TPFH Part 3 | 16 February – 8 March: Gender, Power & Technology
Part 3 of Technology, Power & the Future of Humanity (online distance course) deals with the relationship between gender, technology and power. This includes questions such as: Do artifacts (and technologies) have politics, and how might technologies affect power relationships? What is the relationship between gender and technology? Who should "select" and control technological development, and how?
Video
Merchant, Environmentalism: From the Control of Nature to Partnership
The Case For and Against Climate Engineering, debate between David Keith and Mike Hulme
Steve Rayner, The Flexible City: overcoming Lock-In and Path-Dependency
"Feminism, Technology, and Labor" from FemTechNet on Vimeo.
Feminism, Technology, and Systems from FemTechNet on Vimeo.
Feminism, Technology, and Systems 2: Infrastructures from FemTechNet on Vimeo.
Vandana Shiva on GMO issues
Bill Gates, Innovating to Zero!
Lawrence Lessig, Laws that choke creativity –
Crosstalks, Power to the people – Facing the global energy challenges
Course Goal from Syllabus for Part 3
On completion of the course, the student should be able to:
- apply conceptual, analytical and ethical tools to understand the role of technology in individual as well as collective meaning making processes.
- critically review different technologies, the use and development of technology and its consequences from a power perspective, and methods for risk assessment and evaluation of these consequences.
Tasks
The online seminar for part 3 takes place on March 6 (or a date the same week that you agree upon within your group). Detailed seminar instructions will be posted the week before the seminar (that is, week 9).
Readings
Edgerton, The shock of the old (course book): Nations (103-137) | War (138-159) | Killing (160-183)
Nye, Technology Matters (course book): Cultural Uniformity, or Diversity? | Work: More, or Less? Better, or Worse? | Should ”the Market” Select Technologies? | More Security, or Escalating Dangers?
Hulme, Can Science Fix Climate Change? (course book), chapters 1 & 2.
Winner (1980). "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" Daedalus, vol. 109(1)
Orwell, You and the Atomic Bomb
Isla (2007). "An Ecofeminist Perspective on Biopiracy in Latin America". Signs, vol 32 (2).