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
IME
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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
Tuesday, March 8th, 3 pm - 4.30 pm
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
Tuesday, March 8th, 3 pm - 4.30 pm
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
4Gender and Innovation: Dreams for Change
Chair: Maria Jansson
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
Chair: Johanna Sefyrin
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
Chair: Maria Jansson
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
7Visibilities and Invisibilities in Theories and Practices
Chair: Pirjo Elovaara
Wednesday, March 9th, 2 - 4 pm
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
Wednesday, March 9th, 2 - 4 pm
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
9Gender and Innovation: Dreams for Change
Chair: Johanna Sefyrin
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
10Visibilities and Invisibilities in Theories and Practices
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
Chair: Johanna Sefyrin
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.
Eva Svedmark Ikonomidis
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
Travel time: 6 minutes
GAMMLIA, MUSEUM OF VÄSTERBOTTEN
GENDER & ICT ‘11
WALKDistance: 2.4 km
Travel time: 30 minutes
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
Travel time: 18 minutes
HOTEL UMAN
HARRYS
VASAPLAN1 Carlshöjd5 Strömpilen8 Tomtebo
Travel time: 6 minutes
UNIVERSUM5 Ersmark6 Röbäck via / Vasaplan8 Ö Ersboda via / Vasaplan9 Röbäck via / Vasaplan
Travel time: 6 minutes
GAMMLIA, MUSEUM OF VÄSTERBOTTEN
GENDER & ICT ‘11
WALKDistance: 2.4 km
Travel time: 30 minutes
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
Travel time: 18 minutes
COMMITEE
Chair: Anna Croon Fors
Organizing committee:
Anna Croon Fors
Pirjo Elovaara
Karin Danielsson Öberg
Maria Jansson
Christina Mörtberg
Eva Svedmark Ikonomidis
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