The trouble with culture : how computers are calming the culture wars / F. Allan Hanson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hanson, F. Allan, 1939-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Information technology--Social aspects.

Information technology.

Culture.

Classification--Social aspects.

Classification.

Indexing--Social aspects.

Indexing.

Social aspects.

Physical Description:

ix, 192 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2007]

Summary:

In this highly original book, anthropologist F. Allan Hanson reveals an entirely unanticipated but vital link between two of the most widely discussed features of contemporary American society: the computer revolution and the culture wars. Hanson argues that the culture wars stem from a divergence in the evolutionary paths of society and culture. Societies have evolved significantly over the last few millennia from small bands of farmers or hunter-gatherers into huge, internally diverse nation-states, while cultures-the closed systems of meanings and symbols that kept small, face-to-face societies together-have failed to keep pace. If cultures became more open, Hanson contends, then the maladaptive rupture between society and culture would be healed and the clashes that currently beset us would be greatly diminished. Interweaving lucid analysis with concrete case studies of common law, education, and other areas of contemporary life, Hanson demonstrates how the widespread use of computers is, in fact, encouraging more originality and open-mindedness, with the potential to case polarization and calm the culture wars.

Contents:

Culture gone bad

Cultural contradiction and compartmentalization

Fixing the trouble with culture: relativism, postmodernism, and automation

The human rage to classify

Classification and the common law

Automated classification and indexing

The automated mode in principle

The automated mode in practice

The new superorganic

Opening culture, expanding individuals.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-188) and index.

ISBN:

0791470172

9780791470176

0791470180

9780791470183

OCLC:

70174992