Algorithms and the Critical Theory of Technology

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Scott Timcke
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Advocacy ◽  
Control Rights ◽  
Analytical Precision ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
Class Power ◽  
Critical Theory Of Technology

This chapter argues that the radical critique of computation and calculation must work from the register of capital. Using the example of the automation of control rights, it links 'algorithmic regulation' with mature capitalist logics — where capital dominates the labour–capital antagonism — to show why computation is necessarily a venue for radical political advocacy, an urgent task on the 'hard road to renewal'. The chapter treats 'data politics', or more precisely digitalization as a signature element within late neoliberalism. It uses two case studies involving property rights and differential class power to suggest that there are many good reasons to foreground Marxian-inspired contributions. The chapter attempts to specify a venue and criteria for politically meaningful scholarship. The issue is more than just analytical precision. At stake is the continuing relevance of a critical theory of technology that is politically adequate to understand the latest manoeuvre in the always-ready impulse of value towards the realization of its own totality.

scholarly journals 'Always think of the objects': Ekphrasis as aesthetics in the contemporary novel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lucy Eleanor Alston
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Infinite Jest ◽  
Contemporary Novel ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Temporal Qualities

<p>It is a commonplace that ekphrasis – the description in literature of a visual work of art – brings to the fore questions of representation and reference. Such questions are particularly associated with the ‘postmodern’; ekphrasis is thus often subsumed under the category of metafiction. There has been little critical attention, however, to how the ekphrastic mode might be understood in aesthetic terms. This thesis considers the nature of ekphrasis’s referential capacity, but expands on this to suggest a number of ways in which the ekphrastic mode evinces the aesthetic and ontological assumptions upon which a text is predicated. Two case studies illustrate how the ekphrastic mode can be figured to different effect. In comparing these two novels, this thesis argues that the ekphrastic mode makes clear the particular subject-object relations expressed by each. If Lukács is correct in asserting that the novel mode expresses a discrepancy between ‘the conventionality of the objective world and the interiority of the subjective one’, ekphrasis provides a fruitful but under-explored avenue for critical inquiry because, as a mode, it is situated at the point at which subject and object must converge. The first chapter of this thesis is concerned with Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station (2011), a novel that includes both traditional ekphrastic descriptions and embedded photographs and references to critical theory that function ekphrastically. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996) provides a contrast: the novel makes continued reference to film – a medium defined by its temporal qualities – but as used in the novel the ekphrastic mode implies a fixed, ahistorical schema. The implications that such differences have on the novel mode and critical discourse are explored in the final section of the thesis.</p>

Critical theory of technology and actor-network theory in the examination of techno-empowered online collaborative translation practice

Babel ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Szu-Wen Kung
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Interactive Relationship ◽  
Critical Theory Of Technology

Abstract While “turns” in translation studies have long been embracing the theoretical complexity integrated into the discussion of various translation phenomena, the theorisation of the use of technology and its impact on translation remains under-represented in scholarly literature of the field (O’Hagan 2016). This article considers the influence of technology on translation and reflects on the question as to how the interactive relationship between technology and translation may be theoretically conceptualised. Taking an approach informed by sociological theory, this article combines critical theory of technology (CTT) and actor-network theory (ANT) to examine the relationship between technology and translation, as well as the translation players involved. With the advent of Web 2.0, techno-empowered collaborative translation in the online TED Talks environment using Amara subtitling platform becomes a useful locale for discussion. Through a participant-observation approach, that is, with the author’s experience in the online translation environment, this article aims to explore how the technological elements in translation often described as “emergent property from new forms of translation practice” (Cronin 2010, 1) may offer critical insights from an epistemological perspective, especially the reciprocity between technology and its users.

Critical Theory of Technology.

MLN ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 1032
Author(s):  
Albert Liu ◽  
Andrew Feenberg
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Critical Theory Of Technology

The integration of ICT in educational process in IB education—A comparative case study

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-204
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Pantzos
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
International Baccalaureate ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Integration Of Ict ◽  
Critical Theory Of Technology

This study aims to gain a deep understanding of international baccalaureate (IB) primary years programme (PYP) teachers’ perceptions about the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in IB PYP classes. Moreover, it seeks to critically identify the teachers’ barriers and needs in order to integrate ICT into teaching and learning. Following a qualitative comparative case study research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with IB PYP teachers and coordinators in Sweden and Greece. Critical theory, critical pedagogy and critical theory of technology (CTT) were used as the theoretical framework for analysing teachers’ perceptions. From a critical point of view, the study reveals that deskilling of teachers, intensification of teachers’ work, low school’s financial budget, parents’ financial burden, commodification and privatisation of IB education are the fundamental factors that negatively intervene in teachers’ work in both schools and perpetuate the status quo of teaching and learning processes through integration of ICT. Keywords: International baccalaureate (IB), international and comparative education (ICE), integration of ICT, critical pedagogy, critical theory of technology (CTT).    

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