New Books In Public Policy

Technology is a form of material culture and is a human activity. The way in which humans view technology is a social construction in which people use social processes of interpretation and negotiation. The mundane rituals that humans carry out when interacting with technology are loaded with emotional overtones. The interaction with technology in most cases become habit. The dependence and isolation that result from technology use is invisible and seems natural to membership groups that use it. Chelsea Schelly, the author of Dwelling in Resistance: Living with Alternative Technologies in America (Rutgers University Press, 2017) and my guest for this episode, studied technology and the way in which people of four alternative lifestyles live without such dependency on technology. In our interview, we discuss the way in which people at The Farm, Twin Oaks, Dancing Rabbits, and Earthship Biotecture lived their daily lives by sharing some technology and living without most of it. Chelsea Schelly, Ph.D. is an Ass