Category Archives: English

David Bloor’s “Anti-Latour” and the discussion

By Javier de Rivera 

This article is about the controversy between David Bloor and Bruno Latour in 1999, when Bloor wrote an article called “Anti-Latour”, in which he defended the approach of the Sociology of Knowledge against …

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Digital media, new social movements and the cosmopolitarian subject

By Javier de Rivera

The social movements of 2011 have put the political relevance of social media on the front page of social analysis. From a discourse based on the marketing marvelousness of the Web 2.0, the “prosumer” and …

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The Googlization of Everything – Book Review

googlization

By Javier de Rivera.

Originally published in The International Journal of Communication, of USC Annenberg.

The basic thesis of this book is that Google assumes roles and projects that, because of their central importance in society, should be carried …

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Reason Against the Machine

By Javier de Rivera

Any technological device is the result of a social action, a certain set of relations, interests and motivations that produces it, even if the final result does not correspond to the original intentions of the …

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Non-human agency, but human after all

 

By Javier de Rivera

This paper, HUMAN AFTER ALL, overviews some issues addressed in Johanna Drucker’s PhD seminar in Information Studies at UCLA (Spring 2013)  around the topic of New Materialisms. In it, I critique and argue against …

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Networks Withouth a Cause, by Geertz Lovink – Book Review

By Javier de Rivera

Networks Without a Cause. A Critique of Social Media – by Geert Lovink. 2011. Polity Press

Originally published on: Interactions UCLA Journal of Education and Information StudiesDownload PDF

Networks Without a Cause offers …

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Science, Technology and Society

 

This is the final paper on Science and Technology Studies that I wrote for Jean François Blanchette class at the Information Studies Department at UCLA.

It is a general reflection about the STS field that goes around the …

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Book Review, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. By James Gleick

What is information?

This is probably the main question driving the reader throughout the book, which is presented as a comprehensive review of the concept of information, its history, meaning and role in modern society. In 437 pages, James

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Book Review: African Fractals, by Ron Eglash

 Download the COMPLETE BOOK REVIEWafricanfractals

African Fractals is an interesting book about ethno-mathematics in Africa. It is about about the presence of advanced mathematical concepts in traditional African cultures, and uses these findings as a way of empowerment for …

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Book Review: The Net Delusion, by Evgeny Morozov

http://socialmediasociology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/b2.pngBy Javier de Rivera

Originally written in socialmediasociology.com in Jan 3, 2012.

Considered one of the best books of the year 2011 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Net Delusion offers an interesting analysis of the relation between …

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