[ecrea] Book announcement: Software Theory

With apologies for cross-posting and self-promotion, I just wanted to 
let you know that my book, Software Theory, has been published by Rowman 
& Littlefield. Taking both ‘software’ and ‘theory’ seriously, it argues 
for the importance of thinking software philosophically if we are to 
think it politically, and it engages in a deconstructive questioning of 
the received concepts of ‘software’, ‘technology’, ‘society’, ‘culture’, 
and even the ‘human’ that contemporary media and cultural studies rely 
upon. I’m pasting the official blurb below.

Best wishes,

Federica

*************
Federica Frabetti
SOFTWARE THEORY: A CULTURAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL STUDY
Rowman & Littlefield, 2014
Series: Media Philosophy edited by Eleni Ikoniadou and Scott Wilson
http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/software-theory
Also available in paperback and as eBook

The cultural and philosophical study of software is crucial, both within 
and outside of the university, at an international level and across 
disciplines. Software is increasingly considered the focus of digital 
media studies because of the perceived need to address the invisibility, 
ubiquity, and power of digital media. Yet software remains quite obscure 
to students and scholars in media studies, the social sciences, and the 
humanities.This unique book engages directly in close readings of 
technical texts and computer code in order to show how software works 
and in what sense it can be considered constitutive of culture and even 
of human thought. Federica Frabetti combines this with an engagement 
with thinkers such as Bernard Steigler and Jacques Derrida to 
problematize the very nature of the conceptual system on which software 
is based and which has shaped its historical evolution. The book argues 
for a radical demystification of software and digital technologies by 
addressing the mystery that surrounds its function and that affects our 
comprehension of its relationship between technology, philosophy, 
culture, and society.

Putting philosophers (Derrida, Stiegler) in dialogue with engineers 
(Fred Brooks, Eric S. Raymond), Software Theory offers computer 
scientists and cultural theorists new ways to read, write, and think 
software. To study software, Frabetti suggests, is to risk being 
ensnared in a strange loop: culture explains technology; technology 
explains culture. But Frabetti considers software as nothing more or 
less than an advanced form of writing, and thereby advances a 
much-needed politics of transparency, revealing the precarity of this 
bedrock of contemporary society.
(Scott Dexter, Professor of Computer and Information Science at Brooklyn 
College)

This book represents a landmark in the field of techno-cultural studies. 
Frabetti's deconstructive reading of software and code reveals their key 
role within the scriptorium of contemporary culture.This is a highly 
original contribution to understanding the writing/machine relationship 
and will give pause for thought amongst all those who suppose that the 
technics of inscription can be studied independently of the question of 
language itself.
(Dave Boothroyd, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, Lincoln 
School of Film and Media, Univeristy of Lincoln)

Software Theory is the definitive cultural analysis of software qua 
software, vividly troubling the critical tendency to regard it strictly 
in terms of functionality, design, or use. Frabetti writes out of a deep 
knowledge of both continental philosophy and software engineering that 
is nothing short of awe inspiring. An invaluable contribution to 
“Software Studies” that will at the same time shake up the central 
paradigms of the field.
(Rita Raley, University of California, Santa Barbara)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction / 2. From Technical Tools to Originary Technicity: The 
Concept of Technology in Western Philosophy / 3. Language, Writing and 
Code: Towards a Deconstructive Reading of Software / 4. Software as 
Material Inscription: The Beginnings of Software Engineering / 5. >From 
the Cathedral to the Bazaar: Software as the Unexpected / 6. Writing the 
Printed Circuit: For a Genealogy of Code / 7. Conclusion: The Unforeseen 
Consequeneses of Technology / Bibliography / Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Federica Frabetti is Senior Lecturer in Communication, Media and Culture 
at Oxford Brookes University. She has a diverse professional and 
academic background in the humanities and ICT and has worked for a 
decade as a Software Engineer in telecommunications companies. She has 
published numerous articles on the cultural study of technology, digital 
media and software studies, cultural theory and gender and queer theory. 
She edited the special issue of the academic journal Culture Machine, 
The Digital Humanities Beyond Computing 12 (2011). She is an editor and 
translator of The Judith Halberstam Reader (in Italian).

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Federica Frabetti
Senior Lecturer in Communication, Media and Culture
Oxford Brookes University
Harcourt Hill Campus
OX2 9AT
Tel: 01865 488501
Email: (f.frabetti /at/ brookes.ac.uk)


---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chaussée de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------