What is the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the human condition? In order to address this question, in 2012 the European Commission organized a research project entitled The Onlife Initiative: concept reengineering for rethinking societal concerns in the digital transition. This volume collects the work of the Onlife Initiative. It explores how the development and widespread use of ICTs have a radical impact on the human condition. ICTs are not mere tools but rather social forces that are increasingly affecting our self-conception (who we are), our mutual interactions (how we socialise); our conception of reality (our metaphysics); and our interactions with reality (our agency). In each case, ICTs have a huge ethical, legal, and political significance, yet one with which we have begun to come to terms only recently. The impact exercised by ICTs is due to at least four major transformations: the blurring of the distinction between reality and virtuality; the blurring of the distinction between human, machine and nature; the reversal from information scarcity to information abundance; and the shift from the primacy of stand-alone things, properties, and binary relations, to the primacy of interactions, processes and networks. Such transformations are testing the foundations of our conceptual frameworks. Our current conceptual toolbox is no longer fitted to address new ICT-related challenges. This is not only a problem in itself. It is also a risk, because the lack of a clear understanding of our present time may easily lead to negative projections about the future. The goal of The Manifesto, and of the whole book that contextualises, is therefore that of contributing to the update of our philosophy. It is a constructive goal. The book is meant to be a positive contribution to rethinking the philosophy on which policies are built in a hyperconnected world, so that we may have a better chance of understanding our ICT-related problems and solving them satisfactorily. The Manifesto launches an open debate on the impacts of ICTs on public spaces, politics and societal expectations toward policymaking in the Digital Agenda for Europe’s remit. More broadly, it helps start a reflection on the way in which a hyperconnected world calls for rethinking the referential frameworks on which policies are built.

A Rhetorics of the Word is the second volume of a three-part philosophy of Christian life. It approaches Christian life as expressive of a divine calling or vocation. The word Church (ekklesia) and the role of naming in baptism indicate the fundamental place of calling in Christian life. However, ideas of vocation are difficult to access in a world shaped by the experience of disenchantment. The difficulties of articulating vocation are explored with reference to Weber, Heidegger, and Kierkegaard. These are further connected to a general crisis of language, manifesting in the degradation of political discourse (Arendt) and the impact of new communications technology on human discourse. This impact can be seen as reinforcing an occlusion of language in favour of rationality already evidenced in the philosophical tradition and technocratic management. New possibilities for thinking vocation are pursued through the biblical prophets (with emphasis on Buber's and Rosenzweig's reinterpretation of the call of Moses), Saint John, and Russian philosophies of language (Florensky to Bakhtin). Vocation emerges as bound up with the possibility of being name-bearers, enabling a mutuality of call and response. This is then evidenced further in ethics and poetics, where Levinas and Hermann Broch (The Death of Virgil) become major points of reference. In conclusion, the themes of calling and the name are seen to shape the possibility of love-the subject of the final part of the philosophy of Christian life: A Metaphysics of Love.

This book addresses the topic of hyperconnectivity by building on, expanding, and critically examining issues that have to do with information communication technology (ICT) and networked societies. The book explores questions relating to attention and consciousness, techno-capitalism and communicative action taking. Adopting different philosophical angles to assess the challenges we face due to our entanglement with hyperconnected technologies, the book studies performance and performativity in a digitised world by considering the unfolding of our onlife and by looking at what this means to educated future scientists and engineers in a hyperconnected world. The book further discusses digital activities as the new constructs of ourselves and poses questions about how much literacy is needed for us not to be enslaved by those constructs. The book also explores the challenges of hyperconnectivity and the health sector to showcase the vulnerabilities we are increasingly exposed to. It makes clear that - since the boundaries between on- and offline are becoming increasingly blurred - we will require new, flexible frameworks that reconsider what it means to be human in a hyperconnected world.

The author explores the status of being a misfit as something to be embraced, and social misfits as being individuals of value who have a place in society, in a work that encourages people who have had difficulty finding their way to pursue their goals.

Global inequalities and our social identities shape who we are, who we can be online, and what we know. From social media to search engines to Wikipedia, the internet is thoroughly embedded in how we produce, find, and share knowledge around the world. Who Should We Be Online? examines the challenges of the online world using numerous epistemological approaches. Tackling problems of online content moderation, fake news, and hoaxes, Frost-Arnold locates the role that sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression play in creating and sharing knowledge online. Timely and interdisciplinary, Who Should We Be Online? weaves together internet studies scholarship from across the humanities, social sciences, and computer science. Frost-Arnold recognizes that the internet can both fuel ignorance and misinformation and simultaneously offer knowledge to marginalized groups and activists. Presenting case studies of moderators, imposters, and other internet personas, Frost-Arnold explains the problems with our current internet ecosystem and imagines a more just online future. Who Should We Be Online? argues for a social epistemology that values truth and objectivity, while recognizing that inequalities shape our collective ability to attain these goals. Frost-Arnold proposes numerous suggestions and reform strategies to make the internet more conducive to knowledge production and sharing.

The central purpose of this collection of essays is to make a creative addition to the debates surrounding the cultural heritage domain. In the 21st century the world faces epochal changes which affect every part of society, including the arenas in which cultural heritage is made, held, collected, curated, exhibited, or simply exists. The book is about these changes; about the decentring of culture and cultural heritage away from institutional structures towards the individual; about the questions which the advent of digital technologies is demanding that we ask and answer in relation to how we understand, collect and make available Europe’s cultural heritage. Cultural heritage has enormous potential in terms of its contribution to improving the quality of life for people, understanding the past, assisting territorial cohesion, driving economic growth, opening up employment opportunities and supporting wider developments such as improvements in education and in artistic careers. Given that spectrum of possible benefits to society, the range of studies that follow here are intended to be a resource and stimulus to help inform not just professionals in the sector but all those with an interest in cultural heritage.

Investigating the impact of digital technology on contemporary constitutionalism, this book offers an overview of the transformations that are currently occurring at constitutional level, highlighting their link with ongoing societal changes. It reconstructs the multiple ways in which constitutional law is reacting to these challenges and explores the role of one original response to this phenomenon: the emergence of Internet bills of rights. Over the past few years, a significant number of Internet bills of rights have emerged around the world. These documents represent non-legally binding declarations promoted mostly by individuals and civil society groups that articulate rights and principles for the digital society. This book argues that these initiatives reflect a change in the constitutional ecosystem. The transformations prompted by the digital revolution in our society ferment under a vault of constitutional norms shaped for ‘analogue’ communities. Constitutional law struggles to address all the challenges of the digital environment. In this context, Internet bills of rights, by emerging outside traditional institutional processes, represent a unique response to suggest new constitutional solutions for the digital age. Explaining how constitutional law is reacting to the advent of the digital revolution and analysing the constitutional function of Internet Bills of Rights in this context, this book offers a global comparative investigation of the latest transformations that digital technology is generating in the constitutional ecosystem and highlights the plural and multilevel process that is contributing to shape constitutional norms for the Internet age.

In the digital age, the integration of technology has become a ubiquitous aspect of modern society. These advancements have significantly enhanced the field of education, allowing students to receive a better learning experience. Digital Tools and Solutions for Inquiry-Based STEM Learning is a comprehensive source of scholarly material on the transformation of science education classrooms through the application of technology. Including numerous perspectives on topics such as instructional design, social media, and scientific argumentation, this book is ideally designed for educators, graduate students, professionals, academics, and practitioners interested in the latest developments in the field of STEM education.

Design Thinking for Digital Well-being empowers teacher educators/student teachers to teach pupils how to critically embrace technology in their lives. It provides a pedagogical framework for teaching young people to flourish in a digital society and enjoy digital well-being. In so doing, it establishes the need for digital literacy, digital fluency and values fluency within the education system as a whole. With a unique focus on empathy-centric design thinking, and using a case study informed educational model of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK), this expert guide: • Explores the challenges that pupils (and teachers) face balancing their digital lives • Supports the ‘wired generation’ in navigating the cyber sphere and understanding how their data are used • Acknowledges the necessity of supporting the digital well-being of pupils (and teachers) to create a healthy and successful learning environment • Promotes the effective use of technology to enhance teaching and learning • Aids professionals in ensuring pupils enjoy digital literacy, digital fluency, values fluency and safety online Design Thinking for Digital Well-being deals with the core concepts of digital literacy, digital fluency and values fluency that are essential for anyone in the teaching profession. It is a source of support and guidance for all those involved in exploring the challenges of using technology to promote digital well-being.