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Bringers of Order

Wearable Technologies and the Manufacturing of Everyday Life

James N Gilmore author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of California Press

Publishing:4th Mar '25

£25.00

This title is due to be published on 4th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Bringers of Order cover

Wearable technology, including smartwatches, biometric trackers, and body cameras, are often touted as helpful tools that record, produce, and analyze data about daily life to improve our individual habits and health or to solve serious public issues. In this book, James N. Gilmore argues that these lofty promises mask forms of surveillance and power.
 
Charting the implementation of wearables in areas of accessibility, health, sports, labor, law enforcement, and infrastructure, Gilmore demonstrates how these devices have been positioned as authoritative means for producing knowledge about human activity. Drawing on news reporting, advertising, film and television, company reports, and legal policies, he shows how this knowledge production reproduces three distinct modes of power: normalcy, surveillance, and solutionism. Bringers of Order empowers readers to examine the complicated ways our devices reshape how we think about our lives and our ethics and why we should resist companies analyzing our personal data.
 

ISBN: 9780520410145

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

256 pages