How Technologies Harm
A Relational Approach

By (author) Mark Wood

ISBN13: 9781529247077

Imprint: Bristol University Press

Publisher: Bristol University Press

Format: Hardback

Published: 30/10/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
Technologies contribute to harms in a variety of ways, but can we ever say they are harmful in-and-of-themselves? This book offers a new way to understand how technologies, while not intrinsically harmful, are laden with values and dispositions that can contribute to negative outcomes. Building on insights from postphenomenology, realist social theory and the philosophy of action, it provides a framework for examining technology-harm relations: relations with technology that are harmful by virtue of what they contribute to bringing about. It is for anyone seeking to design, regulate, research or simply use technology in a way that prioritizes well-being.
Introduction Part 1: Understanding Harm 1. What Is Social Harm? 2. The Nature of Harm Part 2: Understanding Technology 3. Instruments, Extensions, Affordances 4. Technology As Practice and Actant 5. Postphenomenology and Technological Mediation Part 3: The Technology-Harm Relations Framework 6. An Overview of the Framework 7. Design Modes 8. Translation, Infusion, Zemiosis 9. Doing Harm With Things 10. Harms Beyond Use 11. Higher-Order Harm Relations Conclusion: Pulling at the Threads of Enmeshment
  • Jurisprudence & general issues
  • Media studies
  • Crime & criminology
  • General (US: Trade)
  • Professional & Vocational
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List Price: £80.00