The Crisis of Presence in Contemporary Culture

Vincent Miller is Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent

Introduction Chapter 1: METAPHYSICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL PRESENCE Chapter 2: PRESENCE, PROXIMITY AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR ONLINE Chapter 3: 'FIND LOVE IN CANADA': DISTRIBUTED SELVES, ABSTRACTION AND THE PROBLEM OF PRIVACY AND AUTONOMY Chapter 4: 'GOING TO AFRICA...': THE PROBLEM OF SPEECH IN A WORLD WHERE WE WRITE INSTEAD OF TALK Conclusion

Discussions about the contemporary online world are often in a one-dimensional manner shaped by moral panics about online trolling, cyberbullying, cybercrime, terrorists online, etc. The associated right-wing extremist agenda for Internet politics is about control, surveillance and censorship. Vince Miller's book questions this agenda and is an excellent work for understanding how to use philosophical thought for the analysis of ethics, privacy and disclosure in this turbulent world of the Internet in the information society. It shows how to come to grips with the contested relationship between online freedom and control. -- Christian Fuchs This book addresses a gap in the market, in that it offers a much-needed, theoretically-driven reflection on the nature and experience of online communication. It promises a significant contribution. -- Majid Yar In his unfaltering cyber-skepticism, Vincent Miller provides a welcome ethical and philosophical critique of the drawbacks of our contemporary digital existence. Remaining vigilant about how digital technologies inherently objectify the social itself, he calls for both reclaiming the value of embodied presence and for rights for our distributed selves. This is a timely and provocative book on the impasses of our imperiled digital human condition, but it also offers a long overdue ethics for networked humankind. -- Amanda Lagerkvist In the context of globalization, the internet and social media, presence has returned as an important term for social science and cultural studies. This book explores a key concept for our generation. Now that we have a distributed presence in digital networks, this is no longer just a topic for philosophers. We are turned into abstract avatars and data profiles. Presence covers a range of social issues around care, intimacy, relationships, privacy, local versus global, and the felt impact and "reach" of cyber bullies as much as state surveillance. Presence was once the hallmark of face-to-face interaction, but now we have to learn to deal with timeless forms of presence thanks to online photos, profiles, and information unwittingly made public. -- Rob Shields