People on the autism spectrum often present with symptoms indicating poor self-awareness or hyper-awareness, low self-esteem, depression and difficulty connecting with others. Treatment which relies on medical and behavioural views of autism risks ignoring emotional factors. This book demonstrates that counselling and emotional support is not only possible for people on the autism spectrum, but essential.David Moat describes the impact of autism on emotional perception and regulati...

The figure of the imposter can stir complicated emotions, from intrigue to suspicion and fear. But what insights can these troublesome figures provide into the social relations and cultural forms from which they emerge?Edited by leading scholars in the field, this volume explores the question through a diverse range of empirical cases, including magicians, spirit possession, fake Instagram followers, fake art and fraudulent scientists.Proposing ‘thinking with imposters’ as ...

How do you tell the story of a feminist education, when the work of feminism can never be perfected or completed? In A Sentimental Education, Hannah McGregor, the podcaster behind Witch, Please and Secret Feminist Agenda, explores what podcasting has taught her about doing feminist scholarship not as a methodology but as a way of life.Moving between memoir and theory, these essays consider the collective practices of feminist meaning-makin...

Do algorithms get to decide who we are? "Essential reading for anyone who cares about the internet's extraordinary impact on each of us and on our society." ― Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Derived from our every search, like, click, and purchase, algorithms determine the news we get, the ads we see, the information accessible to us, and even who our friends are. These complex configurations not only form knowledge and social relationship...

Introduces key terms, research traditions, debates, and their histories, and offers a sense of the new frontiers and questions emerging in the field of media studiesKeywords for Media Studies introduces and aims to advance the field of critical media studies by tracing, defining, and problematizing its established and emergent terminology. The book historicizes thinking about media and society, whether that means noting a long history of “new media,” or tracing how...

This thoroughly revised second edition provides a critical overview of the contemporary debates and discussions surrounding gender and mediated communication.The book is divided into three parts: representing, producing, and consuming, with each section made up of three chapters. The first chapter of each section attempts to answer the most basic questions: ‘Who is represented?’, ‘Who produces what?’, and ‘Who consumes what?’. The second chapter of each section draws attention to t...

A proposal to redefine design in a way that not only challenges the field's dominant paradigms but also changes the practice of design itself.In Critical Fabulations, Daniela Rosner proposes redefining design as investigative and activist, personal and culturally situated, responsive and responsible. Challenging the field's dominant paradigms and reinterpreting its history, Rosner wants to change the way we historicize the practice, reworking it from the i...

The exhaustion, disappointment, and listlessness experienced under digital capitalism, explored through works by contemporary artists, writers, and performers.Sometimes, interacting with digital platforms, we want to be passive—in those moments of dissociation when we scroll mindlessly rather than connecting with anyone, for example, or when our only response is a shrugging “lol.” Despite encouragement by these platforms to “be yourself,” we want to be anyone but o...

Social media is full of dead people. Nobody knows precisely how many Facebook profiles belong to dead users but in 2012 the figure was estimated at 30 million. What do we do with all these digital souls? Can we simply delete them, or do they have a right to persist? Philosophers have been almost entirely silent on the topic, despite their perennial focus on death as a unique dimension of human existence. Until now.Drawing on ongoing philosophical debates, Digital Souls cla...

This book brings together a huge range of material including academic articles, film scripts and interplanetary messages adrift on space probes with supporting commentary to clarify their imporatance to the field. Communication Studies: The Essential Resource is a collection of essays and texts for all those studying communication at university and pre-university level.Individual sections address:* texts and meanings in communication* themes in personal comm...

Just what is the “participatory condition”? It is the situation in which taking part in something with others has become both environmental and normative. The fact that we have always participated does not mean we have always lived under the participatory condition. What is distinctive about the present is the extent to which the everyday social, economic, cultural, and political activities that comprise simply being in the world have been thematized and organized around the priority of pa...

Video games are becoming culturally dominant. But what does their popularity say about our contemporary society? This book explores video game culture, but in doing so, utilizes video games as a lens through which to understand contemporary social life.Video games are becoming an increasingly central part of our cultural lives, impacting on various aspects of everyday life such as our consumption, communities, and identity formation. Drawing on new and original empirical data – inc...