Invitation: Book launch of “Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of Information Plenty” by Pablo J. Boczkowski

PJ
Pablo J Boczkowski
Thu, Apr 29, 2021 6:05 PM

Dear colleagues –

I hope this message finds each of you well.

I’m writing to announce the publication of my new book, Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of Information Plentyhttps://global.oup.com/academic/product/abundance-9780197565759?cc=us&lang=en& (Oxford University Press, 2021). The topic might interest people on this list. From the publisher’s site:

“Information overload is something that humans have dealt with for millennia. During different historical eras, massive increases in what was available to know has motivated the creation of systems for sorting, indexing, and compiling information as well as concerns that the abundance of information might cause cultural anxiety or even drive people to madness. The digital age has renewed concerns about information overload and the detrimental effects it has on our ability to sort through the stream of online data, decide what is most important, or even to train our attention on it long enough to make sense of it.

In Abundance, Pablo J. Boczkowski builds upon what we know about the historical and contemporary scholarship to develop a novel framework on the experience of living in a society that has more information available to the public than ever before, focusing on the interpretations, emotions, and practices of dealing with this abundance in everyday life. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and survey research conducted in Argentina, Abundance examines the role of cultural and structural factors that mediate between the availability of information and the actual consequences for individuals, media, politics, and society. Providing the first book-length account of information abundance in the Global South, Boczkowski concludes that the experience of information abundance is tied to an overall unsettling of society, a reconstitution of how we understand and perform our relationships with others, and a twin depreciation of facts and appreciation of fictions.”

I’d also like to invite you to the virtual launch of the book, which will take place on Sunday May 2 at 5 pm US Eastern Time, during the closing night of Blue Metropolis, the Montreal International Literary Festival. For more details, visit the Facebook Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/287926919487199. I hope to see many of you there!

All the best,

Pablo J. Boczkowski

--
Pablo J. Boczkowski (he/él)
Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor
Northwestern University
boczkowski.orghttps://boczkowski.org/

New books in 2021:
Abundance: On the Experience of Living In ahttps://global.oup.com/academic/product/abundance-9780197565759?cc=us&lang=en& World of Information Plentyhttps://global.oup.com/academic/product/abundance-9780197565759?cc=us&lang=en&
The Digital Environment: How We Live, Learn, Work, and Play Nowhttps://mitpress.mit.edu/books/digital-environment

Dear colleagues – I hope this message finds each of you well. I’m writing to announce the publication of my new book, Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of Information Plenty<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/abundance-9780197565759?cc=us&lang=en&> (Oxford University Press, 2021). The topic might interest people on this list. From the publisher’s site: “Information overload is something that humans have dealt with for millennia. During different historical eras, massive increases in what was available to know has motivated the creation of systems for sorting, indexing, and compiling information as well as concerns that the abundance of information might cause cultural anxiety or even drive people to madness. The digital age has renewed concerns about information overload and the detrimental effects it has on our ability to sort through the stream of online data, decide what is most important, or even to train our attention on it long enough to make sense of it. In Abundance, Pablo J. Boczkowski builds upon what we know about the historical and contemporary scholarship to develop a novel framework on the experience of living in a society that has more information available to the public than ever before, focusing on the interpretations, emotions, and practices of dealing with this abundance in everyday life. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and survey research conducted in Argentina, Abundance examines the role of cultural and structural factors that mediate between the availability of information and the actual consequences for individuals, media, politics, and society. Providing the first book-length account of information abundance in the Global South, Boczkowski concludes that the experience of information abundance is tied to an overall unsettling of society, a reconstitution of how we understand and perform our relationships with others, and a twin depreciation of facts and appreciation of fictions.” I’d also like to invite you to the virtual launch of the book, which will take place on Sunday May 2 at 5 pm US Eastern Time, during the closing night of Blue Metropolis, the Montreal International Literary Festival. For more details, visit the Facebook Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/287926919487199. I hope to see many of you there! All the best, Pablo J. Boczkowski -- Pablo J. Boczkowski (he/él) Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor Northwestern University boczkowski.org<https://boczkowski.org/> New books in 2021: Abundance: On the Experience of Living In a<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/abundance-9780197565759?cc=us&lang=en&> World of Information Plenty<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/abundance-9780197565759?cc=us&lang=en&> The Digital Environment: How We Live, Learn, Work, and Play Now<https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/digital-environment>