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From cyberfeminism to technofeminism: From an essentialist perspective to social cyberfeminism in certain feminist practices in Spain
Abstract
Spanish feminist praxis has, since about 1990, diversified its theoretical assumptions and objectives, proposing the use of new virtual communities in perspectives which approximate praxis to cyberfeminism as well as to technofeminism. The aim of this article is to consider and explore in depth the construction and use of new social spaces, using concrete examples from recent Spanish feminist praxis: specifically, two web portals. We will attempt to analyze the theoretical proposals put forth by the founders of two prominent feminist web portals of the 1990s and 2000s in Spain through an account of these sites' initiation, aims and the discursive production that different sections of the portals facilitate. We refer to E-leusis, founded by María Angustias Bertomeu, and Mujeres en Red (Women Online), founded by Montserrat Boix. Spanish feminist praxis has advanced from a position closer to that of the essentialist utopia defended by Bertomeu toward a sort of technofeminism, which Montserrat Boix has transformed into what she has termed “social cyberfeminism.”
... Following the prelude to cyberfeminism, cyberspace was coined by William Gibson in 1982 and became a descriptor of the prevalent virtually constructed mental environment from where computer network activities take place (Puente, 2018). Cyberspace can be used as a symbol to define computers' non-physical crafted environment. ...
... Cyberspace, on the other hand in is involved in allowing women to use the Internet technology to share, interact, swap information, and take part in recreation while taking part in social forums and carrying out loads and businesses for other enterprises, as stated by (Puente, 2018). Therefore, the Internet, cyberspace, and other information galaxies are no longer viewed as masculine tools or spaces because women can not only reframe and negotiate themselves within the social structure using cyberspace, they have also embraced it. ...
... Hence, women are considered producers and consumers of the Internet and cyberspace. In contrast, cyberspace acts as a social capital that enables women to embrace the cyber-social communities and networks to expedite their requirements and ventures (Puente, 2018). ...
The current of cyberfeminism has been active for 30 years now, also referred to as the “third wave” of feminism. Despite being an ambiguous and multifaceted movement involving multiple instances, cyberfeminism is represented in the imagination by women with strong knowledge of media and digital technologies. The purpose of this article is to analyze the socially and culturally constructed value that the media assume in this movement. The very concept of identity is undergoing a phenomenon of control whereby it is redefined by “control grids” (D. Haraway) that prevent free access to participation in life on the web. The utopian theories of feminists actually alternate with fundamental gender analyses within cyberspace that determine the amount of access to resources. The last phase of this phenomenon is instead characterized by the intent to break down gender inequalities through a series of digital products that produce changes in common perceptions: online magazines, YouTube channels, webinars, and entrepreneurship actions on the web. New media and, more generally, access to information are fundamental to social and political participation, in which the phenomenon of exclusion or production of inequalities is more visible. Gender divisions on the web also reinforce sociocultural barriers and sometimes create regressive and destructive forms of social bonds. Globalization also affects these dynamics and accentuates exaggerated forms of individualism and cognitive stiffening, which further accentuate the distinctive traits of gender inequalities in cyberspace.
... En el primer desarrollo de los ciberfeminismos, identificado por algunas investigadoras (Núñez, 2008;Vergés, 2013) como la primera ola ciberfeminista, la relación feminista con las tecnologías digitales se caracterizaba por la compresión neutral y utópica de las mismas, el dualismo entre cuerpo y tecnología y por una noción esencialista y binaria de género. ...
... En el transcurso de este tiempo, los ciberfeminismos han sido protagonistas de múltiples debates fruto de las interpelaciones procedentes de los movimientos feministas en relación a la utilidad política de los ciberfeminismos (Wilding, 2004), de las intersecciones ausentes en sus articulaciones con las tecnologías digitales (Salido, 2017), de las genealogías feministas decoloniales (Reyes, 2017), así como consecuencia de ejercicios críticos desarrollados dentro del propio ciberfeminismo (Núñez, 2008;Reverter, 2013). ...
It is my purpose in this article to point out the transfeminist connections between bodily and technological dissidence. Starting from the transformations analysis of the technologies of the body from foucaultian biopolitics to the technopolitics unveiled by Donna Haraway and Paul Preciado, in this paper I gather some of the points raised in the discussions within cyberfeminist, queer and decolonial perspectives that connect bodies and technologies, emphasizing in the non-normative corporalities and sexualities on the network. Based on the previous critical perspectives of technologies and on the ethnographic fieldwork carried out in the transfeminist context in Barcelona, I explore transfeminist political practices which lead me to acknowledge and to conclude that the potential of new techno-corporal articulations are intended to resist and transform technoscience.
... Fallows (2005) concludes that men display greater interest in technology and are more tech savvy. This reasoning supports the longstanding construction of the gendered nature of technology (Lohan & Faulkner, 2004;Puente, 2008) with the digital age being a quintessential "toy for the boys" (Faulkner, 2001). ...
... Laurel Sutton (1996) states that online communication is male-oriented and male-dominated. Lohan and Faulkner (2004) and Puente (2008) ...
This paper explored the concept of the extended self in the context of virtual realities and spaces, and through the prism of gender. It demonstrated the manner in which selves are constructed and presented on social media platforms. Through this enquiry, the study showed that both genders engage in self‐construction in diverse ways, with different impacts in terms of the tools used for self‐presentation. The study can be useful in terms of assessing young adults' behaviors in the virtual arena and analyzing the various ways of extending self.
... Esta web, serviría, desde el punto de vista de Núñez Puente (2008b), para ejemplifi car la transición desde un feminismo de la diferencia hasta una versión social del ciberfeminismo. ...
... Situándonos en esta perspectiva queríamos acercarnos también al término tecnofeminismo puesto que recogiendo las palabras de Núñez Puente (2008b), Wajcman (2004) defi ne el tecnofeminismo como la solución óptima a las barreras de acceso de las mujeres a la gestión de las nuevas formas de tecnología por lo que situaría al ciberfeminismo en una realidad social que difi culta el acceso a las tecnologías por parte de las mujeres. De esta manera, sigue Núñez Puente (2008), se propone, desde el tecnofeminismo, reforzar los mecanismos sociales necesarios para propiciar la inclusión plena de las mujeres en el proceso no sólo de uso, sino de generación o programación de la tecnología que evitaría la llamada brecha digital y que recuperaría para la mujer un terreno tradicionalmente asociado a lo masculino (Faulkner y Lohan, 2004). ...
El movimiento ciberfeminista se inicia en España a mediados de los años 90 del siglo xx. Este libro pretende, a través del feminismo online, examinar cuál es su situación actual.
Para ello, se construye un marco teórico en el que se analizan los ejes vertebradores que conforman el activismo online. Uno de ellos, el que estudia el ciberfeminismo social (movimiento que ha acuñado Monserrat Boix) y otro, a través del arte en la red (denominado net.art)
Además de los núcleos vertebradores nos detendremos en los condicionantes transversales que nos hemos encontrado en la investigación, como la brecha digital, la integración en Facebook, el empoderamiento digital, etc.
DISPONIBLE ONLINE: http://rua.ua.es/dspace/handle/10045/110543
... Recent gendered dynamics studies have been undertaken (see Benschop, 2009;Kumra & Vinnicombe, 2010;Mooney & Ryan, 2009) with particular interest in international gendered management (Izraeli & Adler, 1994); consequently, Hearn Metcalfe, and Piekkari (2006) express a need for more international studies. Puente (2008) posits that technology is gendered and the perception of women regarding ICT use (Hilbert, 2011), their attitude towards technology (Varank, 2007), their organizational role (Paetz, 2011), their skills (Fallows, 2005), and their lack of access and training (Best & Maier, 2007) affect ICT and capacity utilization. Gender differences pertaining to ICTs and performance-related outcomes can be explained by three gender theories (Trauth & Quesenberry, 2007). ...
... They are viewed as being more technophobic than men, exhibiting more computer anxiety (Hilbert, 2011), while men are viewed as technology savvy and more interested in technologies (Fallows, 2005). These perceptions reinforce longstanding beliefs that technology is gendered (Lohan & Faulkner, 2004;Puente, 2008) and that "gendered" jobs exist in the IT industry (Tabuwe et al., 2013). Females use the internet primarily for socialization, and men use it for the experience it provides (Hilbert, 2011). ...
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) investments come with expectations of increased productivity, but results from ICT impact studies are mixed. We look at workforce characteristics and female participation in the workforce and management and ICTs as contexts to investigate their impact on capacity utilization. This was accomplished by using the Technology, Organization, and Environment framework and regression analysis. The results illustrate the importance of a stable and skilled workforce, capable of leveraging the existing infrastructure. In addition, the pursuit of international certifications, formal employee training, female participation, and other factors affect capacity utilization. From the research findings, we identified eight research hypotheses for future investigations.
... al., 1996) and (2) different attitudes towards computers (Shashaani, 1994). Thus, women were seen as largely technophobic (Hilbert, 2011) and technology was perceived as being gendered (Lohan and Faulkner, 2004;Puente, 2008), while ICTs were just another 'boy thing' (Faulkner, 2001). In the context of India, women were often stereotyped as inept users of technology (Jain, 2006). ...
We explore the digital gender gap through an examination of mobile phone ownership, usage, and perceptions within the unique regional context of Kerala, India. Our analysis provides an overview of similarities and differences between women and men in the use of the Internet, mobile phones, and social media based on pre-pandemic survey data collected in 2018 from 296 households in four impoverished areas of Thiruvananthapuram. We analyse perceived advantages and disadvantages of mobile and social media use as well as their relative impacts on both men and women. The paper concludes with a discussion of the gendered implications of technology within Kerala and suggest several areas of investigation for future research.
... The retrospectives that have been carried out on the digital feminist practice in Spain place its conception at the end of the 1990s and beginning of 2000 with the creation of portals such as E-Leusis.net or Mujeres en Red (Nuñez, 2008). However, in those beginnings there was a debate on how to approach feminist activism online, or by situating the problems of feminism in a new visible space such as the Internet or by moving the utopian spaces devised by cyber feminism closer to the social reality of women, betting on their self-empowerment. ...
The first general women’s strikes to demand gender equality in Spain took place on 8 March 2018 and 2019. Both calls were an amazing success, becoming world references for feminism. This research investigates how the strikes were dealt with through Twitter by a Collective Symbolic Coping (CSC) process. Discourses on Twitter were analysed on both years, 4,384 tweets were selected and their content was analysed by lexical analysis. The results from 2018 indicated the CSC phases of 1) awareness; 2) divergence, where feminist demands and the role of men in the strike were debated; and 3) convergence, where the success of the strike was highlighted. However, in 2019 the feminists on Twitter were forced to cope with a great deal of trolling against them. This trolling was maintained in the awareness and divergence phases, making it difficult to reach a convergent discourse regarding the success of the strike. Moreover, the results also demonstrated that there was no reference hashtag in the strikes. It is concluded that discourse on social networks has become a key factor in feminist social mobilizations and that this feminist digital activism will be critical in the continued dissemination of the claims for gender equality in Spain.
... Consistently with the gender perspective applied in this study, there is a need to retake some of the most recent trends, such as 'cyber-feminism' and 'techno-feminism'. Although, there is no consensus in the definition [10][11][12][13][14], both concepts reflect the importance of study technology with gender and intergenerational perspective. ...
This study is focused on indicators of participation and favourable perception about life in women over 50 years, which are positively associated with technology dispositive aids, social images and identity. Furthermore, stereotypes and image of older women are concepts more negative for older women in comparison to older men. This includes the idea of how technology and cyber-technology have some impact on the positive mobility of older women related to aspects such as participation, perception of life and social and self-perceived image. This chapter aims to explore such dimension in Spain. In addition, the chapter refers to the use of technological devices for functional support (e.g. Tele-care and alarm devices, electric wheelchairs, buggies and scooters). In any case, the main use of devices could be explained because older women manifest a greater need for them and also because they have vital positive attitude and perceptions towards an “ikigai” (oriental concept referring to these concepts) more positive to address the problems. All of this justifies the unmet demand for technology and devices used to support older people, particularly women. This mixed picture also shows the need to improve the social image and further research (from a gender, tecno-feminist and socio-spatial perspectives) in the applicability of systems that seek greater functional mobility of a more active aging, better images and an improvement in the quality of life and a reduction of the digital divide for older women.
... However, women seem to be at a disadvantage to benefit from the digital revolution because they are less tech savvy, according to the longstanding argument that technology is gendered (Lohan and Faulkner, 2004;Puente, 2008), and more technophobic, and because the technology is not built for their needs and intuition. In addition, it is possible that the increasing socio-economic importance of ICT could add a new dimension to the already existing vicious circle between discrimination and women's backwardness, which can be expected to be particularly severe in the near future taken into consideration the advances in technology. ...
Due to the increasing demands of highly skilled employees on ICT, European industries could face shortage of employees in the ICT sector. In the existing problem of lack of ICT executives in the European labour market it is added the problem of low representation of women in jobs related to ICT. In Greece this problem is even more intense as a result of the economic conditions in the last six years. Our online research for the impact of ICT on Greek women’s employability and entrepreneurship revealed that women overwhelmingly recognize that the field of digital entrepreneurship is one of the most important indicators of success in the 21<sup>st</sup> century economy, as well as that there are large gaps and mismatches between the supply and demand for ICT skills. Women believe that they are under-represented in the ICT sector and there is a gender-based gap in both ICT professionals and new occupations associated with new communication technologies. The problem of under-representation of women in the ICT sector, highlights the need for design and implementation of actions which will enable the female population in training and participation in entrepreneurship and employment with focus on ICT.
... The explicit gap in ICTs usage between both genders is a consequence of socioeconomic dissimilarities and some explicit gender-specific discrepancies, resulting in lesser self-efficacy of females in ICTs usage [71]. Technology is overtly denoted as gendered [31,61,71]. ICTs are truthfully and unequivocally considered as yet-"A toy for the boys" [31,33,60]. ...
Gender digital divide " is a demoralizing issue with far reaching consequences, debarring women and girls relishing equivalent approach to ICTs usage as men and boys. Numerous reasons can be marked out behindhand this discriminative technology adaptation, e.g. societal blockades, technophobia and techno incompetency. Nonetheless, ICTs have opened new horizons for women , eventually economically enabling and empowering them. This study investigates the challenges faced by women in design and proposes the strategies to bridge the gender gap to ensure an obliging technology for tech deprived women in developing countries like Pakistan.
... Looking specifically at sexual harassment on the Internet, Barak (2005) discussed the phenomenon of women being 'flamed out' of either a particular online environment or the Internet entirely by male flaming and suggested that a constructive solution to this problem has been the design of women-only communities where flaming is rare. Cyberfeminists also see women-only websites to be a way of making women feel more welcome online 'as a counter-culture to patriarchal sexist cultures' (Goulding & Spacey, 2003, 39; see also Scott, 2001;Puente, 2008). However, in recent years this binary division has been challenged, with researchers such as García-Gómez (2011) suggesting, for example, that teenage girls are now using aggressive language when relating to other girls online. ...
This paper investigates the motivations and online behaviour of the users of Mumsnet, a UK online parenting community. The Mumsnet discussion forum is characterised by its difference to other mothering websites in its language use, its celebration of confrontational, opinionated and well-informed debate, its tolerance of aggression and swearing and its focus on entertainment rather than support. Many of these attributes have previously been seen as male online behaviour, but it is argued that new forms of femininities are emerging and a clear-cut binary divide between male and female online behaviour can no longer be applied.
... In short, women were seen as being more likely to be technophobic and were ascribed a certain computer anxiety. This type of reasoning is in line with a longstanding argument that technology is gendered (Lohan and Faulkner, 2004;Puente, 2008). ICT are seen as yet another -toy for the boys‖ (Faulkner, 2001). ...
The discussion about women’s access to and use of digital Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in developing countries has been inconclusive so far. Some claim that women are rather technophobic and that men are much better users of digital tools, while others argue that women enthusiastically embrace digital communication. This article puts this question to an empirical test. We analyze data sets from 12 Latin American and 13 African countries from 2005-08. This is believed to be the most extensive empirical study in this field so far. The results are surprisingly consistent and revealing: the reason why fewer women access and use ICT is a direct result of their unfavorable conditions with respect to employment, education and income. When controlling for these variables, women turn out to be more active users of digital tools than men. This turns the alleged digital gender divide into an opportunity: given women’s affinity for ICT, and given that digital technologies are tools that can improve living conditions, ICT represent a concrete and tangible opportunity to tackle longstanding challenges of gender inequalities in developing countries, including access to employment, income, education and health services.
Entre 1997 y 2001, el colectivo ciberfeminista Old Boys Network (OBN) organizó tres Internacionales Ciberfeministas. El objetivo de este artículo es definir los cambios en el pensamiento ciberfeminista durante este periodo. Para ello, acudo a las tres publicaciones que acompañaron a dichos encuentros. Mediante un método de codificación emergente, con perspectiva cuantitativa y cualitativa, localizo y describo el devenir de los debates fundamentales en el interior del ciberfeminismo. Concluyo que, en contra de las aproximaciones históricas previas que dividen el ciberfeminismo en dos olas delimitadas, el ciberfeminismo se desarrolló de manera fluida, proponiendo y escenificando discusiones como la definición del término, su sujeto político o su relación con el feminismo, entre otros. OBN, más que punto de inflexión, fue la bisagra entre un primer ciberfeminismo inicial y todas sus posteriores ramificaciones. Sus publicaciones testificaron, también, la creciente preocupación por un Internet progresivamente mercantilizado y controlado.
Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar una reflexión crítica sobre la subjetividad jurídica, centrándose en el impacto de la tecnología en los problemas jurídicos del feminismo. En particular, después de una descripción general acerca de las mujeres en la tecnología y de mujeres y tecnología, se examinan las perspectivas de Shulamith Firestone y Donna Haraway. La primera lleva a la “construcción” del sujeto jurídico, sobre la base de un acto voluntario y racional (individual); la segunda, en cambio, conduce a la “deconstrucción” de la subjetividad jurídica en sí misma. Algunas consideraciones finales enfatizan las implicaciones que las reflexiones críticas sobre cuerpos, tecnologías y subjetividad tienen sobre la teoría del derecho y su finalidad.
Una revisión de la literatura sobre la investigación del activismo digital feminista. Resumen El presente artículo tiene como propósito investigar las tendencias teórico-metodológicas de investigación en comunicación y cultura digital sobre el activismo feminista en los espacios digitales en los últimos 15 años (2006-2021) a nivel global. A partir de un estado del arte, se hace una revisión de literatura académica de 190 artículos sistematizados mediante una búsqueda en Google Académico, para conocer el enfoque de la actual investigación desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria sociocultural. Esta revisión provee un panorama de retos a futuro acerca de la investigación sobre el activismo digital feminista. Palabras clave: activismo digital feminista, internet, plataformas digitales, estado del arte. Abstract The purpose of this article is to investigate the theoretical and methodological trends of research in communication and digital culture on digital feminist activism in digital platforms from the last 15 years (2006-2021) worldwide. From a state of the art, a review of academic literature of 190 articles systematized through a search in Google Scholar was carried out, to know the focus of the current research from an interdisciplinary sociocultural perspective. This study provides an overview of future challenges about research on digital feminist activism.
El presente artículo tiene como propósito investigar las tendencias teórico-metodológicas de investigación en comunicación y cultura digital sobre el activismo feminista en los espacios digitales en los últimos 15 años (2006-2021) a nivel global. A partir de un estado del arte, se hace una revisión de literatura académica de 190 artículos sistematizados mediante una búsqueda en Google Académico, para conocer el enfoque de la actual investigación desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria sociocultural. Esta revisión provee un panorama de retos a futuro acerca de la investigación sobre el activismo digital feminista.
The first part of this paper focuses on four feminist legal critiques, aimed at criticizing the equality principle as defined by western legal orders (the difference critique, the oppression critique, the diversity critique, the dependency critique). The second part examines some implications of the Digital Era affecting sex equality: from the “digital gender divide” to the sexist hate and the new forms of online violence. In this scenario, a “critical” conception of equality should still be claimed as a guiding light for politics, law and shared actions.
Technofeminisms are dealing with new sets of challenges directly related to the possibilities opened by transhumanism. Among the huge list of possible technological advances, we direct our interest towards reproductive technologies, in particular ectogenesis (foetus pregnancy and growth outside a human womb). Although some authors defend the benefits of this technology for the advancement of gender equality, we want to suggest a radically different scenario: the studies on ectogenesis will not liberate women—once they are not ‘limited’ by the duties of childbirth (and care)—nor blur gender differences according to evolutionary requests, but they can rather reinforce the current male gendered dominance. A study of the situated nature of existing studies and experiments on ectogenesis, as well as a study of the current clashes between the possibilities offered by technology and the more probable biased outcomes will offer us a sound background to think about the limits of technological transformation that are directly related to social pressures, rather than to a “natural or rational outcome” in relation to such technologies. Despite the fact that from a biotechnological perspective embryos have been created without fertilisation by sperm nuclei, consequently eliminating the need of males for reproductive purposes, more intense efforts are being invested into extra womb pregnancy. Biotechnologies, and especially those related to reproductive tasks, are being gendered biased, following a tendency also present into AI and robotics industries and researches (where assistant roles are always ruled by ‘female characters’). At some point, the lemma of xenofeminists of “Gender abolitionism” can become true…but could this abolition to imply the emergence of a neutral gender which true essence was a male reference (for example at bodily level)? Under such scenario, the dilution of females under an over-dominating male-society, thanks to technology, would create a specific scenario: males would not need women for reproducing new human beings. Could it mean the end of the existence of females (as humans able to be pregnant and to give birth), or even a definitive undervaluation of female’s ancient roles in favor of a new male prototype?
Cyberfeminism, which examines women’s relationship to the Internet, considers issues such as how power operates in online spaces, who has access to digital technologies, and how the design of online architecture may reproduce gender inequities. As social media becomes essential for nonprofit organizations to establish an online presence, attract supporters, and help ensure sustainable organizations, nonprofits become critical sites for examining the interplay of gender and technology and offer opportunities for applying cyberfeminist goals.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual argument for why leisure researchers, and feminist leisure scholars in particular, should examine how a technology enhanced form of leisure, namely reading sexually explicit material, can liberate or constrain women's sexuality (Sonnet, 1999). To achieve this goal, we examined the popular Fifty Shades of Grey series, which is largely consumed by women, utilizing various technologies. Situating our analysis within the broader literature on leisure and technology and feminism and sexuality, we argue that understanding women's consumption of erotic and pornographic materials during their leisure has complex and important implications for women's sexuality and subsequent well-being. In so doing, we point to a number of areas for future research that will help complicate this understudied area of leisure research (Freysinger et al., 2013).
From the Publisher:
Into the Image is concerned with the significance of screen and image in contemporary society, and with the nature of our imaginary and psychic investments in visual culture. It considers modern image technologies as means to monitor and survey the world, whilst at the same time maintaining distance and detachment from it. In the coverage of contemporary war, we see most clearly how the world is screened and yet its reality screened out. Into the Image also reflects on the contemporary desire to create an alternative world by means of new image technologies. It asks what is behind the fantasies of migrating into an alternative, virtual reality. Critical of the dominant technoculture, this book seeks to develop an alternative approach to visual culture based in the realities of the contemporary social order. In its exploration of culture and politics in the field of vision, Into the Image acknowledges the continuing significance of the 'old' technologies of photography, cinema and television alongside that of the new digital developments. The crucial issues, it argues, concern the relation of image and screen culture to experience in the modern world.
There is a strong tendency in the social sciences to understand and conceptualize the new information technologies in terms of their technical properties and to construct the relation to the sociological world as one of applications and impacts. Less work has gone into developing analytic categories that allow us to capture the complex imbrications of technology and society. This article addresses two particular aspects of this challenge through two organizing efforts. First, understanding the place of these new technologies from a sociological perspective requires avoiding a purely technological interpretation and recognizing the embeddedness and the variable outcomes of these technologies for different social orders. These technologies can indeed be constitutive of new social dynamics, but they can also be derivative or merely reproduce older conditions. Second, such an effort will, in turn, call for categories that capture what are now often conceived of as contradictory, or mutually exclusive, attributes. The article examines these two aspects by focusing on three analytic issues for sociology: the embeddedness of the new technologies, the complex interactions between the digital and the material world, and the mediating cultures that organize the relation between these technologies and users.
This paper critically examines current constructions of the causes, consequences and appropriate actions to reduce the so-called 'digital divide'. Drawing upon discussions that have occurred in a number of intergovernmental forums, the analysis illustrates the limitations of policy debates that focus primarily on issues of access, affordability and capabilities and skills for employability in industry. An alternative framework for assessing the unfolding relation between the new media and society is developed drawing on Amartya Sen's concept of capabilities. This is applied to demonstrate the need for a shift in the emphasis of social science analysis away from digital divide issues and towards the potential for the new media to be configured in ways that could enable the majority of people to strengthen their abilities to make choices about how they wish to live their lives. As new media permeate global social networks more intensively, it is argued that a rights-based approach to new media policy is essential and that this must be based upon assessments of people's entitlements in emerging knowledge societies.
Entertaining, concise, and relentlessly probing, City of Bits is a comprehensive introduction to a new type of city, a largely invisible but increasingly important system of virtual spaces interconnected by the emerging information superhighway. William Mitchell makes extensive use of concrete, practical examples and illustrations in a technically well-grounded yet accessible examination of architecture and urbanism in the context of the digital telecommunications revolution, the ongoing miniaturization of electronics, the commodification of bits, and the growing domination of software over materialized form. In seven chapters - Pulling Glass, Electronic Agoras, Cyborg Citizens, Recombinant Architecture, Soft Cities, Bit Biz, and Getting to the Good Bits - Mitchell argues that the crucial issue before us is not one of putting in place the digital plumbing of telecommunications links and associated electronic appliances, nor even of producing content for electronic delivery, but rather one of creating electronically mediated environments for the kinds of lives that we want to lead.
Theory is a product of displacement, comparison, a certain distance. To theorize, one leaves home (Clifford, 1989: 177). A model of political culture appropriate to our own situation will necessarily have to raise spatial issues as its fundamental organizing concern. I will therefore provisionally define the aesthetic of such new (and hypothetical) cultural form as an aesthetic of cognitive mapping (Jameson, 1984: 89). While it is important to recognize the specific power of intellectual practices, they cannot be separated from our existence as nomadic subjects in everyday life… Cultural critics are co-travelers. (Grossberg, 1988: 388–9)
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El primer volúmen La Sociedad en Red, Manuel Castells aborda el proceso de globalización que amenaza con hacer prescindibles a los pueblos y países excluídos de las redes de la información. Muestra cómo en las economías avanzadas la producción se concentra en un sector de la población educado y relativamente joven. Por último, el autor examina los efectos e implicaciones de los cambios tecnológicos sobre la cultura de los medios de comunicación -la cultura de la virtualidad real- en la vida urbana, la política global y la naturaleza del tiempo y del espacio. El segundo volúmen El Poder de la Identidad, el autor muestra cómo las categorías fundamentales de la existencia son transformadas por la influencia combinada de las fuerzas tecno-económicas y de los movimientos sociales. El tercer volúmen Fin de Milenio,Manuel Castells completa su trilogía analizando los grandes procesos sociales y políticos que han transformado nuestro mundo en la última década: el colapso de la Unión Soviética, el desarrollo de un nuevo capitalismo dinámico y excluyente, el auge del crimen global, la irrupción del Pacífico Asiático como región decisiva de crecimiento y crisis en la economía mundial y la unificación europea, en la que se observa una nueva forma de estado, el Estado red.
'Feminism confronts technology' provides a lively and engaging exploration of the impact of technology on women's lives from word processors to food processors, and genetic engineering to the design of cities. Comprehensive and critical, this book surveys the sociological and feminist literature on technology, highlighting the male bias in the way technology is defined as well as developed. Wajcman sets the scene with an overview of feminist theories of science and technology: encompassing the technologies of production and reproduction as well as domestic technology.
The author challenges the common assumption that technology is gender neutral, looking at whether technology can liberate women or whether the new technologies are reinforcing sexual divisions in society.
From introduction: "Daddy is saying `Holy moly!' to his computer again!" "Those words have become a family code for the way my virtual community has infiltrated our real world. My seven-year-old daughter knows that her father congregates with a family of invisible friends who seem to gather in his computer. Sometimes he talks to them, even if nobody else can see them. And she knows that these invisible friends sometimes show up in the flesh, materializing from the next block or the other side of the planet. "Since the summer of 1985, for an average of two hours a day, seven days a week, I've been plugging my personal computer into my telephone and making contact with the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link)--a computer conferencing system that enables people around the world to carry on public conversations and exchange private electronic mail (e-mail). The idea of a community accessible only via my computer screen sounded cold to me at first, but I learned quickly that people can feel passionately about e-mail and computer conferences. I've become one of them. I care about these people I met through my computer, and I care deeply about the future of the medium that enables us to assemble. "I'm not alone in this emotional attachment to an apparently bloodless technological ritual. Millions of people on every continent also participate in the computer-mediated social groups known as virtual communities, and this population is growing fast. Finding the WELL was like discovering a cozy little world that had been flourishing without me, hidden within the walls of my house; an entire cast of characters welcomed me to the troupe with great merriment as soon as I found the secret door. Like others who fell into the WELL, I soon discovered that I was audience, performer, and scriptwriter, along with my companions, in an ongoing improvisation. A full-scale subculture was growing on the other side of my telephone jack, and they invited me to help create something new."
Reconceptualizes the relationship between participatory democracy, technology, and space. The Internet has been billed by some proponents as an "electronic agora" ushering in a "new Athenian age of democracy." That assertion assumes that cyberspace's virtual environment is compatible with democratic practice. But the anonymous sociality that is intrinsic to the Internet seems at odds with theories of democracy that presuppose the possibility, at least, of face-to-face meetings among citizens. The Internet, then, raises provocative questions about democratic participation: Must the public sphere exist as a physical space? Does citizenship require a bodily presence? In Cybering Democracy, Diana Saco boldly reconceptualizes the relationship between democratic participation and spatial realities both actual and virtual. She argues that cyberspace must be viewed as a produced social space, one that fruitfully confounds the ordering conventions of our physical spaces. Within this innovative framework, Saco investigates recent and ongoing debates over cryptography, hacking, privacy, national security, information control, and Internet culture, focusing on how different online practices have shaped this particular social space. In the process, she highlights fundamental issues about the significance of corporeality in the development of civic-mindedness, the exercise of citizenship, and the politics of collective action. Diana Saco is an independent scholar based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Exploración del desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías de comunicación inalámbrica (telefonía celular, computadoras portátiles, entre otros) y la interacción que ocurre entre estas tecnologías y sus usuarios. Así, por un lado el recorrido conduce a la tramoya que son los talleres de ingenieros e inventores donde son creados aparatos cada vez más pequeños y mejores, en tanto que la contraparte lleva a los escenarios donde las personas están experimentando con estas tecnologías. Es analizado un amplio espectro de las implicaciones resultantes de estos desarrollos, como la evolución de los sistemas de membresía y "reputación", la presión de los grupos mediáticos y las agencias gubernamentales para controlar el acceso y uso de las tecnologías o los desafíos potenciales para la seguridad y privacidad de los usuarios. Desde un enfoque que cruza la sociología, la antropología, la economía y la inteligencia artificial, el autor plantea que el impacto real de estas herramientas no proviene de la tecnología, sino de cómo las personas la usan, se resisten o adaptan a ella y en último término, se transforman a sí mismas, a sus comunidades y a sus instituciones.
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