Overview
- Addresses urgent debates at the foundations of digital knowledge production
- Encourages us to rethink the larger academic relevance of digital objects, data and algorithms
- Essential reading for academics, students and practitioners in digital studies
- This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access.
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This open access book challenges the contemporary relevance of the current model of knowledge production. It argues that the full digitisation of society sharply accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic has added extreme complexity to the world, conclusively exposing the inadequacy of our current model of knowledge creation. Addressing many of the different ways in which reality has been transformed by technology – the pervasive adoption of big data, the fetishisation of algorithms and automation, and the digitalisation of education and research – Viola examines how the rigid conceptualisation in disciplines’ division and competition is complicit of promoting a narrative which has paired computational methods with exactness and neutrality whilst stigmatising consciousness and criticality as carriers of biases and inequality. Taking the humanities as a focal point, the author retraces schisms in the field between the humanities, the digital humanities and critical digital humanities; these are embedded, she argues, within old dichotomies: sciences vs humanities, digital vs non-digital and authentic vs non-authentic. Through the analysis of personal use cases and exploring a variety of applied contexts such as digital heritage practices, digital linguistic injustice, critical digital literacy and critical digital visualisation, the book shows a third way: knowledge creation in the digital.
Reviews
“The Humanities in the Digital sets out a bold and vital agenda – to find common ground between the arts and sciences, and to put aside the duality of the ‘two cultures’ in the digital era. Perceptive, original, and theoretically rich, Lorella Viola’s book shows the need for critical reflection on the role of computing technologies at a time when they are transforming society. It looks to the future of knowledge creation in a world where the boundaries of disciplines can be more porous and generative of new approaches and innovation.” (Paul Arthur, Professor and Chair in Digital Humanities and Social Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Australia)
“Drawing on her rich, varied body of digital scholarship, Viola offers a compelling look at the "digital turn" in humanities research. Arguing against compartmentalization that distinguishes digital humanities from critical digital humanities, she adeptly makes the case for a new framework for digital knowledge creation. Viola's book further demonstratesthe value of auto-ethnographic and self-reflexive approaches to studying the work of humanists in the digital milieu. Both technically sophisticated and eminently readable, The Humanities in the Digital has much to offer the study of the humanities — both digital and analog.” (Roopika Risam, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Comparative Literature, part of the Digital Humanities and Social Engagement cluster at Dartmouth College, USA)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Humanities in the Digital: Beyond Critical Digital Humanities
Authors: Lorella Viola
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16950-2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-16949-6Published: 21 March 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-16952-6Published: 16 January 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-16950-2Published: 20 March 2023
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXVI, 173
Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour
Topics: Digital Humanities, Digital/New Media