Tom Butler - Böcker

Changes in society resulting from the pervasiveness of information technology have produced positive and negative, intended and unintended consequences. Key among them is the exclusion of individuals—who lack access to technological resources—from various societal processes and services. The theme of this book, social inclusion, explores the many dimensions of this exclusion. This issue has been the focus of much debate within the social sciences, yet has largely been underresearched in the Information Systems field, despite our concerns with the social and organizational aspects of technology. To the extent that contemporary debates have identified access to information as a key component of poverty, digital exclusion is seen as the problem. Thus, ICTs are portrayed as either exacerbating exclusion or are presented as the solution for greater inclusion. This conference will provide us with the opportunity to build upon our strong tradition of studying technology design and use in organizations, and expand our field of enquiry to consider the processes that engender social exclusion and the issues that derive from it.This theme invites consideration of social and organizational constraints that result in the underrepresentation of certain groups and, by implication, certain issues. Likewise, it invites consideration of emerging technologies that have the potential to alter social, political, and economic relations. Much is being written about the ubiquitous nature of ICTs to change society, for example, open source software has recently emerged as a concept with implications far beyond the technology domain. This suggests that the role of ICTs in addressing social exclusion is far more complex than often thought. For this reason it is timely to expand our focus and progress the study of IS beyond the organizational level of analysis so that we may consider wider concerns affecting all citizens.This book contains the proceedings of theWorking Conference on the societal and organizational implications for information systems of social inclusion. This conference, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 8.2, was held in Limerick, Ireland, July 12-15, 2006.

ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth takes an unflinching look at the environmental devastation created by our thirst for energy--including supposedly "clean" renewable sources. From oil spills, nuclear accidents, and mountaintop-removal coal mining to oversized wind farms and desert-destroying solar power plants, virtually every region of the globe is now experiencing the consequences of out-of-control energy development. Essentially no place is sacred, no landscape safe from the relentless search for energy resources to continue powering a culture based on perpetual growth. Precious wildlands, fragile ecosystems, even our own communities and children's health are at risk. In a large-format, photo-driven narrative (including 195 color photos), ENERGY features the writings of more than thirty leading thinkers on energy, society, and ecology. Collectively, they lift the veil on the harsh realities of our pursuit of energy at any price, revealing the true costs, benefits, and limitations of all our energy options.Ultimately, the book offers not only a deep critique of the current system that is toxic to nature and people but a hopeful vision for a future energy economy--in which resilience, health, beauty, biodiversity, and durability, not incessant growth, are the organizing principles.

The Energy Reader takes an unflinching look at the environmental devastation created by our thirst for energy--including supposedly "clean" renewable sources. From oil spills, nuclear accidents, and mountaintop-removal coal mining to oversized wind farms and desert-destroying solar power plants, virtually every region of the globe is now experiencing the consequences of out-of-control energy development. Essentially no place is sacred, no landscape safe from the relentless search for energy resources to continue powering a culture based on perpetual growth. Precious wildlands, fragile ecosystems, even our own communities and children's health are at risk. Featuring essays by more than thirty of the most brilliant minds in the fields of energy, society, and ecology, The Energy Reader lifts the veil on the harsh realities of our pursuit of energy at any price, revealing the true costs, benefits, and limitations of all our energy options. Contributors include Wes Jackson, Bill McKibben, Sandra B. Lubarsky, Richard Heinberg, Philip Cafaro, Wendell Berry, Juan Pablo Orrego. Collectively, they offer a wake-up call about the future of energy and what each of us can do to change course.Ultimately, the book offers not only a deep critique of the current system that is toxic to nature and people, but also a hopeful vision for a future energy economy--in which resilience, health, beauty, biodiversity, and durability, not incessant growth, are the organizing principles.

Changes in society resulting from the pervasiveness of information technology have produced positive and negative, intended and unintended consequences. Key among them is the exclusion of individuals—who lack access to technological resources—from various societal processes and services. The theme of this book, social inclusion, explores the many dimensions of this exclusion. This issue has been the focus of much debate within the social sciences, yet has largely been underresearched in the Information Systems field, despite our concerns with the social and organizational aspects of technology. To the extent that contemporary debates have identified access to information as a key component of poverty, digital exclusion is seen as the problem. Thus, ICTs are portrayed as either exacerbating exclusion or are presented as the solution for greater inclusion. This conference will provide us with the opportunity to build upon our strong tradition of studying technology design and use in organizations, and expand our field of enquiry to consider the processes that engender social exclusion and the issues that derive from it.This theme invites consideration of social and organizational constraints that result in the underrepresentation of certain groups and, by implication, certain issues. Likewise, it invites consideration of emerging technologies that have the potential to alter social, political, and economic relations. Much is being written about the ubiquitous nature of ICTs to change society, for example, open source software has recently emerged as a concept with implications far beyond the technology domain. This suggests that the role of ICTs in addressing social exclusion is far more complex than often thought. For this reason it is timely to expand our focus and progress the study of IS beyond the organizational level of analysis so that we may consider wider concerns affecting all citizens.This book contains the proceedings of theWorking Conference on the societal and organizational implications for information systems of social inclusion. This conference, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 8.2, was held in Limerick, Ireland, July 12-15, 2006.

A big, bold vision for protected areas and re-wilding the Earth, this book presents a spirited argument on the future of conservation. Protected natural areas have historically been the primary tool of conservationists to conserve land and wildlife. These parks and reserves are set apart to forever remain in contrast to those places where human activities, technologies, and developments prevail. But even as the biodiversity crisis accelerates, a growing number of voices are suggesting that protected areas are passe. Conservation, they argue, should instead focus on lands managed for human use, working landscapes, and abandon the goal of preventing human-caused extinctions in favour of maintaining ecosystem services to support people. If such arguments take hold, we risk losing support for the unique qualities and values of wild, undeveloped nature. Protecting the Wild offers a spirited argument for the robust protection of the natural world. In it, experts from five continents reaffirm that parks, wilderness areas, and other reserves are an indispensable, albeit insufficient, means to sustain species, subspecies, key habitats, ecological processes and evolutionary potential.A companion volume to Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth, Protecting the Wild provides a necessary addition to the conversation about the future of conservation in the so-called Anthropocene, one that will be useful for academics, policymakers, and conservation practitioners at all levels, from local land trusts to international NGOs.

Is it time to embrace the so-called “Anthropocene”—the age of human dominion—and to abandon tried-and-true conservation tools such as parks and wilderness areas? Is the future of Earth to be fully domesticated, an engineered global garden managed by technocrats to serve humanity? The schism between advocates of rewilding and those who accept and even celebrate a “post-wild” world is arguably the hottest intellectual battle in contemporary conservation.In Keeping the Wild, a group of prominent scientists, writers, and conservation activists responds to the Anthropocene-boosters who claim that wild nature is no more (or in any case not much worth caring about), that human-caused extinction is acceptable, and that “novel ecosystems” are an adequate replacement for natural landscapes. With rhetorical fists swinging, the book’s contributors argue that these “new environmentalists” embody the hubris of the managerial mindset and offer a conservation strategy that will fail to protect life in all its buzzing, blossoming diversity.With essays from Eileen Crist, David Ehrenfeld, Dave Foreman, Lisi Krall, Harvey Locke, Curt Meine, Kathleen Dean Moore, Michael Soulé, Terry Tempest Williams and other leading thinkers, Keeping the Wild provides an introduction to this important debate, a critique of the Anthropocene boosters’ attack on traditional conservation, and unapologetic advocacy for wild nature.