• Feminists, geeks, and geek feminists: Understanding gender and power in technological activism

    Author(s):
    Christina Dunbar-Hester (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    Science and Technology Studies (STS)
    Subject(s):
    Digital media, Feminism
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Media Activism, feminist technoscience, Gender studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/mkk7-p954
    Abstract:
    Both radio activism and gender advocacy within F/OSS illustrate how technologies acquire political meanings within technical communities. In examining these sites, we can observe how activists who are concerned with expressing political beliefs do so through engagement with technologies. Geek communities are important because they are situated between “downstream” end-users of technology and “upstream” social groups like policy makers and designers. “Geek” as a social identity is constructed around the formation of strong affective relationships with highly specialized pursuits (including fan cultures, though in recent decades “geek” has a dominant meaning related to technology, especially electronics, and computers). While geek pursuits may sometimes appear idiosyncratic to those outside their communities, the significance of technologically oriented geeks is the interpretive work they conduct. They mediate between those who build and regulate technology and everyday users of technology. Geeks’ interventions into the politics of artifacts have a profound impact on how technology may be built, enabled or constrained by policy, or taken up by those of us who are not geeks.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Publisher:
    Routledge
    Pub. Date:
    2017
    Book Title:
    Media activism in the digital age
    Author/Editor:
    Pickard, Victor W., editor.; Yang, Guobin, editor.
    Chapter:
    11
    Page Range:
    187 - 204
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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