Being Human in the Digitalocene

Rethinking Agency, Knowledge and Education beyond the Anthropocene
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-42083-1
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 186 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Anthropocene – Humanities and Social Sciences

This book offers a timely philosophical and educational account of the changing human condition in an age shaped by artificial intelligence, algorithmic governance, data-driven infrastructures, and digital platforms. Extending debates on the Anthropocene beyond planetary transformation, it argues that contemporary societies are also being reshaped at the level of perception, knowledge, judgment, agency, and action. Rather than treating digital technologies as external tools, the book conceptualizes them as environments that actively preconfigure human possibilities. Drawing on philosophical anthropology, political philosophy, Hannah Arendt’s thought, Bildung theory, digital ontology, and the philosophy of education, it develops a framework for understanding how algorithmic systems transform human agency, responsibility, freedom, citizenship, and education in digitally mediated societies. By introducing the concept of the Digitalocene, the book bridges Anthropocene studies, AI and society, education theory, media studies, science and technology studies, and digital society research. It is essential reading for scholars and graduate students interested in digital transformation, human formation, algorithmic environments, AI ethics, democratic citizenship, and the future of education.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Suzuki, Shoko

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Angewandte Informatik Computeranwendungen in Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technik: Allgemeines
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie: Allgemeines, Methoden
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Lehrerausbildung, Unterricht & Didaktik E-Learning, Bildungstechnologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction Rethinking the Human Condition in the Digitalocene.- Part I Rethinking Being Human in the Digitalocene.- Chapter 1 The Anthropocene and Being Human in the Transformation: Planetary Change and the Limits of Modern Humanism.- Chapter 2 From Anthropocene to Digitalocene: Digital Infrastructures and the Emergence of a New Historical Condition.- Chapter 3 Arendt Revisited in the Digital Age: Labour, Work, and Action under Conditions of Artificial Intelligence.- Part II Embodiment, Agency, and Knowledge in the Digitalocene.- Chapter 4 Embodiment and the Limits of Modern Knowledge: From Sensory Experience to Relational and Clinical Knowing.- Chapter 5 Embodied Agency in Algorithmic Environments: Perception, Attention, and the Reconfiguration of Human Action.- Part III Algorithmic Environments and the Transformation of Agency.- Chapter 6 Datafied Societies and Algorithmic Reason: How Digital Systems Reshape Knowledge and Judgment.- Chapter 7 Algorithmic Governance and Soft Paternalism: Nudging, Behavioural Control, and the Transformation of Freedom.- Chapter 8 Algorithmic Affordances: Design, Guidance, and the Subtle Reconfiguration of Human Agency.- Part IV Knowledge, Education, and the Crisis of Modern Citizenship.- Chapter 9 The Transformation of Knowledge Systems: Universities, Research, and Learning in Datafied Societies.- Chapter 10 Education and the Crisis of the Autonomous Subject: Rethinking Citizenship in Algorithmic Societies.- Part V Human Potential in the Digitalocene.- Chapter 11 Embodiment, Mimesis, and Relational Knowledge: Anthropological Resources for Human Learning.- Chapter 12 Dynamis and Energeia: Rethinking Human Potential in Algorithmically Guided Environments.- Chapter 13 Toward a New Model of Human Formation and Citizenship: Freedom, Responsibility, and Human Potential in the Digitalocene.

Über Autor(innen)

Shoko Suzuki is Professor Emerita at Kyoto University and Specially Appointed Professor at the Research Center on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues, The University of Osaka, Osaka, Japan. She has served as Team Leader at the Center for Advanced Intelligence Project at RIKEN, and as Principal Research Fellow at the International Institute for Advanced Studies. Her work develops a philosophical anthropology of the Digitalocene, exploring how artificial intelligence, digital technologies, artificial life, and planetary transformation reshape the human condition. Drawing on philosophy of education, historical and cultural anthropology, and Japanese and European traditions of thought, she investigates human formation and transformation, mimesis, tact, embodiment, language, wisdom, and responsibility. Her previous books and edited volumes include Takt in Modern Education, Mimesis–Poiesis–Performativity, Glück der Familie, and Pandemien im Anthropozän. She is an Area Editor and Editorial Board Member of Springer Nature’s The Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene and an International Academic Advisor to Paragrana.