Roundtable discussing Tabachnick book

A roundtable panel discussion was organized yesterday at the Canadian Political Science Association Conference to celebrate and examine a new book by Nipissing’s Dr. David Tabachnick, Associate Professor of Political Science.
The book, The Great Reversal: How we let Technology take Control of the Planet, was published by University of Toronto press in 2013.

Abstract:  This book is an important and innovative contribution to Canadian political theory, identified by Darin Barney (Canada Research Chair in Technology and Citizenship, McGill University) as a ‘magnificent tour through the history of Western political thought’ that gives ‘sober, sobering and detailed attention to the material challenges of contemporary technology’. Central to Tabachnick’s concern is a consideration of whether technology is an autonomous force in the contemporary context, or whether it is a consequence of reigning institutional structures. 

The roundtable has four participants: Tabachnick; Shannon Bell, Professor, Political Science, York University; Leah Bradshaw, Professor, Political Science, Brock University; and Jay Conte, PhD Candidate, Political Science, Carleton University. All of the participants have written in the general area of technology and politics, but participants have been chosen on the basis of the diversity of their perspectives. Bell is a political theorist and performance artist currently engaged in research on tissue-engineered bioart and robotic art. Bradshaw writes on the history of political thought, and draws much of her critical perspective from Hannah Arendt’s thinking on technology and modernity. Jay Conte has been pursuing research on the distinction between therapy and enhancement in bioethics.