Feminist Hackerspace as a Place of Infrastructure Production

Thumbnail Image

Files

ada13-femin-sav-2018.pdf (7.59 MB)

Date

2018-01

Authors

Savić, Selena
Wuschitz, Stefanie

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Fembot Collective

Abstract

Work in a (feminist) hackerspace relies on the circulation of knowledge and availability of hardware. In contemporary maker scene, the majority of these resources is created in male-dominated circles and handed over to female identified makers to act upon and appropriate. Attempts to reconcile the disbalance in gender participation with pink-colored microcontrollers only reinforced existing gender and cultural stereotypes. Instead of adding to the growing voice of critique of exclusionist and inclusionist practices, we take a critical stand towards feminist hacking practice itself: we look at what is produced by feminist hackerspaces. Using standpoint theory to analyze the experience of working with one particular self-organized group of feminist artists and developers, this paper looks at practice in feminist hackerspaces as a way to create and share essential infrastructure with female or transgender identified makers. We analyze patterns of mutual self-help through sharing and learning, and their role in creating feminist infrastructure.

Description

21 pages

Keywords

Citation

Savić S. & Stefanie W. (2018). Feminist Hackerspace as a Place of Infrastructure Production. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, No. 13. https://doi.org/10.5399/uo/ada.2018.13.10

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/26790

Collections

Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology; Issue No. 13: Radical Feminist Storytelling and Speculative Fiction: Creating new worlds by re-imagining hacking (January 2018)