{"title":"Books by Julian Thomas","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781509529902","title":"Wi–Fi","description":"From café culture to home schooling, remote community networks, and smart cities, Wi-Fi is an invisible but fundamental element of contemporary life. Loosely regulated, low-cost, and largely overlooked by researchers, this technology has driven the rise of the smartphone and broadband internet, and is a vital element in the next wave of automation.    Thomas, Wilken, and Rennie provide the first comprehensive account of the social and cultural consequences of Wi-Fi, highlighting the ways in which it has changed our homes, communities, and cities. They discuss its origins as an experimental technology, the conflicts generated around its ownership and control, and the ideas and expectations attached to it by technologists, activists, and entrepreneurs. The authors reveal the ways in which Wi-Fi is an inherently social and political technology, animated by conflicting aspirations for local, public, and community control, and defined by private and corporate interests. As this book shows, Wi-Fi has extended and intensified our online lives while also promising a more inclusive internet.    Wi-Fi is essential reading for students and scholars of media and communication, as well as anyone who wants a better understanding of this ubiquitous and influential technology.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301544374645,"sku":"9781509529902","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509529902_c070f64e-93c6-41dd-a508-0642813101eb.jpg?v=1786022385"},{"product_id":"9789088907050","title":"Stonehenge for the Ancestors","description":"For many centuries, scholars and enthusiasts have been fascinated by Stonehenge, the world’s most famous stone circle. In 2003 a team of archaeologists commenced a long-term fieldwork project for the first time in decades. The Stonehenge Riverside Project (2003-2009) aimed to investigate the purpose of this unique prehistoric monument by considering it within its wider archaeological context.This is the second of four volumes which present the results of that campaign. It includes studies of the lithics from excavations, both from topsoil sampling and from excavated features, as well as of the petrography of the famous bluestones, as identified from chippings recovered during excavations. Other specialist syntheses are those of the land mollusca. The volume provides an overview of Stonehenge in its landscape over millennia from before the monument was built to the last of its five constructional stages. It concludes with a chapter placing Stonehenge in its full context within Britain and western Europe during the third millennium BC.With contributions by:Umberto Albarella, Michael Allen, Richard Bevins, Benjamin Chan, Robert Ixer, Claudia Minniti, Doug Mitcham and Sarah Viner-Daniels","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311336075637,"sku":"9789088907050","price":60.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9789088907050_64d81227-b599-449c-bfe2-d803b575f0e8.jpg?v=1786032044"},{"product_id":"automating-media","title":"Automating Media","description":"Search engines, paywalls, bots, targeted ads: we already share our media worlds with machines — and with the rise of generative AI, new ones are coming.   Automating Media is an accessible, incisive guide to the new wave of automation transforming contemporary culture and communication. Drawing on extensive research, the book sheds new light on the key technologies, infrastructures, industry convulsions and cultural innovations driving media automation. The authors pinpoint where automation is happening, introduce the organisations making it happen, and critically assess debates over its consequences. They outline the implications of automation for knowledge practices, entertainment, and culture, and highlight its potential impact on other spheres.   Filled with instructive contemporary and historical examples, Automating Media shows how current developments see the return of questions and conflicts provoked by earlier moments of technological change, while also presenting new challenges that will unfold over the coming decades. It is enlightening reading for advanced students and scholars of Media and Communication Studies, Internet Studies, and industry practitioners.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57682664784245,"sku":"9781509567386","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57504878330229,"sku":"9781509567379","price":50.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509567386_8d47d3f7-98a7-44f7-a987-0dccf75256df.jpg?v=1792511589"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-julian-thomas.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}