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The Book Unbound

Reconsidering One-Dimensionality in the Internet Age

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Putting Knowledge to Work and Letting Information Play

Part of the book series: Transdisciplinary Studies ((TDSS,volume 4))

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Abstract

The printing press helped end the Middle Ages. The Internet is on the verge of ending books, as we have come to know them. By “book” I mean considered reflection on the world that is produced as a readable object. To be sure, computer downloads may count as books, even if they remain only on the screen. But books, to earn that name, must be considered slowly and at a certain distance from everyday life. They must have a spine, which holds them and their arguments together. For a book to have a spine promises distance from the everyday world required to consider its writing carefully and to formulate a rejoinder, the essence of dialogical democracy and community.

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© 2012 Sense Publishers

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Agger, B. (2012). The Book Unbound. In: Luke, T.W., Hunsinger, J. (eds) Putting Knowledge to Work and Letting Information Play. Transdisciplinary Studies, vol 4. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-728-8_2

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