This research problematizes the rapid growth of beauty blogs, investigating how this process has been shaped and accelerated by gender discourses, platform labor, and the beauty industry, each of... Show moreThis research problematizes the rapid growth of beauty blogs, investigating how this process has been shaped and accelerated by gender discourses, platform labor, and the beauty industry, each of which is rooted in the broader context of China’s social transformation. It offers an integral frame to understand the drivers and effects of beauty bloggers and the wanghong economy in China. It reveals that the explosive development of beauty blogging in China is a result of connections and cooperation among heterogeneous actors at a specific historical conjuncture. Gendered beauty has played an indispensable role in China’s economic reform in that the former has driven and strengthened the latter and vice versa. Platforms worked in tandem with changing beauty discourses and promoted their expansion through beauty blogs. In the meantime, the rise of beauty blogging in China is an embodiment of global capitalism, which has strong ties with the beauty industry’s pre-digital system of mass production. Show less
New Edge. Technology and Spirituality in the San Francisco Bay Area is a study of the way that technologists, artists, writers and entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area negotiate the events... Show moreNew Edge. Technology and Spirituality in the San Francisco Bay Area is a study of the way that technologists, artists, writers and entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area negotiate the events that have characterized this region since World War II: the rise of the computer industry and of New Age spirituality. The book argues that some of these negotiations have led to a New Edge culture, consisting of high-tech New Agers seeking to produce ways of being, acting and thinking that transcend the modernist assumption that technoscience and spirituality exclude each other. As the chapters progress it becomes clear that the assumed tension between technology and spirituality does not New Edge life sufficiently. New Edge has grown in relation to several other paradoxes that inform everyday life in one of the most high-technological regions in the world. Tracing New Edge back to the 1960s counterculture, this dissertation explores how New Edgers negotiate life in a society that calls itself secular but also believes in ultimate truth, that is both in and out of control, that invites passive consumption as well as active engagement, and that celebrates communal living as much as an individualistic ‘Do It Yourself’ ethic. Show less
Grote uitvoeringsorganisaties als de Belastingdienst, deInformatiebeheer Groep en de Sociale Verzekeringsbank vormen de kern van deverzorgingsstaat. Elke burger komt jaarlijks wel op één of andere... Show moreGrote uitvoeringsorganisaties als de Belastingdienst, deInformatiebeheer Groep en de Sociale Verzekeringsbank vormen de kern van deverzorgingsstaat. Elke burger komt jaarlijks wel op één of andere manier inaanraking met het digitale gezicht van de overheid. Achter dat gezicht gaat eenwereld van automatische uitvoering, registratiesystemen, applicaties enkoppeling tussen processen schuil. De publieke en politieke aandacht voor diewereld is beperkt, en daar is alles ook op gericht. Miljoenen wordengeïnvesteerd in een rimpelloze uitvoering, juist omdat, als het mis gaat, degevolgen niet te overzien zijn, zowel in financieel opzicht als in het aantalburgers dat getroffen wordt. Desondanks gaat het soms mis. De fraude bij dekinderopvangtoeslag in 2009. De problemen rond DigID in 2008. De slechte startvan de dienst Toeslagen in 2007. De RDW die al jaren moeite heeft metAPK-vrijstellingen voor oldtimers. De problemen rond de Nabestaandenwet bij deSociale Verzekeringsbank in 2004. Vaak gaat aan dergelijke problemen een reekswaarschuwingen en incidenten vooraf. Desondanks worden dergelijke ‘accidentswaiting to happen’ niet herkend. Waarom? Over die vraag gaat ‘De Autobureaucratie. Informatiseringen leren van uitvoering’ Show less
