The VirtualPsychology Press, 2003 - 246 pages This book looks at the origins and the many contemporary meanings of the virtual. Rob Shields shows how the construction of virtual worlds has a long history. He examines the many forms of faith and hysteria that have surrounded computer technologies in recent years. Moving beyond the technologies themselves he shows how the virtual plays a role in our daily lives at every level. The virtual is also an essential concept needed to manage innovation and risk. It is real but not actual, ideal but not abstract. The virtual, he argues, has become one of the key organizing principles of contemporary society in the public realms of politics, business and consumption as well as in our private lives. |
Table des matières
The return of the virtual | 1 |
Definitions of the virtual | 2 |
Virtualisms in history | 4 |
Utopian virtualism | 15 |
Summary | 16 |
The virtual and the real | 18 |
Virtually real | 20 |
Slippage | 23 |
the trades and professions | 127 |
Alienation | 130 |
data overload and instruction rituals | 132 |
Users | 135 |
Computerization of the workplace | 137 |
The workstation | 140 |
The flexible office | 141 |
Ubiquitous computing | 143 |
The virtual is real but not actual | 25 |
Proust Bergson Deleuze | 26 |
Memory | 38 |
Technologies of the virtual | 41 |
Summary | 43 |
Digital virtualities | 45 |
Simulation | 47 |
Virtual reality and virtual environments | 54 |
Applications of virtual reality | 65 |
Computer as filter | 69 |
The autonomy of the virtual | 73 |
Summary | 79 |
Virtual Africa | 81 |
Globalization | 82 |
Digital virtuality and globalization | 85 |
Virtual Africa | 87 |
Summary | 92 |
Joystick generation cyberpunks camkids and family life | 93 |
Cyberserfs in Cyberia | 95 |
Internet proofing | 99 |
Cyberpunks or virtual subcultures? | 104 |
hackers and real knowledge | 107 |
virtual subculture | 109 |
Everyday virtuality | 114 |
Summary | 115 |
Work virtual working | 116 |
Virtualized work | 120 |
Clerical workers | 145 |
Bodies at work | 147 |
Technicians and support workers | 150 |
Digital agents | 156 |
Summary | 158 |
Business sense for a virtual world | 160 |
Economic virtualism | 161 |
banks and brokerages | 165 |
online rumours | 168 |
Digital virtuality at actual firms | 170 |
Managing the virtual and actual | 175 |
Brands and relationships | 177 |
Summary | 182 |
Risk culture trust and the virtual | 184 |
Risk avoidance and risky society | 186 |
Knowledge societies the media and risk | 188 |
Individuals and the experience of risk | 191 |
A tetrology of risk | 194 |
Risk culture of everyday life | 202 |
Summary | 203 |
The future of the virtual | 205 |
Terrorism as virtual war | 209 |
The future of the virtual | 211 |
NOTES | 215 |
REFERENCES | 220 |
| 234 | |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
abstract actual Africa allow argued ARPANET attempts become Bergson brand Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Chapter chat computer-mediated communications computerization concrete consumer context corporate create customers cyberpunk cyberspace dataglove Deleuze digital virtuality display economic Economist electronic Enron everyday example exchange existing experience firms global head-mounted display human ideal imagined impact interaction Internet joystick knowledge labour liminal London machines material memory metaxis networks Neuromancer notion objects offered operators organizations personal computers possible present problem programs relation relationship repetitive strain injuries risk culture risk society rituals Routledge screen sense shift simulation social spatial subculture telecommunications telephone telework transactions trompe-l'œil trust ubiquitous computing understanding users video-games virtual environments virtual reality virtual space virtual teams virtual worlds visual workers workplace