Böcker utgivna av MIT Press Ltd

"A critical examination of psychopathy research and the discriminatory use of the disorder in the criminal justice system"--

How the surge in aerial technologies, such as drones and satellites, influences visual culture beyond the screen.The smooth flight from aerial overview to intimate close-up in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011) exemplifies the concept of proxistant vision: a combination of proximity and distance, close-up and overview, detail, and the big picture in a unified visual form. In Proxistant Vision, Synne Bull and Dragan Miletic develop the concept of proxistant vision and trace its emergence as a visual paradigm of the twenty-first century. As exemplified by Google Earth’s digital swipe between globe perspective and street-level detail, proxistant vision currently proliferates across digital geography, computer games, architectural models, data visualizations, and CGI cinema. It is defined as the combination of proximity and distance in a single image, across a dynamic flight, or zoom. Pointing to the surge in aerial imaging and remote sensing technologies such as drones and satellites, the book moves beyond the screen to include the kinetic architecture of rides and urban observation wheels. The key objective of this study is threefold: to trace the genealogy and understand the technical operation of proxistance as it traveled from periphery to center in the twenty-first century; to explore its alternative potentialities in contemporary art practices; and finally, to reflect critically on the worldviews underpinning different modalities of proxistance in times of environmental crisis. The authors show how the powerful effect of combining proximity and distance, which was already in place with the earliest cartographic inscriptions, has taken precedence on and beyond our screens today.

"This is a history of CHAT (Cultural-Historical Activity Theory): where it came from, how it developed, what challenges it faces when applied to technologically mediated post-bureaucratic work, and how we might further develop it to better address those challenges"--

"Dietary choices greatly impact one's health and environmental footprint, yet making the right choices is a deep scientific challenge well outside most laypersons' scientific background"--

An investigative history of the closure of Harvard University’s geography program in the mid-twentieth century due to homophobia and wider institutional politics.Let Geography Die tells the little-known and oft-misunderstood story of geographical research and education at Harvard University. In investigative fashion, Alison Mountz and Kira Williams unearth the personal and institutional secrets that drove the sudden closure of Harvard’s geography program at the precise moment that it reached its apex. At the heart of this narrative are the hidden personal lives of the queer men recruited to build the geography program—the same ones who were later blamed for its demise. Chief among these figures is Derwent Whittlesey, who eventually became Harvard’s last lone geography professor, once the program he had so successfully built was closed around him. The book weaves together several histories at once: the enactment of homophobic policies under McCarthyism designed to purge queer people from university campuses and government offices; a university President with little regard for the social sciences on a personal mission to dissolve geographic education; fierce, if failed, university politicking to rescue and then resuscitate the program; personal queer lives hidden in plain sight on the edge of campus; and two contemporary queer political geographers on a mission to memorialize the queer people blamed for society’s ills. Let Geography Die exposes the truth behind this important story—as well as its wider haunting of an entire discipline 75 years later—while also restoring the humanity of the central characters involved, especially Derwent Whittlesey.

"A cultural history that reveals how the relentless pursuit of innovation has transformed our society, our institutions, and our inner selves"--

"Traces how aeronauts navigated the interstices of politics, culture, science, and gender to repopularize the hot air balloon, an artifact that had fallen in status since its invention. The author shows how French civil society cultivated popular enthusiasm for flight decades before the advent of the airplane, establishing France as the center of pre-World War I aeronautical culture"--

A compelling argument for including the human perspective within science, and for how human experience makes science possible.

An accessible and gratifying introduction to the world of paranormal beliefs and bizarre experiences.

A compelling, real-life account of how scientists uncovered air pollution’s deadly impact on human health—and the contentious battles to use key scientific evidence in the critical fight for clean air.Particles of Truth is a riveting account of the discovery of the critical health effects of air pollution told by Arden Pope and Douglas Dockery, who have been at the forefront of air pollution and health research for four decades. With an insightful foreword by former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, this compelling book provides an inside look at groundbreaking scientific research and ensuing political and public-policy battles. It presents evidence that air pollution is a major contributor to disease and death and that reducing air pollution saves lives. The book also delves into intense efforts to discredit and cast doubt on the science.Through firsthand accounts, Pope and Dockery bring the scientific discoveries regarding the health effects of air pollution and accompanying controversies to life. They describe the real-world challenges of conducting impactful research when public health clashes with economic interests and politics. Despite these challenges, they and their colleagues persisted, accumulating evidence that supports landmark clean-air legislation and pollution reduction efforts worldwide. More than an inside look at pioneering air pollution research and the hidden health burden of air pollution, Particles of Truth is a story of determination and perseverance by those working to protect air quality and our health; indeed, their efforts have contributed to improvements in public health and increase in longevity. For anyone interested in public health, environmental quality, or public policy, this is a must-read book that takes you to the front lines of discovery and controversy.

"Investigates the initial decisions that led to school closures in the spring of 2020, and looks at why so many schools remained closed despite mounting evidence that schools could be safely reopened"--

The much-anticipated sequel to Butch Heroes, an ingenious retelling of history that combines portraits and texts to recover—and celebrate—queer subjects from around the world.Ingeniously conceived, Ria Brodell’s Butch Heroes books recover and celebrate queer subjects obscured or misrepresented within the dominant narratives of history. More Butch Heroes presents 15 original paintings and biographies in the style of the first volume, Butch Heroes: slyly subverted Catholic holy cards featuring individuals who were assigned female at birth but who presented as masculine.In this book, we meet queer individuals in their everyday lives, relaxing or working, enduring their struggles (which sometimes led to death or punishment), or simply living their lives with their partners or pets: Esther Eng stands with her camera in front of the Mandarin Theatre in San Francisco where she worked in the box office as a child. Tom fishes on the Fraser River in British Columbia. Joe sits astride his horse, ready for a day's work in southwestern Idaho.Brodell uses the format of the holy card in its traditional sense, as a means of remembrance and reverence, but also as a way to memorialize those who were often unjustly persecuted by the church. Each deeply researched portrait draws from social class, occupation, clothing, and environmental details of the time period, as well as artifacts, maps, journals, drawings, prints, or photos. For Brodell, who was raised Catholic, these queer holy figures act as retrospective replacements for the role models they wish they had known.

A practical handbook for accelerating innovation, both internally and externally, through engagement with innovation ecosystems.Leaders in large organizations face continuous pressure to innovate, and few possess all the internal resources needed to keep up with rapid advances in innovation, science, and technology. But looking beyond their own organizations, most face a bewildering landscape of external resources. In Accelerating Innovation, these leaders—whether from the private, public, or nonprofit sectors—will find a practical guide to this external landscape. Authors Phil Budden and Fiona Murray provide directions for navigating innovation ecosystems—those hotspots worldwide where researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors congregate.While Silicon Valley and Greater Boston are popularly known for web-based digital technology and biotechnology, respectively, the logic of innovation ecosystems is not solely American—so this guide takes in new locations and varied sectors such as Singapore (smart cities), Perth (mining), Cairo and Dubai (fintech), London and Lagos (fintech and media), Copenhagen (quantum computing), Rio de Janeiro (energy), Halifax (oceans), and Tel Aviv (cybersecurity). Drawing practical advice from a synthesis of works on tech, innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic management, and from a decade of their own research and teaching at the intersection of these topics, Budden and Murray distill insights and interconnections from all these different worlds into a useful and globally applicable set of frameworks and models. Their approach provides leaders at every organizational level with a clear and workable roadmap for making the most of the unique resources of innovation ecosystems.

What has gone wrong with the left and what leftists must do if they want to change politics, ethics, and minds.

An essential history for understanding how we mother now, and how motherhood itself became a medium winner of the Brooke Hindle Award from the Society for the History of Technology.

The strange, but true biography of the colorful founder of Saucerian Books, a central purveyor and promoter of flying saucer and conspiracist knowledge in the mid-twentieth century.Gray Barker (1925–1984) was an eccentric literary outsider, filled with ideas that were out of step with the world. An author and unreliable narrator of implausible stories, Barker founded and operated Saucerian Books, an independent publisher of books about flying saucers and other ideas at the fringes of popular discourse. In The Saucerian, Gabriel Mckee tells the fascinating story of Barker’s West Virginia–based press, the unique corpus of materials it published, and how office-copying and self-publishing techniques influenced the spread of paranormal beliefs and conspiratorial worldviews over the last century. Following the development of UFO subculture, Mckee explores the life and career of a larger-than-life hoaxer and originator of pseudoscientific ideas.Ever an entertainer, Barker established his reputation with one of the first flying saucer fanzines, The Saucerian, and with his first book, the conspiratorial and sensationalistic They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers. By the close of the 1950s, he had established a publishing imprint that brought out some of the strangest UFO-related books of the era, with a particular emphasis on flying saucer contactees. Saucerian Books became a platform for those whose stories were too unusual, implausible, or crudely written for more mainstream publishers. Though Barker himself was a skeptic, he viewed the world of occult believers as a source of ongoing entertainment. He also may have used the perceived eccentricity of flying saucer research, or “ufology,” to obscure his homosexuality from his small-town neighbors. From his place on the fringes of midcentury American culture, Barker left an unmatched legacy in conspiratorial concepts that have become prominent pop-cultural folklore, including the Men in Black, the Mothman, and the Philadelphia Experiment. As a mastermind behind the fantastical, Barker’s promotional efforts were the precursor to contemporary conspiracism.

"A manifesto for a new dawn of natural history, practiced by community scientists in their own urban jungle"--

"A simple, enduring framework for understanding the complex world of AI and machine learning"--