gender & ict - programme

Welcome to the 6th European Conference on

Gender and ICT, March 8-10th, 2011 at Umeå

University, Sweden!

This year the theme of the conference is Femi-

nist Interventions in Theories and Practices

reflecting the multiple ways imagination,

knowledge and politics intervene with gen-

dered practices and digital designs. In sessions

& keynotes contemporary research on among

others accountability, social media, innovation

and new frontiers for feminist research on ICT

well be presented and discussed. The days are

also filled with opportunities for you to share

your visions and concerns and advance the

intellectual landscape at the intersection of

Gender and ICT.

As we gather in the midst of Scandinavia there

are also some opportunities to engage the

particulars in this part of the world. Besides

the excitement of the intellectual conversa-

tions and disputes there is also some time to

engage with the Sami traditions and practices.

Among other things we will experience Sami

handicrafts, originating from the time when

the Samis were self-supporting nomads, and

experience one of the longest music traditions

in Europe – jojk!

On behalf and support of the program

committee, the organization committee, the

department of Informatics, Umeå University,

Botnia-Atlantica and Dataföreningen i Umeå,

Johan Bodén and the student volunteers it is

my privilege to have you around and I wish

you great times at GICT 2011!

Anna Croon Fors

Welcome!

1 CONFERENCE OVERVIEWT

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2MARCH 8TH

Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are

held throughout the world to inspire women

and celebrate achievements. A global web of

rich and diverse local activity connects women

from all around the world ranging from politi-

cal rallies, business conferences, government

activities and networking events through to

local women’s craft markets, theatric perfor-

mances, fashion parades and more.

The semla was originally eaten only on Fat

Tuesday, as the last festive food before Lent.

The Swedish semla consists of a cardamom-

spiced wheat bun which has its top cut off

and insides scooped out, and is then filled

with a mix of the scooped-out bread crumbs,

milk and almond paste, topped with whipped

cream. The cut-off top serves as a lid and is

dusted with powdered sugar. Today it is often

eaten on its own, with coffee or tea. Some

people still eat it in a bowl of hot milk.

INT. WOMEN’S DAY FAT TUESDAY

3 KEYNOTES

1Ina Wagner Multidisziplinäres Design, Wienna, Austria

Border-Crossing as a Source of In-novation?

Tuesday, March 8th, 1.30 pm - 2.30 pm

MA 121

This talk explores the notion of ‘borders’

setting them in relation to women in science

and technology: the borders of language and

thinking a specific scientific community has

created, which isolates it from other commu-

nities, helps it claim its distinctness, and also

often isolates it from ‘real life’; the borders of

personal belonging or not belonging to such

a community, which may be put into ques-

tion by one’s gender, race, ethnicity, or simply

the fact of being simultaneously a member

of more than one community, in particular

if these communities pursue conflicting or

incompatible goals. Looking at a diversity of

experiences – from Participatory Design to

Barbara McClintock – it poses the question

of what it entails to cross borders and how we

can productively ‘play’ with multiple member-

ships .

2Susan Hekman University of Texas, Arlington, USA

Mangle Realism in Feminist Theory and Practice

Wednesday, March 9th, 9.00-10.00 am

MA 121

Andrew Pickering’s concept of the mangle

offers feminists a useful tool to explore that

new conception of knowledge that is emerg-

ing in the aftermath of the linguistic turn. I

analyze the work of three feminist theorists

who have been instrumental in defining this

new approach, Nancy Tuana, Karen Barad,

and Elizabeth Grosz. I argue that approach-

ing their work from the perspective of the

mangle further clarifies the “new materialism”

in feminism . It is my thesis that looking at

the social realm from the perspective of the

emerging “new materialism” is essential to the

development of the approach, particularly for

feminists. I conclude with a discussion of the

tool I utilize in these analyses: disclosure. It

is my contention that disclosure offers and

alternative to both objectivism and cultural

relativism and thus provides an appropriate

grounding for a feminist materialism.

3Christina Mörtberg Linneaus University, Sweden

Design from Somewhere - demands and desires

Thursday, March 10th, 9.00-10.00 am

MA 121

In this talk design and use of IT systems and

services will be, drawing on agential realism,

discussed as iterative intra-action or ongo-

ing actions and doings that take place in

material-discursive practices. Within this view

of understanding practices neither IT systems

and services nor demands and desires are pre-

given rather they come into being in continu-

ous processes or intra-actions. Some entities

(humans, computers, methods) included in

the practices are tangible but others e.g. gender

division of labour, governance regimes, poli-

cies, responsibility are more intangible. The

drawing or what is included and excluded in

the intra-action is not innocent due to its on-

tological implications. Examples from research

projects will be used in order to discuss the

entanglement of meaning and matter in design

of IT systems and services.

4KEYNOTES

5 SESSIONS

1Digital Accountability: public private and beyond

Chair: Maria Jansson

Tuesday, March 8th, 3 pm - 4.30 pm

MA 136

Jennie Kristina Olofsson

Luleå tekniska universitet

Acts of Mapping, Embodied Junctures - an

account of movements in computer-mediated

environments

Lin Prøitz

University of Oslo

The Fall of Private Intimacy

Sofia Lundmark and Maria Normark

Södertörn University

New understandings of gender and identity

construction by norm-critical design

2Social Media and New Frontiers: Gender and Generations

Chair: Karin Danielsson Öberg


MA 146

Deirdre Hynes

Manchester Metropolitan University

Femininity and Football: a study of gender

identities in football forums

Naziat Hossain Choudhury

University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Living on Facebook: Experiences of Female

Facebook Users in Bangladesh

Eva Svedmark Ikonomidis

Umeå University

Performative technology; creating a sense of

trust.

3Gender and Innovation: Dreams for Change

Chair: Johanna Sefyrin


MA 156

Tiina Suopajärvi & Johanna Ylipulli

University of Oulu

Who has a chance to dream? Applying a multi-

method approach to the design process of a

future ubiquitous city

Ana M. González Ramos, Núria Ver-gés Bosch, Cecilia Castaño Collado

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

International Mobility of Women in ICT sec-

tors: professional and personal goals, respons-

es and outcomes

Maria Udén

Luleå Technical University

Future internet research: Feminist experimen-

tation in FP7



Wednesday, March 9th, 10.30 - 11.30 am

MA 136

Katherine Harrison

Linköping University

Data Writing: an interactive feminist writing

method for sustainable ICT change.

Jörg Müller, Milagros Sáinz and Cecilia Castaño

Internet Interdisciplinary Institute IN3

Institutional Barriers to Gender Mainstream-

ing in Spanish ICT Higher Education

6SESSIONS

7 SESSIONS

5Visibilities and Invisibilities in Theories and Practices


Wednesday, March 9th, 10.30 - 11.30 am

MA 146

Pirjo Elovaara & Kerstin Gustavsson

Blekinge Institute of Technology

Ordering a messiness – stories of an ICT-

project

Åsa Ståhl & Kristina Lindström

Malmö University

Threads – a Mobile Sewing Circle

6Modest Feminist Interventions


Wednesday, March 9th, 2 - 4 pm

MA 136

Wendy M. Christensen

Bowdoin College

The Online World as a Problematic: A Femi-

nist Sociology of the Internet

Corinna Bath

Humboldt-University Berlin

Epistem-onto-logical Models of Knowledge

in the Sematicc Web: from mirroring towards

diffraction

Johanna Sefyrin

Mid Sweden University

Who Make Anywhere Anytime Access Come

Into Being? – Analyses of IT, Body and Places

Maja van der Velden

University of Oslo

Personal autonomy in a post-privacy world: A

feminist technoscience perspective


Chair: Pirjo Elovaara


MA 146

Hilde G. Corneliussen

University of Bergen

From “Incompatibility” and “Gender Inau-

thenticity” to “Technicity”: perspectives on

a new rhetoric for the gender-technology

relation

Susanna Bairoh

Hanken School of Economics

Not for the ”Soft-Skinned” – women’s experi-

ences of inclusion in Finnish ICT organisa-

tions

Diane Patricia McCarthy

Christchurch Polytechnic, Institute of Technology

Brigit and Serena; trans:gendered experiences

of IT training in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Anna Croon Fors

Umeå University

Strange Familiarity - On the material turn in

feminism and HCI

8Social Media and New Frontiers: Gender and Generations

Chair: Eva Svedmark Ikonomidis


MA 146

Els Rommes & Yvonne Benschop

Radboud University

Gendered Networking Practices and Linkedin

Clem Herman & Anna Peachey

The Open University

Second Life, Second Chance: using virtual

worlds to support women returning to SET

Karin Danielsson Öberg, Maria Nordmark & Ulrika Danielsson

Umeå University

Designing for Girls and Boys

8SESSIONS

9 SESSIONS



Thursday, March 10th, 10.30 - 11.30 am

MA 136

Fredrik Sjögren

Luleå University of Technology

Doing Gender in ICT Research Organisations:

competence, interests and normative concep-

tions

Carola Schirmer, Maike Hecht & Susanne Maaß

University of Bremen

Inspiring Innovative Practice: Gender and

Diversity as Key Factors in Software Migration

Processes


Chair: Pirjo Elovaara

Thursday, March 10th, 10.30 - 11.30 am

MA 146

Cecile Crutzen

Open University, Netherlands

Masks Between the Visible and the Invisible

Minna Salminen Karlsson & Gill Kirkup

Uppsala University

Have we become part of the problem?

10SHORT SESSIONS


Tuesday, March 8th 16.30 - 17.30

MA 136

Maria Nordmark & Karin Danielsson Öberg

Umeå University

“Challenging Life - Improving Futures”

May-Britt Öhman

Uppsala University

“Remote control, organic machines and hu-

man bodies: Feminist body and embodiment

research meet regulated rivers and the ones

who (think that they) control them?”Chair:

Hilde Corneliussen

OPEN TRACKS POSTER SESSIONTuesday, March 8th 16.30 - 17.30

MA 146

Claude Draude

University of Bremen

InformAttraktiv - “Repositioning computer

science - faculty culture, academic profiles and

public image - in dialogue with gender studies

research: towards a modern, innovative and

more inclusive discipline”

Göde Both

Humboldt-University / Tech. University Berlin

“Agency and Gender in Human/Machine-

Configurations: The Case of Virtual Personal

Assistants”

11 VENUE

Umeå is the most densely populated town

in northern Sweden with approximately 110

000 inhabitants. Umeå has been appointed

European Capital of Culture in 2014. As one of

the fastest growing cities in Sweden Umeå suc-

cessfully manages to balance its environmental

commitments with its trade and industry

ambitions, attracting some of the world’s most

creative and enterprising businesses to the

region. The city has tremendous IT know-how

and IT and communications industries are

particularly well established here.

Umeå University

The university opened in 1965, and carries

on strong international top-level research in

for example ageing and population stud-

ies, infection medicine, and plant and forest

biotechnology. Umeå University is one of the

country’s largest teaching universities.

Umeå university is an international well

known meeting place for the

humanities, social siences, culture and infor-

mation technology. For example:

HUMlab

An internationally established platform for the

digital humanities and new media. Centered

around an exciting studio environment of

about 500 m2, HUMlab offers interesting tech-

nology, prominent international visitors, often

several simultaneously ongoing activities and

a rich mixture of competences and interests.

Umeå Art Campus

In the summer of 2009 contruction work for

Umeå Arts Campus began in the area by the

Umeå Institute of Design and Umeå Academy

of Fine Arts.

The first new building being constructed is the

Umeå School of Architecture. Umeå Univer-

sity’s museum of contemporary art and visual

culture- Bildmuseet - will relocate to a modern

new building here.

Umeå Centre for Gender Studies

Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS)

is appointed Centre of Gender Excellence

from the Swedish Research Council in 2007.

It is a rapidly growing physical milieu as well

as a centre for broad academic interaction

including future-oriented, international and

multidisciplinary development.

UMEÅ IN BRIEF

ABSTRACTS

Jennie Olofsson

Acts of mapping - Embodied Junctures

Computer-mediated environments constitute

seemingly diverse fields from what is referred

to as reality, yet they bear resemblances with

physical settings, which requires “a renewed

crossing of communicative and cultural per-

spectives” (Fornäs et al., 2002, p. 2). This pres-

entation visualizes the inextricability between

spaces by disclosing how computer- mediated

envionments at once provide technical con-

strains and render possible novel associations

between gender and embodiment. It argues

that computer-mediated environments are apt

sites for articulation of the values that have

pervaded traditional notions of gender and

embodiment. More specifically, inhabitation

of, and navigation through computer-mediat-

ed environments proceed in terms of situated

acts of translation, something that equally

allows for a continuous making and remaking

of gendered traits

Lin PrøitzThe fall of private intimacy

In this article I examine how new digital me-

dia and media genres influence the perception

of intimacy, sexuality and the understanding

of the public and private sphere. The analytical

discussion is based on qualitative interviews

with Norwegian women and men who in vari-

ous ways participate in online dating, in social

network societies and/or in blogs. Overall, the

article is one attempt at developing under-

standings of the multifaceted interactions

that digital participatory media generate, and

understandings that are more in line with the

complex media society of which we already

are a part.

Sofia Lundmark & Maria Normark

New understandings of gender and identity construction by norm-critical design

The discussion in this paper is based on two

different empirical studies. First we will dis-

cuss how gender and identities are constructed

and expressed in online environments among

young girls, and how their actions in material-

discursive contexts creates new challenges for

the design of digital technologies. The other

empirical material that we discuss is a case

study of the design work in a youth counsel-

ling site in Sweden (umo.se). The case study

gives examples of how the design is developed

in order to create a norm-critical experience

for the users. We describe how these concerns

affect the design outcome in the development

of an animation about love. Based on the

two empirical studies we then propose a new

concept: norm-critical design.

13

ABSTRACTS 14

Deirdre Hynes

Femininty and Football: a study of gender identities in football forums

This paper seeks to explore a number of

related issues: first: an exploration of the

experience of female football fans (in sport

as a gendered cultured space); second: how

female football fans negotiate their identity as

a football fan and their relationship to their

club via online community/fan-sites which is a

gendered cultured space; third; how gender is

constructed and mediated through ICTs. The

research presents the experiences and testi-

monies from female football fans about their

affinity with their club, football in general and

how their own individual relationships have

been shaped by online mediated participation

in football forums.

Naziat Hossain Choudhury

Living on Facebook: Experiences of Female Facebook Users in Bangladesh

Facebook has become a big phenomenon in a

country like Bangladesh which has one of the

lowest Internet penetration rates in the world.

But currently one million Internet users in

Bangladesh are members of this site. Despite

infrastructural and other problems associated

with Internet usage, this statistical figure is

significant. Unfortunately no data is available

on how and why women are using this site in

Bangladesh. Thus this empirical paper propos-

es to focus in this area. Why are they entering

this world of Facebook? How are they living

their lives on Facebook? The findings suggest

that these female Facebook users are enthusi-

astic, experimental and creative in their usage.

They are young, educated and come from

diverse socio-economic background. Majority

of them accessing it from their mobile phones,

Facebook seem to work as a great support base

for these women. Thus the findings reveal that

what started out as a place for maintaining

friendship has been taken to a new level by

Facebook users, in terms of the site’s use. The

study emphasizes on the fact that to meet the

real needs and demands of these users’ lives,

they began to live in Facebook in their own

unique way. The findings of this study hopes

to bridge the existing research gap in the

field of gender and new media in developing

countries.


Performative technology; creating a sense of trust.

This article is focusing the growing phenome-

na of online self exposure both in physical and

emotional meaning. By studying blogs that

contains narratives of strong emotional dis-

tress, dealing with matters that we traditional-

ABSTRACTS15

ly see as very personal or private such as grief,

suicide and various mental illness the author

search for answers and explanations why. The

studies indicate that besides the social norms

created in this type of communities also the

design of the technology itself is performative

and creates user patterns that reinforce the

phenomena further.

Tiina Suopajärvi & Johanna Ylipulli

Who has a chance to dream? Applying a multi- method approach to the de-sign process of a future ubiquitous city

In this paper, we argue that the participants

of the design process of a ubiquitous city are

producing their discourses in three affective

settings: “the high-tech city of Oulu”; “liv-

ing lab methodology”; and “global research

community vs. local user community”. These

settings influence especially the discourses

on agency, which we discuss as constructed

in relation to other agents, but also to the

imagined users of new technology. We apply

Donna Haraway’s notion on situated knowl-

edge to the thematic interviews we have made

with twelve participants of the UBI Program

executed in the northern Finnish city of Oulu.

The program is led by computer scientists, and

our analyses reveal that their sense of agency

is stronger than the interviewees’ who repre-

sent e.g. the city and the industry. In addition,

the users haven’t been given a real chance to

become affective agents in the design process

though the program is based on the participa-

tory living lab method.

Ana González Ramos, Núria Vergès Bosch, Cecilia Castano Collado

International Women in ICT sectors: professional and personal goals

Feminist Research on ICT shows the preva-

lence of a masculine culture within ICT

sectors characterized by the scarce number of

women in ICT studies and jobs and a skewed

concept of excellence which makes work-life

balance and the advancement of women in

ICT difficult (Wacjman, 1991; Cohoon and

Aspray, 2006; Castaño, 2008). However, most

evidence about women in ICT treats them as

a unique collective that conforms to general

innovation trends of the contemporary society

based on ICT development (Plant, 1997;

Burger et al, 2007).

The present case study addresses the interna-

tional mobility strategies developed by women

employed in the ICT labour market in Spain.

International Mobility is related to career

progression in the contemporary economy,

a knowledge based economy (Castells, 1996,

Brown et al, 2001); therefore, highly skilled

personnel, and in this case women in the ICT

sector, are forced to go abroad. The study of

ABSTRACTS 16

our group of women provides evidence of

differences in lifestyles among them pursuing

different personal and professional objec-

tives and decisions. We want to explore to

what extent mobility changes their identities

or whether they use mobility to fulfill their

dreams of an alternative future for them and

their families. In doing so we also explore the

role of international mobility for women in

the ICT sector, thus, their causes, responses

and implications for the future of women lives

and the development of the ICT sector itself.

Maria Udén

Future Internet Research: Feminist experimentation in FP7

The Internet is currently considered an ex-

tremely successful and effective innovation but

which material and organizational structures

will not much longer respond to its strategic

importance and tremendous volume of use

and users. Measures are taken at national,

regional and global levels and by industry ac-

tors, to meet this perceived threat to economic

growth and social stability. Actions within

the European Union include the institution

of the Future Paradigms and Experimental

Facilities objective in the 7th Framework ICT

programme (FP7 ICT). This implies funding

of an array of pan-European research and

development projects, aligned to the Future

Internet Research and Experimentation initia-

tive (FIRE) and the Future Internet Assembly

(FIA). In this setting, the author has since

three years been the manager and scientific

representative of the coordinator for the FP7

ICT project Networking for Communications

Challenged Communities: Architecture, test

beds and innovative alliances (N4C). However,

the passion fuelling this commitment is that

for feminist intervention and experimentation

that is, a concern for technology development

that goes beyond the Internet as such. The

place where I work, the actual owner of the

project is Luleå University of Technology in

Sweden, and there the Division of Gender and

Innovation. The current Chair of the division,

professor Ewa Gunnarsson, has a background

from the women’s movement and, also I iden-

tify myself as feminist.

Katherine Harrison

Data Writing: an interactive feminist writing method for sustainable ICT

This paper is concerned with the development

of a creative and interactive research method

in a project for the Swedish Civil Contingen-

cies Agency (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd

och beredskap (MSB)). The research project is

titled ‘Information management, gender and

organisation,’ and is part of a wider ongoing

research project called ‘Gender, Rescue Servic-

ABSTRACTS17

es and Organisation’ which I am conducting

with six colleagues from Linkoping and Luleå

Universities and SCORE. The project team

aims to engage actively with MSB and its em-

ployees in working towards building a more

gender-equal organisation, through combin-

ing interactive research methodologies with

intersectional perspectives. The overall project

comprises six research projects in three areas:

1. Education, 2. Technology and Organiza-

tion, 3. Political processes and organization

in relation to equality and diversity work. My

particular subproject focuses on informa-

tion and communication technologies (ICTs)

used by MSB and the municipal emergency

services. The main research question that this

project seeks to answer is: what are the effects

of the interaction between gender and ICTS

on the processing and sharing of information?

Related questions include: i) in what ways do

organisational gender dynamics influence use

and design of ICTs?; ii) how is information

processed and mediated at the intersection

of gender and ICTs; iii) what effect does this

mediation have on application or use of this

information in society?

In order to answer these questions in a way

that both engages with MSB employees and

explores the contingent limitations of ICTs,

I have developed an ‘interactive writing

method’ which takes inspiration not only from

interactive research but also from feminist

critiques of dominant narratives of technosci-

ence. This method supplements face-to-face

field work such as interviews and observations

with email conversations and blogging. This

paper will outline this approach and illus-

trate it with examples from the early stages of

fieldwork.

Jörg Muller & Cecilia Castano

Institutional Barriers to Gender Main-streaming in Spanish ICT Higher Education

Our contribution will present results from a

two year research effort (2008-2010) to map

the situation of women in ICT related higher

education in Spain. The project undertook a

comparative study of the underrepresentation

of women among academic staff and students

across six Telecommunications Engineering-

and Computer Science Faculties in Spain. The

implications of the continuing low participa-

tion of women at all academic levels in these

ICT fields were analyzed in the light of recent

legal developments that require all public uni-

versities to implement gender equality plans

and measures. As the findings suggest, gender

issues are poorly conceptualized among other

reasons because it has been formally estab-

lished. As a consequence, gender is largely

ABSTRACTS 18

absent from important reform processes

tied to the Bologna process or “excellence”

initiatives of the universities. A theoretically

inspired discussion of how this “repressive

tolerance” might be countered will close our

presentation.

Pirjo Elovaara & Kerstin Gustavsson

Ordering a messiness – stories of an ICT project

The project “Women’s Digital Baskets in

Rwanda” took place during 2008-2010 and

where our roles were many; a project initia-

tor, project leader and also project members.

To write about this project is a multilayered

challenge. The messiness of the project makes

it hard to present a simple and ordered story.

Hence, one of the aims of the paper is try to

tell a diffracted (Haraway 1999, Alander, 2007)

story where feminist technoscience scholars,

Donna Haraway, with her cyborg figuration

(Haraway, 1991) and Karen Barad’s agential

realism (Barad, 2007) will guide us in our or-

dering work. They also remind us to take ma-

teriality and various assemblages of humans

and non-humans seriously. Besides these two

we also find inspiration and guidance from the

many writings of John Law, with his sensitive-

ness for messiness and understanding of that

things can be both absent and present at the

same time and talking about changes does

not necessarily mean a leap from one state of

affairs to other one, as often assumed an op-

posite one but as fluidities (see e.g. one of the

authors, 2004). What also calls our attention is

the notion of accountability: from which epis-

temological and political position do we write?

The necessity to create cuts is nothing we can

avoid but how to develop sensitivity to think

about the consequences of our cuts; what do

we include and what do we exclude?

Åsa Ståhl & Kristina Lindström

Threads – a Mobile Sewing Circle

The difficulty of moving or transferring

technologies from one site to another has been

widely discussed within technology studies

(de Laet and Mol 2000, p.226). This paper fol-

lows the art project Threads in the beginning

of a tour around Sweden. It is a mobile sewing

circle where people are invited to embroider

SMS. Inspired by de Laet and Mol’s story of

love towards the Zimbabwe Bush Pump we

here tell the story of a more scattered technol-

ogy in need of being assembled by local actors.

Although the fluid network of actors that

are involved might perform contradictory in

Threads, it is possible to recognise Threads as

Threads. The actions taken by the participants

in Threads can be contradictory to the invita-

tion to ‘embroider SMS’. We have consciously

ABSTRACTS19

designed Threads so that it manages to hold

several story lines at the same time and there-

by allows for several simultaneous story lines.

That somebody uses Threads as a production

line for Christmas gifts does not necessarily

interfere with the story line of embroidering

SMS, which other participants can be doing

at the same time. One of the reasons for this

is that Threads does not have a clear centre

or periphery. There is no self evident position

from which one actor can overwrite the other

story lines.

Wendy Christensen

The Online World as a Problematic: A Feminist Sociology of the Internet

In this paper I suggest a framework for doing

sociological feminist internet research that

takes into account the way that power and

inequality shape the online world. I do this by

extending feminist theorist Dorothy Smith’s

concept of mediated texts to the study of the

internet. As a part of technology, online texts

are active mediators of the online world, and

therefore call for a theoretical approach that

emphasizes active relationality. I argue that

applying Smith’s unique definition of texts as

powerful material coordinators of the social

world to the online world reveals some of

the particular properties of power in online

communications. I propose methodological

practices for internet research by suggesting

ways to adapt institutional ethnography to

doing online research.

Corinna Bath

Epistem-onto-logical Models of Knowl-edge in the Semantic Web: From mir-roring towards diffraction

This paper aims to shed light on the ques-

tion of how these politics are entangled with

certain epistemological assumptions, on

which the modelling of knowledge is based

upon. The objective of paper is twofold. On

the one hand I will discuss these issues on

the basis of empirical material from semantic

web research (field studies, expert interviews,

academic research literature). On the other

hand this papers aims to provide a theoretical

framework, in which it is possible to compare

certain epistemological models of knowledge

used in computer science in respect to their

likeliness to reproduce or undermine the

existing gender order. For the latter purpose

I will employ the concept of diffraction that

was introduced by Donna Haraway (1997)

and elaborated by Karen Barad (2007). The

diffraction concept combines and enhances

current theoretical debates in gender and sci-

ence and technology studies. It is based upon a

performative understanding of the gendering

ABSTRACTS 20

of artefacts/matter, which is conceived of as

a process of co-materialisation of gender and

technology. Furthermore, essential dichoto-

mies such as realism/ social constructivism,

subject/ object, humans/ machines and even

epistemology/ ontology are overcome: “know-

ing is a material practice of engagement as

part of the world in its differential becomings”

(Barad 2007 89).

Johanna Sefyrin

Who Make Anywhere Anytime Access Come Into Being? – Analyses of IT, Body and Place

In this paper the visions for ‘anywhere anytime

access’ to online services are problematized,

in terms of who the visions aim at, and who is

expected to realize the visions. In this paper

the question of who is expected to makein

the visions of anywhere anytime access

come into being, is discussed with the help

of feminist and postcolonial technoscience.

Central in this discussion are issues of bodies

and places, and one point of departure is that

design, manufacturing and use of information

technologies takes place in worldwide but yet

always localized webs of relations of material

human and nonhuman bodies. The discussion

is illustrated with a modified lifecycle analysis

of a computer, showing where and how some

actors are involved in a computer lifecycle. The

argument is that those of us who are impli-

cated in the information technology industry

and who benefit from it must be aware of the

problematic aspects of information tech-

nolo- gies and take responsibility for these.In

this paper the visions for ‘anywhere anytime

access’ to online services are problematized,

in terms of who the visions aim at, and who is

expected to realize the visions. In this paper

the question of who is expected to make

in the visions of anywhere anytime access

come into being, is discussed with the help

of feminist and postcolonial technoscience.

Central in this discussion are issues of bodies

and places, and one point of departure is that

design, manufacturing and use of information

technologies takes place in worldwide but yet

always localized webs of relations of material

human and nonhuman bodies. The discussion

is illustrated with a modified lifecycle analysis

of a computer, showing where and how some

actors are involved in a computer lifecycle. The

argument is that those of us who are impli-

cated in the information technology industry

and who benefit from it must be aware of the

problematic aspects of information technolo-

gies and take responsibility for these.

ABSTRACTS21

Maja van der Velden

Personal autonomy in a post-privacy world: A feminist technoscience per-spective

The idea that privacy is ‘bad’ (for women)

or ‘dead (online) is based on a conception of

privacy as an inherent attribute of an autono-

mous agent. Privacy is often understood as a

condition for personal autonomy. How does

this entanglement of autonomy and privacy

work out in online? Feminist scholars have

put forward a relational understanding of

autonomy. In this paper an extension on this

relational perspective is explored in an under-

standing of autonomy and privacy as material-

discursive practices in which new materiali-

ties and new meanings become visible. This

position is exemplified and further explored

in two personal vignettes based on in-depth

interviews with two social media users.

Hilde Corneliussen

From ”Incompability” and ”Gender In-authenthicity” to ”Technicity” perspec-tives on a new rhetoric for the gender-technology relations

In this paper I want to explore a rhetoric for

understanding women’s relationships with

technology in ways that might be positive in

political contexts and helpful for analytical

purposes. The aim is to search for new ways

of understanding what has been a widely ac-

cepted perception of gender and technology as

co-constructed simultaneously as femininity

tend to appear as a barrier to acknowledging

women’s technological competence, interest

and experience. The paper is explorative, thus

not aiming at providing clear answers, but

rather to raise questions and instigate debate.

The concept of “technicity” has been used by

Gilbert Simondon to refer to the technologi-

cal qualities of technological objects, to how

technological objects are not fixed, but rather

always in construction, and always need to be

understood within the relations and environ-

ments in which they appear (1980 (1958)).

This paper will explore whether and how the

concept of technicity can help to build a rheto-

ric that does not rely on “gender inauthentic-

ity”, “incompatibility” or for women to “give

up” femininity. Instead we will see examples

of how, in some cases, none of these terms are

suitable, and that it is not always femininity

that is “given up”, but rather women’s technic-

ity.

Susanna Bairoh

Not for the soft ”Soft Skinned” – wom-en’s experience of inclusion in Finnish ICT organisations

This paper draws from two separate fields of

literature (Gender & ICT; Diversity Manage-

ment) which nonetheless have reached the

ABSTRACTS 22

same conclusion in recent years: if the goal

is to improve equality or inclusion in work

organisations, it is necessary to focus on prac-

tices as well as policies. I propose that in order

to understand inclusion in ICT organisations,

one needs to evaluate both equality/diversity

policies and the experiences of individual

women. In my paper, I will present the find-

ings of my empirical study which includes 20

interviews conducted in seven ICT organiza-

tions in Finland.

Diane Patricia McCarthy

Brigit and Serna; transgendered expe-riences of IT training in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Globally, few studies exist of transgendered

persons as emerging and new IT professionals.

Much research is located within the tradition

of a psycho-medical model, but more recently

within human rights, and access to training

and education. Thus, research discourses are

more likely to be informed by experiences

transgendered persons have, than objectifying

them. Using discourse analysis from a blended

technofeminist poststructuralist analytical

framework, this paper accesses the partial,

modest and situated knowledges of two

transgendered ICT students training in two

polytechnic, institutes of technology (ITP), in

Aotearoa-New Zealand. How these students

make sense of their subjectivities, agency and

power as emerging ICT professionals is inter-

preted. Ways student agency is constrained,

enabled, and modified are discussed. Position-

ings reflect co-created and layered femininities

and masculinities in ITP settings. Finally, the

ways that these discursive layers intersect and

are made visible or obscured are traced using

Lloyd’s subjects-in-process model.

Anna Croon Fors

Strange Familiarity - On the material turn in feminism and HCI

In this paper a tentative response to the

request for new perspectives on research

in human-computer interaction (HCI) is

formulated. The response is based on the

recent interest of feminism within the field of

Human-Computer Interaction in conjunc-

tion with the material turns in both HCI and

Feminism. The purpose is to show how the

idea of materiality can be grasped, theorized

and explored within the field of HCI drawing

on contemporary design research and feminist

technoscience. As digitalization becomes

embedded in most aspects of our lives HCI

as a research discipline has made a material

turn in its methods and scope. This turn is,

among other things, motivated by movements

in ubiquitous computing and the digital and

the material blends into new computational

ABSTRACTS23

composites. The turn also acknowledges and

explores how physical materials are becom-

ing more dynamic and complex when infused

with the digital. The paper departs from the

designerly response to the increased need to

compose new unities and wholes in the appar-

ent contradictory and disperse intertwining

of artifact-user relations in interaction. By

employing a designerly approach in conjunc-

tion with feminist technoscience I make a case

of strange familiarity as a sustainable design

strategy supporting future explorations of un-

known of digital designs. This strategy among

other things scaffold our sense of digital mate-

rials as open, dynamic, multiperspectival and

unfinalizable, rather than as an accidentally

given feature of the world.

Els Rommes & Yvonne Benschop

Gendered Networking Practices and Linkedin

Linkedin is one of the most popular social

networking sites targeting ‘professionals’. Its’

aim is to facilitate and support professional

networking practices. One of these practices

is impression management that concerns the

strategic self-presentation that people use to

influence the perception others have of them

(Goffman, 1959; Rosenfeld et al. 1995.) As

earlier studies indicate gender differences in

the use of impression management (Kumra

& Vinnicombe 2010; Greener 2007, Singh et

al, 2002, Guadagno & Cialdini, 2007), we are

interested in how this plays out in an online

setting. Therefore, in this paper, we ask what

kind of gendered professional networking

practices and impression management tactics

the social network site Linkedin affords and

which practices professional men and women

use?

Clem Herman & Anna Peachey

SecondLife Chance: using virtual worlds to support women returning to SET

Most of the growing body of research that cen-

tres on gender in virtual worlds is focused on

the performativity and embodiment of gender

through experimenting with forms of the ava-

tar (for example Hussain and Griffiths, 2008,

Dumitrica and Gaden, 2009), and does not

seek to explain how issues relating to physical

gender may be explored within the environ-

ment other than through manipulation of the

avatar. Participants within our study engaged

individually with their avatars to varying

degrees, but generally there was minimal

personalisation and the avatar was predomi-

nantly the tool that each used to engage with

the environment and each other. We are hence

able to privilege a wider range of questions

relating to gender that can be addressed using

ABSTRACTS 24

the body of evidence gathered through forum

postings, Second Life chat transcripts, survey

results and planned telephone interviews:

• To what extent has Second Life fulfilled the

needs of returners (eg networking and social

contact, supporting their shared experience of

‘being in the same boat’)?

• Have their experiences of SL been more or

less gendered than VLE forums?

• Does the gendered choices of avatars affect

performance and/or participation in the

group?

• How well does Second Life replicate or

enhance face to face networking

Karin Danielsson Öberg, Maria Nordmark & Ulrika Danielsson

Designing for Girs and Boys

Information technologies (IT) for the general

public and everyday use, are supposed to be

designed for both male and female users.

However, this is not always the case. One rea-

son for this is the lack or limited participation

of women during design of IT. The participa-

tion (or lack thereof) of women during design

of technology has been brought to attention

(see for example Johanna Seyferin, 2010; Judy

Wajcman, 2009), and it is an important area

of research. The role and impact women have

on design, and the contribution they make,

should be put to attention and regarded as

an important input for designers in order to

design for a population.We have studied the

participation of teenaged girls and boys during

design of a free Internet edutainment game.

During design, participatory design worked

as our point of departure. Our outline of the

workshops, where the girls and boys were sep-

arated at most times, prevented the girls from

becoming marginalized or invisible. To have

separate groups means less impact of existing

power practices between girls and boys. The

teenagers made important contributions to

design, changes that in several ways changed

the game design (for example the game

concept, content, graphics and so forth). Not

least, did the girls bring crucial changes to at-

tention, and therefore they had a large impact

on design. Our results illustrate the important

contribution that girls do whilst participating

during design. And, by using separate groups,

how female users contribution to design can

become visible and influential. Finally, our

findings also bring to attention differences

between girls and boys and their preferences

in games such as the one developed.

ABSTRACTS25

Fredrik Sjögren

Doing Gender in ICT Research Or-ganisations: comptence, interest and normative conceptions

This paper presents a part of my doctoral

research that is conducted within the project

“A gender perspective on ICT-research or-

ganisations and – processes in transition”. The

paper is based on deep-interviews with twelve

members of four ICT-research organisations. I

here focus on how the concept of competence

and the computer nerd are understood by the

respondents. This understanding is analysed

through a Doing Gender-perspective where

gender is viewed as an interactional process,

conducted in relation to institutional norma-

tive conceptions on how to behave in gender

appropriate ways. Competence is shown to be

a gendered concept connected to the norma-

tive conception of the computer nerd. Women

do not as easy as men embody this norma-

tive conception. The connection between

masculinity and competence, embodied in the

computer nerd, function as a gatekeeper to,

and within, the studied organisations. Thus

gender influence men and women’s different

degree of access to the innovation practices

conducted in the organisations.

Carola Schirmer, Maike Hecht & Susanna Maaß

Inspiring Innovative Practices: Gender and Diversity as Key Factors in Soft-ware Migration Processes

Software migration processes in organisa-

tions are a challenge for employees as well

as for management. In a recent empirical

study we inquired with members of three

organisations about their experiences during

an operating system migration to Linux. The

focus of our research was on how gender and

diversity should generally be addressed to

support a successful software migration. We

conclude that gender and similar dimensions

of diversity are facilitators for discovering

workplace- related diversity in a particular

organisation. These aspects of diversity can

then be addressed by measures accompanying

a software migration process. In this paper

we present such workplace-related aspects of

diversity along with measures we identified as

best practices.

Cecile Crutzen

Mask Between the Visible and the Invisible

“Interaction” is an exchange of representations

between actors. Speaking, gesturing, writing,

making, designing are doings in which an

actor presents itself to other actors: human

ABSTRACTS 26

and not human. All acting of an actor is a rep-

resentation of itself in a world of other actors

and at the same time an interpretation of that

world. Interaction is a process. Every interpre-

tation and representation will influence future

action. Not only the actual behavior but also

the actions, which are not executed (actions in

deficient mode), are presentable and interpret-

able because these absent actions influence

the interpretation process, too. Interaction is

an ongoing process of mutual actions from

several actors in a (series of) situation(s). It is

a process of constructing meaning through re-

peated interpretation and representation of the

actors that is always situated in the interaction

itself and it depends on the horizons and the

backgrounds of the actors and their represen-

tations involved.

Minna Salminen Karlsson & Gill Kirkup

Have we become part of the problem

The authors of this paper challenge the

participants of the 6th conference on Gender

and ICT to critically examine the theories

and practices we have bought into for the last

30 years because they are not working. The

paper aims to provoke a deep-going discus-

sion of the foundations of our practices when

promoting women in ICT.

SOCIAL EVENTS27

The social program during GICT 2011

revolves around the Sámi week an event ar-

ranged in Umeå during the conference days.

Of all the indigenous cultures existing or

that has existed, the Sámi are one of the most

diverse and unique in language, history, and

culture. We will experience some of the tradi-

tions of people inhabiting Sápmi (the northern

parts of Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia),

as well as some of its more contemporary

cultural expressions.

Excursion to Museum of Västerbotten and Gammlia

Wednesday March 9th 11.30-13.30

The area where the Västerbotten Museum

is located is called Gammlia, an open-air

museum right next to the museum. Here you

can check out old buildings from all over the

county, spending time with the animals or

take part in crafts and traditions of the past.

Also three kinds of Sami settlements (cots) has

been set up based on models from the around

the region of Västerbotten. Inside the Museum

there are open exhibitions of the city of Umeå,

its past and anticipated futures as well as exhi-

bitions of skis, and other objects, photographs,

models, and texts about how the country was

habitable when the ice retreated about 10,000

years ago.

Sami Textile and Crafts

During our excursion we will have a guided

tour in smaller groups to visit some of the

museum’s textile collection produced or cul-

tivated in northern Sweden. In parallel there

is an open showroom of Sámi designs where

contemporary crafts are on display with some

opportunities for purchasing souvenirs.

Outdoor Lunch and Reindeer meeting

At the open air museum there are also oppor-

tunities to meet the Reindeers and experience

some of the different architectural styles of the

Sámi cots. Outside Båtsuoj offers Sami special-

ties for lunch and the Sami life is described

through taste, smell, sight and hearing.

CONFERENCE DINNER

Wednesday March 9th 18.30 at Harrys

For the ninth time we carry out our very own

race in jojk, with rules inspired by the poetry

slam. No one knows in advance what may

happen during the evening, no one knows

who will win, nobody cares! But everyone

knows that they had an excellent evening!

EXCURSION

HOTEL UMAN

HARRYS

VASAPLAN1 Carlshöjd5 Strömpilen8 Tomtebo

Travel time: 6 minutes

UNIVERSUM5 Ersmark6 Röbäck via / Vasaplan8 Ö Ersboda via / Vasaplan9 Röbäck via / Vasaplan


GAMMLIA, MUSEUM OF VÄSTERBOTTEN

GENDER & ICT ‘11

WALKDistance: 2.4 km


FROM THE AIRPORT (4 km to towncenter)

FLIGHT BUS SERVICE

Departs outside terminal after every arrival. It stops outside the hospital (close to the university), to the bussation and stops at Vasaplan (close to Hotel Uman) All stops above is marked with pink dots on the map.COST: 40 SEK (Pay with creditcard on the bus)

TAXI

FLYGTAXI | +46 (0)8 120 92 000 | http://www.flygtaxi.seECOTAXI | +46 (0)90 911 911 | http://www.ecotaxi.seUMEÅ TAXI | +46 (0)90 77 00 00 | http://www.umeataxi.seTAXI DIREKT | +46 (0)90 100 100 | http://www.taxidirekt.seTAXI KURIR | +46 (0)90 14 12 14 | http://www.taxikurir.seCOST: approx. 170-240 SEK

CAMPUS AREA

WALKDistance: 1.4 km


COMMITEE

Chair: Anna Croon Fors

Organizing committee:

Anna Croon Fors

Pirjo Elovaara

Karin Danielsson Öberg

Maria Jansson

Christina Mörtberg


Johanna Sefyrin

Programme committee:

Corinna Bath

Christina Björkman

Hilde Corneliussen

Cecile Crutzen

Sisse Finken

Anna Croon Fors

Karin Danielsson Öberg

Pirjo Elovaara

Maria Jansson

Gil Kirkup

Susanne Maaß

Christina Mörtberg

Claudia Morell

Els Rommes

Mari Runardotter

Heidi Schelhowen

Johanna Sefyrin

Eva Ikonomidis Svedmark

Johanna Uotinen

Marja Vehviläinen

Maja van der Welden

Christine Wächter

gender & ict - programme

Documents

conference opening

conference overviewtimetuesday

european conference

preconference workshop

open trackshort session

open trackshort session

conference closing futures

intersection of gender