The Humanities in the Digital: Beyond Critical Digital Humanities
Description
This open access book challenges the contemporary relevance of the current model of knowledge production. It argues that the full digitisation of society sharply accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic has added extreme complexity to the world, conclusively exposing the inadequacy of our current model of knowledge creation. Addressing many of the different ways in which reality has been transformed by technology - the pervasive adoption of big data, the fetishisation of algorithms and automation, and the digitalisation of education and research - Viola examines how the rigid conceptualisation in disciplines' division and competition is complicit of promoting a narrative which has paired computational methods with exactness and neutrality whilst stigmatising consciousness and criticality as carriers of biases and inequality. Taking the humanities as a focal point, the author retraces schisms in the field between the humanities, the digital humanities and critical digital humanities; these are embedded, she argues, within old dichotomies: sciences vs humanities, digital vs non-digital and authentic vs non-authentic. Through the analysis of personal use cases and exploring a variety of applied contexts such as digital heritage practices, digital linguistic injustice, critical digital literacy and critical digital visualisation, the book shows a third way: knowledge creation in the digital.
Reviews / Votes
"In her timely The Humanities in the Digital Lorella Viola offers a perspective on the future of the humanities that is both commonsensical and theoretically well grounded. The humanities have a purpose under the sun that distinguishes them from every other research domain, but at the same time the digital is here to stay. Dr. Viola succeeds in reconciling the two by challenging the binary distinctions between digital and non-digital knowledge production, advocating for a 'post-authentic' approach that sees digital objects as the dynamic result of human-machine interaction in complex contexts. The 'critical' digital humanities will never be the same." (Joris van Eijnatten, Director and Professor in Digital History, Netherlands eScience Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)" The Humanities in the Digital sets out a bold and vital agenda - to find common ground between the arts and sciences, and to put aside the duality of the 'two cultures' in the digital era. Perceptive, original, and theoretically rich, Lorella Viola's book shows the need for critical reflection on the role of computing technologies at a time when they are transforming society. It looks to the future of knowledge creation in a world where the boundaries of disciplines can be more porous and generative of new approaches and innovation." (Paul Arthur, Professor and Chair in Digital Humanities and Social Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Australia)
"Drawing on her rich, varied body of digital scholarship, Viola offers a compelling look at the "digital turn" in humanities research. Arguing against compartmentalization that distinguishes digital humanities from critical digital humanities, she adeptly makes the case for a new framework for digital knowledge creation. Viola's book further demonstratesthe value of auto-ethnographic and self-reflexive approaches to studying the work of humanists in the digital milieu. Both technically sophisticated and eminently readable, The Humanities in the Digital has much to offer the study of the humanities - both digital and analog." (Roopika Risam, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Comparative Literature, part of the Digital Humanities and Social Engagement cluster at Dartmouth College, USA)
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