An Introduction to Cybercultures [Paperback]

David Bell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415246598 | ISBN-13: 978-0415246590 | Publication Date: January 15, 2001 | Edition: 1st

An Introduction to Cybercultures provides an accessible guide to the major forms, practices and meanings of this rapidly-growing field. From the evolution of hardware and software to the emergence of cyberpunk film and fiction, David Bell introduces readers to the key aspects of cyberculture, including email, the internet, digital imaging technologies, computer games and digital special effects. Each chapter contains `hot links' to key articles in its companion volume, The Cybercultures Reader, suggestions for further reading, and details of relevant websites. Individual chapters examine: · Cybercultures: an introduction · Storying cyberspace · Cultural Studies in cyberspace · Community and cyberculture · Identities in cyberculture · Bodies in cyberculture · Cybersubcultures · Researching cybercultures

Editorial Reviews

Review

...this book is a useful introduction to the theoretical underpinnings of that niche of academic cultural studies that addresses technology...Bell's approach yields a useful primer of the fundamentals of cultural theory as applied to the subjects in and about computer technology.
–Claire Hoertz Badaracco, Marquette University Communication Research Trends, Spring 2003

About the Author

David Bell is Reader in Cultural Studies at Staffordshire University. He is the co-editor of The Cybercultures Reader (Routledge 2000), and co-author of Consuming Geographies (Routledge 1997).

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1st edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415246598
• ISBN-13: 978-0415246590
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,211,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tries to see the future, March 3, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Introduction to Cybercultures (Library Binding)

So here you are in the 21st century. And you still don't look like the Jetsons. But perhaps you want to see what is coming down the pike?

The book offers suggestions on the future, by examining the so-called cyberculture. A nonlinear blend of fact and cyberpunk science fiction. The facts include trends in hardware and software engineering. Plus the social usages of these. Like the rise of massive multiplayer environments (Everquest etc). And how people voluntarily immerse themselves in these in an addictive wirehead mode. Where wirehead is a term borrowed from science fiction of the 1980s and earlier, when this behaviour was predicted.

The book examines the rise of a new type of community, mainly extent on the Web, comprised of people, most of whom will never meet in person. How exotic this would have seemed in the 1970s. Yet this has crept up on us. Is this a harbinger? Will people withdraw into themselves and their net connections? Such issues are speculated upon in the book.

As you can imagine, the book span many fields, including sociology, psychology, computer science and science fiction. Worth a perusal.