The Virtual (Key Ideas) [Hardcover]

Rob Shields (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0415281806 | ISBN-13: 978-0415281805 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Rob Shields has written an encyclopedia of the virtual that will prove to be as indispensable to the layman as to the researcher.
–Pierre Levy, Canada Research Chair on Collective Intelligence, University of Ottawa

Shields succeeds in removing the mask of The Virtual, revealing its productivity, ubiquity, and logic. The resulting text offers a compelling social critique of abstraction-on our screens, in the workplace, and within the very forces of globalization.
–Greg Elmer, Boston College

About the Author

Rob Shields teaches at the Department of Sociology at Carlton University in Ottawa, and is the author of Lefebvre, Love and Shopping (Routledge). --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415281806
• ISBN-13: 978-0415281805
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,685,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars pages missing from book!, October 31, 2004

By 

Megan J. Sapnar "mediabooks" (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Virtual (Key Ideas) (Paperback)

The content of The Virtual is quite interesting, Shields does a nice job historicizing the terms and contributing to the debates on the implications of a shifting relationship between the virtually real and the material. HOWEVER, a huge problem if you're interested in this book for research: the last 30 pages were not bound in the new copy of this book that I ordered through Amazon. No notes to chapters 3 through 9, no bibliography, and no index. In that respect, it's just not useful.