Scott Bukatman's Terminal Identity--referring to both the site of the termination of the conventional "subject" and the birth of a new subjectivity constructed at the computer terminal or television screen--puts to rest any lingering doubts of the significance of science fiction in contemporary cultural studies. Demonstrating a comprehensive knowledge, both of the history of science fiction narrative from its earliest origins, and of cultural theory and philosophy, Bukatman redefines the nature of human identity in the Information Age. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary theories of the postmodern--including Fredric Jameson, Donna Haraway, and Jean Baudrillard--Bukatman begins with the proposition that Western culture is suffering a crisis brought on by advanced electronic technologies. Then in a series of chapters richly supported by analyses of literary texts, visual arts, film, video, television, comics, computer games, and graphics, Bukatman takes the reader on an odyssey that traces the postmodern subject from its current crisis, through its close encounters with technology, and finally to new self-recognition. This new "virtual subject," as Bukatman defines it, situates the human and the technological as coexistent, codependent, and mutally defining. Synthesizing the most provocative theories of postmodern culture with a truly encyclopedic treatment of the relevant media, this volume sets a new standard in the study of science fiction--a category that itself may be redefined in light of this work. Bukatman not only offers the most detailed map to date of the intellectual terrain of postmodern technology studies--he arrives at new frontiers, providing a propitious launching point for further inquiries into the relationship of electronic technology and culture.

This study demonstrates the importance of including narrative ethics in a construction of Old Testament ethics, as a correction for the current state of marginalisation of narrative in this discipline. To this end, the concept of identity is used as a lens through which to understand and derive ethics. Since self-conception in ancient Israel is generally held to be predominantly collectivist in orientation, social identity theory is used to understand ancient Israelite identity. Although collectivist sensitivities are important, a social identity approach also incorporates an understanding of individuality. This approach highlights the social emphases of a biblical text, and consequently assists in understanding a text's original ethical message. The book of Ruth is used as a test case, employing a social identity approach for understanding the narrative, but also to model the approach so that it can be implemented more widely in study of the Old Testament and narrative ethics. Each of the protagonists in the book of Ruth is examined in regards to their personal and social self-components. This study reveals that the narrative functions to shape or reinforce the identity of an ancient Israelite implied reader. Since behavioural norms are an aspect of identity, narrative also influences behaviour. A social identity approach can also highlight the social processes within a society. The social processes taking place in the two most commonly proposed provenances for the book of Ruth are discussed: the Monarchic and Persian Periods. It is found that the social emphases of the book of Ruth most closely correspond to the social undercurrents of the Persian Period. On this basis, a composition for the book of Ruth in the Restoration period is proposed.

This book presents the most interesting talks given at ISSE 2009 – the forum for the inter-disciplinary discussion of how to adequately secure electronic business processes. The topics include: - Economics of Security and Identity Management - Security Services and Large Scale Public Applications - Privacy and Data Protection and Awareness Raising - Standards and Technical Solutions - Secure Software, Trust and Assurance Adequate information security is one of the basic requirements of all electronic business processes. It is crucial for effective solutions that the possibilities offered by security technology can be integrated with the commercial requirements of the applications. The reader may expect state-of-the-art: best papers of the Conference ISSE 2009.

The Internet of Things is a wide-reaching network of devices, and these devices can intercommunicate and collaborate with each other to produce variety of services at any time, any place, and in any way. Maintaining access control, authentication and managing the identity of devices while they interact with other devices, services and people is an important challenge for identity management. The identity management presents significant challenges in the current Internet communication. These challenges are exacerbated in the internet of things by the unbound number of devices and expected limitations in constrained resources. Current identity management solutions are mainly concerned with identities that are used by end users, and services to identify themselves in the networked world. However, these identity management solutions are designed by considering that significant resources are available and applicability of these identity management solutions to the resource constrained internet of things needs a thorough analysis. Technical topics discussed in the book include:• Internet of Things;• Identity Management;• Identity models in Internet of Things;• Identity management and trust in the Internet of Things context;• Authentication and access control;Identitymanagement for Internet of Things contributes to the area of identity management for ubiquitous devices in the Internet of Things. It initially presents the motivational factors together with the identity management problems in the context of Internet of Things and proposes an identity management framework. Following this, it refers to the major challenges for Identitymanagement and presents different identity management models. This book also presents relationship between identity and trust, different approaches for trust management, authentication and access control.

With most services and products now being offered through digital communications, new challenges have emerged for information security specialists. A Multidisciplinary Introduction to Information Security presents a range of topics on the security, privacy, and safety of information and communication technology. It brings together methods in pure m