Worlding:—Identity, Media, And Imagination in a Digital Age

Trend (art, UC Irvine) interrogates the interconnections between the actual and the imaginary. The titular object of his study, as a borrowed term from Martin Heidegger's practical ontology, is a verb indicating the ever active process rather than a static entity. Though he draws on current discussions in philosophy, art, media studies, literary theory, sociology, education and political science, he is not writing merely for an ivory tower. He examines various concepts of "the real world" and the ways mental impressions have varied over time, the way that consumer demand is marshalled to construct the world we call "the economy," the impact of technological mediation on our practices of worlding, the "American Dream" as a contradictory and harmful worlding, how the power of individuals' worlding connects to institutions and larger structures, and the various trajectories of globalization. Trend argues that a worlding can be selfish or selfless, but ultimately focuses "on ways of improving our common existence." Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)