Science and the ‘modern values of control’

Conclusion  This is a challenging book and it addresses important questions. This review has focused on what I think is the most important question of all: just what is the relationship between the ‘strategies’ which drive modern science and the social values which guide the societies we live in. I have much sympathy with the way in which Lacey tries to answer this question and how he tries to open up alternative possibilities and give us a view of the future which is not just a continuing catalogue of environmental disaster ‘for the relief of man's estate’. However, I have expressed doubts as to whether he has been entirely successful in this regard, especially concerning the alternatives to the materialist strategies.     

‘Power and the digital divide’

The ethical and political dilemmas raised byInformation and Communication Technology (ICT)have only just begun to be understood. Theimpact of centralised data collection, masscommunication technologies or the centrality ofcomputer technology as a means of accessingimportant social institutions, all poseimportant ethical and political questions. As away of capturing some of these effects I willcharacterise them in terms of the type of powerand, more particularly, the Power-over peoplethat they exercise. My choice of thisparticular nomenclature is that it allows us todescribe, firstly, how specific technologiesoperate and second, exactly what sorts ofconstraints they impose on people. The reasonfor this focus has to do with a further aim ofthe essay, which is to intervene in aparticular type of debate that is often hadaround the appropriate use and scope oftheories of power that are employed in thinkingabout ICT, especially those theories associatedwith the work of Michel Foucault. There isconsiderable use of his work in computerethics, but my claim will be that despite theproductive uses of his work in the areas ofsurveillance, for instance, it does not exhaustthe larger potential of his work on power and,in part, `government.' I will argue that inorder to properly understand the politicalimpact of some aspects of ICT, especially thedigital divide, one needs an account of howpower operates that includes more traditionaltypes of power-over. To the extent that I willdeal with these concerns, the paper is both acontribution to debates about the nature andscope of Foucault's theory of power and to theissue of the effects of the digital divide.     

On the Comparison of the Images of the Protagonists and the Conflicts of the Plots between William Shakespeare and Guan Hanqing''''s Tragedies

I.TheTragediesofShakespeare1.1.AnAnalysisoftherolesinShakespeare’stragediesTake“Hamlet”asexamples:Hamletisaboutanemotionallyscarredyoungmantryingtoavengethemurderofhisfather,theking.TheghostofHamlet'sfatherappearstoHamlet,tellinghimthathewasmurderedbyhisbrother,Claudius,whohasnowbecometheking.ClaudiushasalsomarriedGertrude,theoldking'swidowandHamlet'smother.Hamletisappalledbyhismother'sactionsandbywhattheghosttellshimaboutClaudius'scold-bloodedmurderofhisownbrother.Tobuytimetoplothisr…     

Calibration of the ‘Florentine little thermometer’

The skill of the Florentine glass-blowers of the 17th century is well attested by many surviving examples of their craftmanship. Among the less familiar of these are a number of liquid-in-glass thermometers made about 1660 for the Accademia del Cimento. These were designed for comparative purposes rather than absolute measurement but their calibration is possible by modern techniques. The results are significant for extending the historic record of climatic conditions, on which modern long-range weather forecasting relies heavily.     

Organisational ‘know-where’ and ‘know-when’: re-framing configurations and distributions of knowledge in organisations

This paper explores varying configurations of knowledge in organisations. A multi-dimensional framework of distinctive forms of knowledge is used to highlight different patterns of organisational knowledge, demonstrating their heterogeneity and variability – over time, in terms of depth of expertise, and their distribution within and between organisations. Common knowledge that is shared across an organisation accounts for only a small proportion of organisational knowledge, indicating that strategies to exploit this resource for competitive advantage will be constrained unless mechanisms are developed that enable access to and transfer of knowledge that is not yet shared or common.     

‘Go with the flow’ for gamification and sustainability marketing

This paper explores the potential of gamification for sustainability marketing efforts, examining users’ experiences with a gamified app designed to encourage the sustainable energy behavior of turning off electricity switches. Using data collected from 387 participants who partook in a week-long field study using a gamified app, we analyze the interrelationships between flow, customer engagement, value-in behavior, and intentions to perform sustainable behavior and continue use of a gamified app. We show how consumers’ gameful experiences via flow enhance engagement with a gamified app, and how this results in enhancing the perceptions of value in performing a sustainable energy behavior. Further, we evidence how the value-in-behavior created by a gamified app not only influence behavioral intentions to perform a sustainable energy behavior, but also intentions to continue using the gamified app. These results provide important theoretical and practical insights as to the potential for gamification to be used for sustainability marketing and how gameful experiences (flow and customer engagement) can transfer to positive perceptions of sustainable behavior (value-in-behavior).     

Joseph Fourier,the ‘greenhouse effect’, and the quest for a universal theory of terrestrial temperatures

The central role that the theory of terrestrial temperatures played in Fourier's mathematical physics has not received the attention it deserves from historians, although his cryptic allusions to the heating of a greenhouse, taken out of context, have been widely cited by subsequent authors.     

What is the ‘personal’ in ‘personal information’?

Ethics and Information Technology - Contemporary privacy theories and European discussions about data protection employ the notion of ‘personal information’ to designate their areas of...