Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This transdisciplinary volume investigates the ways in which people and organisations deal with the overflow of information, goods or choices. It explores two main themes: the emergence of overflows and the management of overflows, in the sense of either controlling or coping with them. Individual chapters show the management of overflows taking place in various social settings, periods and political contexts. This includes attempts by states to manage future consumption overflow in post-war Easter European, contemporary economies of sharing, managing overflow in health care administration, overflow problems in mass travel and migration, overflow in digital services and the overflow that scholars face in dealing with an abundance of publications.
Synopsis
To understand the emergence of overflows it is first necessary to frame and define them. Who does this, how, and why? Answering these questions requires a historical and comparative approach, since what one culture defines as necessity, another may see as excess, and these differences can exist even between different levels of the same hierarchy. The management of overflows has a double sense: as controlling and as coping. Contributors to the volume show management taking place in various social settings, periods, and political contexts, from state attempts to manage future consumption in postwar Eastern Europe to contemporary economies of sharing.
With further chapters on healthcare administration, mass travel and migration, digital services, and the overflow that scholars face in dealing with an abundance of research information and publications, Overwhelmed by overflows? is a transdisciplinary volume that will appeal to sociologists, management scholars, economists, historians, anthropologists, and cultural studies scholars.
Synopsis
This book assembles scholars from across the social sciences to explore how people and organisations deal with overflows - of information, goods or choices. It asks whether overflow is understood as abundance or excess, and looks at how it is addressed in different contexts, from sharing economies to health care administration.