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Technology, Feminism and the Body (Week 4)

Explore feminist approaches to technology and science, addressing access, regulations, radical critiques, and redefining technology itself. Consider if a science reflecting women's values is feasible and the role of users in technological development.

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Technology, Feminism and the Body (Week 4)

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  1. Technology, Feminism and the Body (Week 4)

  2. Feminism and Technology • Technology is closely associated with science • Science and technology are markers of progress • Associated with masculinity / knowledge / competence

  3. Feminist approaches:1. Access and regulation • Recovering lost histories (e.g. Rosalind Franklin; Barbara McClintock; Alice White) • Getting more women into science (education / employment) • Identifying uses and abuses of science and technology • Technology as neutral artifact • Regulatory intervention

  4. Feminist Approaches 2. Radical critiques • Use and abuses (e.g. military / environment) • Capitalism; patriarchy • Competing strategies 1. embracing technology (e.g. Shulamith Firestone – The Dialectic of Sex 1971) 2. Repudiating technology (e.g. Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering (FINRRAGE) – see Spallone and Steinberg (1987))

  5. Is a science / technology of women’s values possible? • Risks essentialising certain values as feminine (nurturing / creative / intuitive etc.) • Overlooks the embeddedness of science and technology in masculine culture (e.g. history of excluding women – as inventors / users; the language of technology)

  6. Rethinking technology • Re-defining technology (and its development) • Rethinking what counts as competence • The role of the “user” in technological (re)production

  7. What is technology? • Wacjman 1991: • Form of knowledge • Human activities and practices • hardware

  8. Changing technologies • Technological development is unpredictable – novel uses for existing ideas

  9. Path Dependency?

  10. Competence • Women are generally seen as technologically incompetent • Technologies associated with women are not seen as technological (e.g. domestic technologies)

  11. Users • Involved in every stage of the development of a technology • Women (and men) are not simply victims / passive recipients of technologies (e.g. reproductive technologies; cosmetic surgery) (See Saetnan et al (2000) Bodies of Technology)

  12. So how does this relate to this module?

  13. Seminar task • Before the seminar, find a technology that has followed an unusual, or unpredictable path – you will be asked to introduce it during the seminar.

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