The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information

Critical Writing
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Year: 
2004
ISBN: 
9780226486994
Pages: 
xi, 573
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All Rights reserved
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Abstract (in English): 

Knowledge work is now the reigning business paradigm and affects even the world of higher education. But what perspective can the knowledge of the humanities and arts contribute to a world of knowledge work whose primary mission is business? And what is the role of information technology as both the servant of the knowledge economy and the medium of a new technological cool? In The Laws of Cool, Alan Liu reflects on these questions as he considers the emergence of new information technologies and their profound influence on the forms and practices of knowledge.

(Source: University of Chicago Press online catalog.)

Pull Quotes: 

Imagine that the humanities could actually be the sensei in what I called the virtual dojo of cool.

The tendecy of text-centred scholars to dismiss new media and browsing as merely faciile practices of knowledge is itself facile without serious consideration of the unique kinds of thought - and also antithought - native to the delightful new media.

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Eric Dean Rasmussen