In Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence, Dan McQuillan calls for a restructuring of artificial intelligence (AI) which prioritises the common good over an algorithmic optimisation that reinforces the marginalisation of vuln…
Category: Book Reviews
The Political Lives of Information – review
In The Political Lives of Information: Information and the Production of Development in India, Janaki Srinivasan analyses the history of the idea of “information” and its political implications for poverty alleviation through three case studies in Indi…
The Perfection Trap: The Power Of Good Enough In A World That Always Wants More – review
In The Perfection Trap: The Power Of Good Enough In A World That Always Wants More, Thomas Curran examines the reasons for a rise in socially prescribed perfectionism and its negative mental health effects on individuals. Combining extensive research w…
Elite Universities and The Making of Privilege – review
In Elite Universities and The Making of Privilege: Exploring Race and Class in Global Educational Economies, Kalwant Bhopal and Martin Myers examine how elite universities uphold race- and class-based privilege. Drawing on interviews with students and …
The Future Is Now: An Introduction to Prefigurative Politics – review
The Future Is Now: An Introduction to Prefigurative Politics explores how prefigurative politics can help us to reimagine how we live in the face of climate change and ecosystems’ collapse. This stimulating volume, masterfully edited by Lara Monticelli…
Connect the Dots: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck
In Connect the Dots: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck, Christian Busch contests the notion of blind luck, arguing that adopting a “serendipity mindset” towards all social and professional interactions can increase the opportunity for serendipi…
The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media
In The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media, Emily Hund examines how digital creators seeking work after the 2008 financial crash spawned a multi-billion-dollar industry that has redefined culture, social media and advertisin…
Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Habitable Worlds
In Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Habitable Worlds, Arseli Dokumacı argues that in the adaptive ways they improvise everyday tasks, disabled people demonstrate how all people can create a more habitable planet. Connecting idea…
Anti-Racist Scholar-Activism
In Anti-Racist Scholar-Activism, Remi Joseph-Salisbury and Laura Connelly explore how anti-racist scholar-activists navigate the challenges and leverage the opportunities of the university in pursuit of social justice. Illuminating the complicated, oft…
How to make academic book reviews sustainable in a pay to publish environment
Book reviews, let alone academic book reviews, have received many premature notices of their demise. However, as Christina Lembrecht and Vassiliki Gortsas, discuss alongside a crisis in authorship, reviews also run the risk of being excluded from fundi…