shape of families and communities. The dominant conceptualisations of home in the twentieth century – the nation-state and the suburban nuclear household – are in crisis, yet they continue to shape our personal and political aspirations. Home: The Foundations of Belonging puts these issues into context by drawing on a range of disciplines to offer a deep anthropological and historical perspective on home. Beginning with a vision of modernity as characterised by both spiralling liminality and an ongoing quest for belonging, it plumbs the archaic roots of Western civilisation and assembles a wide body of comparative anthropological evidence to illuminate the foundations of a sense of home. Home is theorised as a stable centre around which we organise both everyday routines and perspectives on reality, bringing order to a chaotic world and overcoming liminality. Constituted by a set of ongoing processes which concentrate and embody meaning in intimate relationships, everyday rituals and familiar places, a shared home becomes the foundation for community and society. The Foundations of Belonging thus elevates ‘home’ to the position of a foundational sociological and anthropological concept at a moment when the crisis of globalisation has opened the way to a revaluation of the local.