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Dreaming the Future: Gender, Marginality, and the Politics of Technology

Sun, August 23, 10:30am to 12:10pm, TBA

Abstract

Across the globe, national and supranational institutions are emphasizing the need for women to achieve development gains through their integration into the “network society”. Anchored in neoliberal ideas, these mainstream development discourses prescribe a series of solutions that have significantly impacted the agendas of women’s organizations in Latin America. But far from being passive consumers or receivers, several grassroots organizations in Latin America are defining and shaping a “feminist politics of technology”. This project examines the kinds of “feminisms” that emerge amidst local and transnational discourses that focus on gender, development, and technology. I hypothesize that grassroots organizations working on these issues are negotiating their practices and place within the network society in varying ways. These approaches are fluid and varied, also networked and evolving. A variety of qualitative methods will be employed to understand the practices of numerous organizational actors, and how they engage in framing processes and meaning making. The three primary cases will be focused on the Women’s Rights Programme of the Association for Progressive Communications, Sula Batsú in Costa Rica, and Colnodo in Colombia. Data will also be collected from experts on gender and technology at key global agencies, international funding entities, and major technology corporations.

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