Technology & Engineering

We are living in algorithmic times.

From machine learning and artificial intelligence to blockchain or simpler newsfeed filtering, automated systems can transform the social world in ways that are just starting to be imagined.

Redefining these emergent technologies as the new systems of knowing, pioneering scholar David Beer examines the acute tensions they create and how they are changing what is known and what is knowable. Drawing on cases ranging from the art market and the smart home, through to financial tech, AI patents and neural networks, he develops key concepts for understanding the framing, envisioning and implementation of algorithms.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is concerned with the rise of algorithmic thinking and the way it permeates society.

In Creating Community-Led and Self-Build Homes, Martin Field explores the ways in which people and communities across the UK have been striving to create the homes and neighbourhood communities they want.

Giving context to contemporary practices in the UK, the book examines ‘self-build housing’ and ‘community-led housing’, discussing the commonalities and distinctions between these in practice, and what could be learned from other initiatives across Europe.

Individual methods and models of local practice are explored - including cohousing, cooperatives, community land trusts, empty homes and other intentional communities - and an examination is made of what has constrained such initiatives to date and how future policies and practice might be shaped.

We are living in algorithmic times.

From machine learning and artificial intelligence to blockchain or simpler newsfeed filtering, automated systems can transform the social world in ways that are just starting to be imagined.

Redefining these emergent technologies as the new systems of knowing, pioneering scholar David Beer examines the acute tensions they create and how they are changing what is known and what is knowable. Drawing on cases ranging from the art market and the smart home, through to financial tech, AI patents and neural networks, he develops key concepts for understanding the framing, envisioning and implementation of algorithms.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is concerned with the rise of algorithmic thinking and the way it permeates society.