The Library

Lifeworld Inc. : and what to do about it

Tools

Thrift, N. J.. (2011) Lifeworld Inc. : and what to do about it. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol.29 (No.1). pp. 5-26. ISSN 0263-7758

Preview

PDF
WRAP_Thrift_LIFEWORLD_INC.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Download (322Kb)

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/d0310

Abstract

Can we detect changes in the way that the world turns up as they turn up? This paper makes such an attempt. The first part of the paper argues that a wide-ranging change is occurring in the ontological preconditions of Euro-American cultures, based in reworking what and how an event is produced. Driven by the security – entertainment complex, the aim is to mass produce phenomenological encounter: Lifeworld Inc as I call it. Swimming in a sea of data, such an aim requires the construction of just enough authenticity over and over again. In the second part of the paper, I go on to argue that this new world requires a different kind of social science, one that is experimental in its orientation—just as Lifeworld Inc is—but with a mission to provoke awareness in untoward ways in order to produce new means of association. Only thus, or so I argue, can social science add to the world we are now beginning to live in.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy
Divisions:	Administration > Vice Chancellor's Office
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Ontologism, Social sciences
Journal or Publication Title:	Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Publisher:	Pion Ltd.
ISSN:	0263-7758
Date:	2011
Volume:	Vol.29
Number:	No.1
Page Range:	pp. 5-26
Identification Number:	10.1068/d0310
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
References:	Abrams, J., Hall, P. (eds) (2003) Else/Where. Mapping New Cartographies of Networks and Territories. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press. Adkins, L., Lury, C. (eds) (2009) Special Issue on What is the Empirical? European Journal of Social Theory, 12(1). Ahmed, S. (2010) The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC, Duke University Press. Beer, D., Burrows, R. (eds) (2010) Special Issue on Consumption, Prosumption and Participatory Web Cultures. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10.3-149. Bender, J., Marriman, M. (2010) The Culture of Diagram. Stanford, Stanford University Press. Bishop, C. (2005) Installation Art. London, Tate Publishing. Bourriaud, N.. (2009) ‘Altermodern’ in Bourriaud, N. (ed) Altermodern. London, Tate Publishing. Bracken, C.C., Skalski, P.D. (eds) (2010) Immersed in Media. Telepresence in Everyday Life. New York, Routledge. Brown, S., Stenner, P. (2009) Psychology Without Foundations. History, Philosophy and Psychosocial Theory. London, Sage. Bruno, G. (2007) Public Intimacy. Architecture and the Visual Arts. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Canales, J. (2009) A Tenth of a Second. A History. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Cartwright, W., Gartner, G., Lehn, A. (eds) (2009) Cartography and Art. New York, Springer. Collins, R. (2008) Violence. A Micro-Sociological Theory. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Crouch, C. (2004) Post-Democracy. Cambridge, Polity Press. Da Costa, B., Philip, K. (eds) (2008) Tactical Biopolitics. Art, Activism, and Technoscience. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. De Vitry Maubry, L. (1985) ‘Etienne Souriau’s cosmic vision and the coming-into-its-own of the platonic other’ Man and World, 18, 325-345. Diehm, C. (2003) ‘Natural disasters’ in Brown, C.S., Toadvine, T. (eds) Eco-Phenomenology. Back to the Earth Itself. Albany, State University of New York Press, 171-185. Dill, K.E. (2009) How Fantasy Becomes Reality. Seeing Through Media Influence. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Dixon, D. (2009) ‘Creating the semi-living: on politics, aesthetics and the more-than-human’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, NS34, 411-425. Ehrenreich, B. (2009) Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America. New York, Metropolitan Books. Economist (2009) ‘War games’ The Economist, December 12th, 77-78. Economist (2010) ‘Follow me’ The Economist, March 6th, 81. Edney, M. (2009) ‘The irony of imperial mapping’ in Akerman, J.R. (ed) The Imperial Map. Cartography and the Mastery of Empire. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 11-46. Ehrenreich, B. (2010) Smile or Die. How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World. London, Granta. Evernden, N. (1993) The Natural Alien. Humankind and Environment. Second Edition. Toronto, University of Toronto Press. Flanagan, M. (2009) Critical Play. Radical Game Design. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Fuller, M. (ed) (2009) Software Studies. A Lexicon. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Galloway, A.R. (2004) Protocol. How Control Exists After Decentralization. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Galloway, A.R., Thacker, E. (2007) The Exploit. A Theory of Networks. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press. Gaver, W. W. (2002). Provocative awareness. Computer Supported Collaborative Work. New York: Kluwer, pp. 475 – 493. Gaver, W. (2006). The video window: My life with a ludic system. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 10(2-3): 60-65. Gaver, W., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Gellerson, H., Pennington, S., Schmidt, A., Steed, A., Villar, N., and Walker, B. (2004). The Drift Table: designing for ludic engagement. Proceedings CHI’04 Design Expo. New York: ACM Press. Gaver, W., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Law, A., and Pennington, S. (2007). Electronic furniture for the Curious Home: Assessing ludic designs in the field. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 22(1-2): 119-152. Gaver, W., Sengers, P., Kerridge, T., Kaye, J., and Bowers, J. (2007). Enhancing ubiquitous computing with user interpretation: Field testing the Home Health Horoscope. Proceedings CHI’07. Gaver, W., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Law, A., Pennington, S. and Villar N. (2006). The History Tablecloth: Illuminating domestic activity. Proceedings DIS 2006. Goodchild, M. (2009) ‘An interview with Michael Goodchild’ Environment and Planning D. Society and Space, 27, 573-580. Gould, J.R., Gould, C.G. (2007) Animal Architects. Building and the Evolution of Intelligence. New York, Basic Books. Gould, S.J. (1977) Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. Gregory, D. (2008) ‘‘The rush to the intimate’. Counterinsurgency and the cultural turn’ Radical Philosophy, No 150, Greenblatt, S. (2010) Cultural Mobility. A Manifesto. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Greenfield, A. (2006) Everyware. The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. Berkeley, CA, New Riders. Groebner, V. (2007) Who Are You? Identification, Surveillance and Deception in Early Modern Europe. New York, Zone Books. Grusin, R. (2010) Premediation. Affect and Mediality After 9/11. London, Palgrave Macmillan. Hakim, C. (2010) ‘Erotic capital’ European Sociological Review, Hallward, P. (2009) ‘Staging equality: Ranciere’s theatrocracy and the limits of anarchic equality’ in Rockhill, G., Watts, P. (eds) Jacques Ranciere. History, Politics, Aesthetics. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 140-157. Hansell, M. (2007) Built by Animals. The Natural History of Animal Architecture. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Harmon, K. (ed) (2003) You Are Here. Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination. Princeton, Princeton Architectural Press. Harmon, K. (2009) The Map as Art. Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography. Princeton, Princeton Architectural Press. Harper, R. (2009) ‘From tele presence to human absence’ Proceedings HCI, September 1st-5th, Cambridge. Headrick, D.R. (2000) When Information Comes of Age. Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Heller-Roazen, D. (2005) Echolalias. New York, Zone Books. Higgins, H.B. (2008) The Grid Book. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Hrdy, S.B. (2009) Mothers and Others. The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. Ihde, D. (2008) Ironic Technics. Automatic Press. Ingold, T. (2007) Lines. A Brief History. London, Routledge. Ingraham, C. (2006) Architecture, Animal, Human: The Asymmetrical Condition. New York, Routledge. Jaggar, A. (1983) Feminist Politics and Political Theory. London, Routledge Kegan Paul. Kampfner, J. (2009) Freedom For Sale. How We Made Money and Lost Our Liberty. London, Simon and Schuster. Kamvar, S., Harris, J. (2009) We Feel Fine. An Almanac of Human Emotion. New York, Scribner. Kendall, N., Ahmed, M. (2010) ‘No more joypads, simply wave at the screen’ The Times, January 8th, 27. Kitchin, R., Dodge, M. (2007) ‘Rethinking maps’ Progress in Human Geography, 31, 331-344. Klanten, R., Bourquin, N., Tissot, T., Ehmann, S. (eds) (2009) Data Flow. Visualising Information in Graphic Design. Berlin, Gestalten. Kozel, S. (2007) Closer. Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Kozloff, J. (2008) Co+Ordinates. New York, Distributed Art Publishers. Krauss, R. (2010) Perpetual Inventory. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Krohn, W., Weyer, J. (1994) ‘Society as a laboratory: the social risks of experimental research’ Science and Public Policy, 21, 173-183. Latour, B. (2009 ‘Perspectivism: type or bomb?’ Anthropology Today, 25 (2), 1-2. Lawlor, L. (2006) The Implications of Immanence. Toward a New Concept of Life. New York, Fordham University Press. Lehrer, J. (2009) ‘Don’t! The secret of self-control’. The New Yorker, 26-32. Lewis, G.E. (2007) ‘Mobilitas animi: improvising technologies, intending chance’ Parallax, 13, 108-122. Lippard, L. R. (1997) The Lure of the Local. Senses of Place in a Multicentred Society. New York, New Press. Lynn, G. (1999) Animate Form. Princeton, Princeton Architectural Press. McCandless, D. (2009) Information is Beautiful. London, Collins. Mackenzie, D. (2008) An Engine, Not a Camera. How Financial Models Shape Markets. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Manning, E. (2009) Relationscapes. Movement, Art, Philosophy. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Manovich, L. (2009) ‘The practice of everyday (media) life: from mass consumption to mass cultural production’ Critical Inquiry, 35, 319-331. Mogel, L., Bhagat, A. (eds) (2008) An Atlas of Radical Cartography. Los Angeles, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press. Montagu, A. (1981) Growing Young. New York, McGraw Hill. Muhlmann, H. (1996) The Nature of Cultures. A Blueprint for a Theory of Culture Genetics. Vienna, Springer Verlag. Muhlmann, H. (2005) Maximal Stress Co-operation. The Driving Force of Cultures. Wien, Springer Verlag. Muhlmann, H. (2008) ‘Foreword’ in Truby, S. Exit-Architecture. Design Between War and Peace. Wien, Springer Verlag, 1-10. Mullarkey, J. (2006) Post-Continental Philosophy. An Outline. London, Continuum. Norton, D.F., Taylor, J. (eds) (2009) The Cambridge Companion to Hume. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Nusselder, A. (2009) Interface Fantasy. A Lacanian Cyborg Ontology. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Nuttall, C. (2009) ‘Profits of doom’ Financial Times, November 14th, p11. Payne, T. (2009) Fame. From Bronze Age to Britney. London, Vintage. Raijmakers, B., Gaver, W., and Bishay, J. (2006). Design Documentaries: Inspiring design research through documentary film. Proceedings DIS 2006. Read, A. (2008) Theatre, Intimacy and Engagement. The Last Human Venue. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. Sengers, P. and Gaver, W. (2006). Staying open to interpretation: Engaging multiple meanings in design and evaluation. Proceedings DIS 2006. Schulze, G. (2007) ‘Between emotion and calculation. Patterns of modern life’ NZZ Podium, 7th May. Sloterdijk, P. (2009a) God’s Zeal. The Battle of the Three Monotheisms. Cambridge, Polity Press. Sloterdijk, P. (2009b) Derrida, An Egyptian. On the Problem of the Jewish Pyramid. Cambridge, Polity. Souriau, E. (1943) Les Differents Modes d’Existence. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France (reissued in 2009 with an introduction, ‘Le sphinx de l’oeuvre’ by Stengers, I., Latour, B.). Sterling, B. (2009) The Caryatids. New York, Del Rey. Stiegler, B. (2008) Acting Out. Stanford, Stanford University Press. Stiegler, B. (2009) ‘Technologics of the snail: the errant self wired to a WiMax network’ Theory Culture and Society, 26, 33-45. Sultan, T. (ed) (2009) Chantal Akerman. Moving through Time and Space. Houston, Blaffer Gallery. Taussig, M. (2009) What Colour is the Sacred? Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Thompson, N. (ed) (2009) Experimental Geography. Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography, and Urbanism. New York, Independent Curators International. Toadvine, T. (2009) Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy of Nature. Evanston, Northwestern University Press. Truby, S. (2008) Exit-Architecture. Design Between War and Peace. Wien, Springer Verlag. Turner, A. (2009) Introduction to Neogeography. Chicago, O’Reilly. Turse, N. (2008) The Complex. How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives. London, Faber and Faber. Vidler, A. (ed) (2008) Architecture Between Spectacle and Use. New Haven, Yale University Press. Whatmore, S. J. (2009) ‘Mapping knowledge controversies: science, democracy and the redistribution of expertise’ Progress in Human Geography, 23, 1-12. Wilson, B. (2009) What Price Freedom? How Freedom Was Won and Is Being Lost. London, Faber and Faber. Wolin, S. (2009) Democracy Inc. Managed Democracy and the Spectre of Inverted Totalitarianism. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Wood, D., Fels, J. (2009) The Natures of Maps. Cartographic Constructions of the Natural World. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/34589