[Air-L] NEW BOOK: Meaningful Inefficiencies

[Eric Gordon]

I am thrilled to share the news of the publication of my new book. It's
called *Meaningful Inefficiencies: Civic Design in an Age of Digital
Expediency *(Oxford, 2020). I hope it will be of interest to many on this
list, as it looks at the challenge of building trust in legacy civic
institutions. Set with the backdrop of smart technologies, the book focuses
on practitioners who are actively adapting those tools away from the
primary value of efficiency, and towards participation, care and trust.

Here's a description:
Public trust in the institutions that mediate civic life—from governing
bodies to newsrooms—is low, and many organizations assume that greater
efficiency will build trust. As a result, these organizations are quick to
adopt new technologies to enhance what they do. However, efficiency, in the
sense of charting a path to a goal with the least amount of friction, is
not always built on a foundation of trust. Meaningful Inefficiencies is
about the practices that challenge the normative applications of “smart
technologies” in order to build or repair trust with publics. Based on over
60 interviews with change makers in public-serving organizations throughout
the United States, as well as detailed case studies, co-authors Eric Gordon
and Gabriel Mugar provide a practical and deeply philosophical picture of
civic life in transition.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/meaningful-inefficiencies-9780190870133?lang=en&cc=us#




-- 
Eric Gordon, Ph.D.
Professor of Media Art
Director, Engagement Lab
Emerson College
http://elab.emerson.edu
http://ericgordon.academia.edu