The book intensively explores the governance techniques of control of public behaviour in the context of mediation. It draws on Michel Foucault's historic formulations — "governmentality" and "conduct of conduct" — but expands them to the contemporary times to trace the evolution of surveillance from the pre-digital past to the digital present.The analysis covers three sequential phases: i) The Broadcast era and the people-as-mass audience; ii) The Biopolitical epoch and the people...

This book focuses on what is arguably the most devastating phenomenon in the history of modern civilization, the COVID-19 pandemic.It shows how, on the one hand, the pandemic has exposed governments the world over to deal with a major health crisis; and, on the other, efforts by the ruling forces to enforce surveillance on people and disciplining them by maneuvering cutting-edge digital technology in the name of security and safety. Second, it explores how the mainstream versions o...

The book focuses on the status and role of the social sciences in the current millennium. Drawing inspiration from a range of theorists, it critically examines the key debates on the social science stream and focuses on its ir/relevance in our times in the background of changing state-market dialectics. It specifically scrutinises knowledge politics of the global times to reveal how the neoliberal project aligns and fuses steep economic ‘conditionalities’ with professional cultural paramet...

This book examines democracy and governance from the unconventional and largely under researched vantage point of information. It looks at the exclusionary informational dynamics in democracy and analyses the role of information capitalism, new technology, virtual networks, cyberspace and media.While emphasizing the foundational value of information as the ‘source code’ of modern societies the book explains how it is strategically maneuvered in technologies of governance in so-call...

Human Rights and the Third World: Issues and Discourses deals with the controversial questions on the universalistic notions of human rights. It finds Third World perspectives on human rights and seeks to open up a discursive space in the human rights discourse to address unresolved questions, citing issues and problems from different countries in the Third World: 1. Whether alternative perspectives should be taken as the standard for human rights in the Third World countries?2. Sho...

This book covers the analysis of biosensing, site-targeted therapeutics, as well as visual analytics of release profile at the delivery site as possible uses for nanotheranostics therapies following the route of smart polymers. It discusses pH as well as temperature-sensitive polymers and their recent and relevant applications as biomaterials in drug delivery and tissue engineering including dual-stimuli smart polymers.FeaturesInforms about the main challenges and pro...