Εργαστήριο Σπουδών Φύλου και Ισότητας

This book takes the process of "reading the body" into fields at the forefront of culture -- the vast spaces mapped by science and technology -- to show that the body in a high-tech world is as gendered as ever. From female bodybuilding to virtual reality images, from cosmetic surgery to cyberpunk, from reproductive medicine to public health policies to TV science programs, Anne Balsamo articulates the key issues concerning the status of the body for feminist cultural studies in a postmodern world. Technologies of the Gendered Body combine close readings of popular texts-- such as Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale, the movie Pumping Iron II:The Women, cyberpunk magazines, and mass media-- with analyses of medical literature, public policy documents, and specific technological practices. Balsamo describes the ways in which certain biotechnologies are ideologically shaped by gender considerations and other beliefs about race, physical abilities, and economic and legal status. She presents a view of the conceptual system that structures individuals' access to and participation in these technologies, as well as an overview of individuals' rights and responsibilities in this sometimes baffling area. Examining the ways in which the body is gendered in its interactions with new technologies of corporeality, Technologies of the Gendered Body counters the claim that in our scientific culture the material body has become obsolete.

That we live in an image saturated culture has come to seem routine to us. But our great-grandparents would probably have had their brain circuits blown if they were plunked down in our culture. Massive and dramatic cultural and technological changes have taken place in an extraordinarily brief period of historical time- and so recently that we have barely begun to chart their effects on our perception, cognition, and most basic experiences of the relation between reality and appearance. The images are much more ubiquitous in our lives today than they were just a decade ago. The technology for producing them is far more sophisticated, and those who produce the images seem to have no compunction about using that technology in the service of a deceptive verisimilitude. With created images setting the standard, we are becoming habituated to the glossy and gleaming, the smooth and shining, the ageless and sagless and wrinkleless. We are learning to expect "perfection" and to find any "defect" repellent or unacceptable. We expect live performances to sound like CDs, politicians to say nothing messy or disturbing, real breasts to be as round and firm as implants.

The discussions about the ethical, political and human implications of the postmodernist condition have been raging for longer than most of us care to remember. They have been especially fierce within feminism. After a brief flirtation with postmodern thinking in the 1980s, mainstream feminist circles seem to have turned their back on the staple notions of poststructuralist philosophy. Metamorphoses takes stock of the situation and attempts to reset priorities within the poststructuralist feminist agenda.Cross-referring in a creative way to Deleuze's and Irigaray's respective philosophies of difference, the book addresses key notions such as embodiment, immanence, sexual difference, nomadism and the materiality of the subject. Metamorphoses also focuses on the implications of these theories for cultural criticism and a redefinition of politics. It provides a vivid overview of contemporary culture, with special emphasis on technology, the monstrous imaginary and the recurrent obsession with 'the flesh' in the age of techno-bodies.This highly original contribution to current debates is written for those who find changes and transformations challenging and necessary. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, feminist theory, gender studies, sociology, social theory and cultural studies.

This book explores the complicated issue of gender in computer games-particularly the development of video games for girls. One side is the concern that the average computer game, being attractive primarily to boys, furthers the technology access gap between the genders. Yet attempts to create computer games that girls want to play brings about another set of concerns: should games be gendered at all? And does having boys' games and girls' games merely reinforce the way gender differences are socialized in play? Cassell and Jenkins have gathered the thoughts of several feminist and media scholars to explore the issues from multiple perspectives, but this is not a work confined to ivory-tower theorizing. Alongside the philosophical explorations are pragmatic investigations of the hard-nosed, real world of computer-game manufacture and sales. Particularly enlightening is a section featuring interviews with several leading creators of games for girls. And while all agree that it's good to be past the days when women in computer games were limited to scantily clad background figures or damsels in distress, the visions of an appropriate future are both diverse and well defended.

What relationship exists between gender and technology? Does technology contribute to the disadvantage of women? In this innovative, ground-breaking volume, the authors take as an example the microwave oven, a recent innovation in domestic technology that neatly encapsulates the technology/gender relationship. In the microwave, argue the authors, "masculine" engineering encounters an age-old "women's" technology-cooking. Cockburn and Ormrod show how the microwave begins as a state-of-the-art "masculine" technology, is translated in the retail trade into a "family" commodity (one of a range of domestic goods), and eventually settles into the kitchen alongside other humble "feminine" appliances. Demonstrating how technology relations work to the disadvantage of women, the authors build theory out of meticulous observation of lived relations--both comic and painful--between real men and women and the machines they make and sell, buy and use.

With technological advances in reproduction no longer confined to the laboratory or involving only the isolated individual, women and men are increasingly resorting to a variety of technologies unheard of a few decades ago to assist them in becoming parents. The public at large, and feminists as a group, are confused and divided over how to view these technologies and over what positions to take on the moral and legal dilemmas they give rise to. Farquhar argues that two perspectives have tended to dominate feminist discussions of these issues. She labels these: fundamental feminism and market liberalism. Her argument is that both of these perspectives are faulty because neither can allow for the complex benefits and dangers that attend these technologies in different contexts. Farquar points to the diverse consequences of these technologies. She examines the way they reinforce class privileges while they also undermine traditional conceptions of the family. By linking a theoretical approach with a practical set of issues, Farquhar's The Other Machine provides a rigorous analysis of contemporary feminist debates.

Women writers, many of them lesbian feminists, have begun to explore the relationships between humans and machines. Along the way, they are rethinking how race, class, and gender affect technological change, especially given the growing gap between those with access to equipment and those without it. The entries in Reload, 11 pieces of fiction and 17 critical essays, assess the ways technology has, or will, affect female life. Take, for example, the notion that cyberspace levels the playing field by allowing users to don whatever identity they choose. According to contributor Lisa Nakamura, "when users are free to choose their own race, all were presumed to be white. And many of those who adopted nonwhite personae turned out to be white male users masquerading as exotic samurai and horny geishas." Chilling as this is, cyberspace remains a positive "place" for many users; writer Sharon Cumberland reminds us that women's chat rooms are often valued precisely because of the anonymity offered. Reload is filled with provocative and often contradictory glimpses into cyberculture.

From fetuses scanned ultrasonically to computer hackers in daycare, contemporary children are increasingly rendered cyborg by their immersion in technoculture. In Cyborg Babies, Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit have brought together cultural anthropologists and social critics to analyze the production of children in symbiosis with pervasive technology across a range of perspectives, from resistance to ethnographic analysis to science fictions. Interweaving cutting-edge ethnography, cultural critique, and personal narrative, these essays explore cyborg conceptions, prenatal diagnosis, hospital technobirth, and the effects of computer simulation games, techno-toys, and cyborg stories on children's emergent conciousness.

hrough an examination of the experience of transsexuals, this book enhances the understanding of how gender can and does function in powerful, complex and subtle ways. The author, who has herself been surgically reassigned, has conducted extensive interviews with transsexuals from many walks of life. Her personal experiences, which inform this book, have given her access to her subjects, access that others might be denied. While highlighting how the gender identity of transsexuals relates to hormonal and surgical changes in the body as well as to changes in dress, the book investigates the pressures and motivations to conform to expected gender roles, and the ways in which these are affected by social, educational, and professional status. Differences in the experiences of those who change from male to female and those who change from female to male are also examined. Sex reassignment has been the focus of considerable media attention recently, as increasing numbers of people feel able to talk frankly about their personal experiences with gender dysphoria. Strides with medical technology have given transsexuals new opportunities in their lives. This book provides unique insights into how these changes are seen by those people most affected by them.

Donna Haraway's work has transformed the fields of cyberculture, feminist studies, and the history of science and technology. Her subjects range from animal dioramas in the American Museum of Natural History to research in transgenic mice, from gender in the laboratory to the nature of the cyborg. Trained as a historian of science, she has produced a series of books and essays that have become essential reading in cultural studies, gender studies, and the history of science. The Haraway Reader brings together a generous selection of Donna Haraway's work. Included is her "Manifesto for Cyborgs," in which she famously wrote that she "would rather be a cyborg than a goddess." Other selections are taken from her three major works, Primate Visions, Modest Witness , and Simians, Cyborgs and Women , as well as some of her more recent writing on animals. For readers in cultural studies, feminist theory, science studies, and cyberculture, Donna Haraway is one of our keenest observers of nature, science, and the social world. This volume is the best introduction to her thought.

Sex/Machine is maping the intersection between gender and technology. Crossing multiple academic disciplines--from philosophy of technology, to medical ethics, to womens studies, gender theory and cultural studies, to law (among others), Patrick Hopkins has assembled a collection of provocative writing concerning the interactions between technologies and genders. The essays in this edited volume explore the history of technologies and gender, and how technology can shore up traditional and problematic gender roles (e.g., pectoral implants to make men appear more "macho", and technologies that make it possible for parents to know, and potentially select, the sex of their children before they are born). Another important aspect of the book is the exploration of the ways technologies undermine traditional ideas of gender.

New technologies suggest new ideas about embodiment: our "reach" extends to global sites through the Internet; we enter cyberspace through the engines of virtual reality. In this book, a leading philosopher of technology explores the meaning of bodies in technology-how the sense of our bodies and of our orientation in the world is affected by the various information technologies. Bodies in Technology begins with an analysis of embodiment in cyberspace, then moves on to consider ways in which social theorists have interpreted or overlooked these conditions. An astute and sensible judge of these theories, Don Ihde is a uniquely provocative and helpful guide through contemporary thinking about technology and embodiment, drawing on sources and examples as various as video games, popular films, the workings of e-mail, and virtual reality techniques. Charting the historical, philosophical, and practical territory between virtual reality and real life, this work is an important contribution to the national conversation on the impact technology-and information technology in particular-has on our lives in a wired, global age.

Can science be gender-neutral? In recent years, feminist critics have raised troubling questions about the practice and goals of traditional science, demonstrating the existence of a pervasive bias in the ways in which scientists conduct and discuss their work. This exciting volume gathers seventeen essays--by sociologists, scientists, historians, and philosophers--of seminal significance in the emerging field of feminist science studies. Analyzing topics from the stereotype of the "Man of Reason" to the "romantic" language of reproductive biology, these fascinating essays challenge readers to take a fresh look at the limitations--and possibilities--of scientific knowledge.

What is a specifically feminist perspective on science and technology? Focusing in particular on the socio-cultural implications of the latest scientific and technological developments, this book proposes a site of resistance to hegemonic discourses and practices of science and technology. Four sections cover science as a whole, the new technologies of the postmodern era, bio-medical discourses and nature. A distinguished cast of contributors explore the central feminist concerns in each arena, through the metaphors of monster, mother goddess and cyborg. They argue that feminists cannot ignore the emancipatory as well as the oppressive potentials of technology. Bringing together 'natural' and 'social' scientists, the book paves the way for a specifically feminist strategy for science, technology and health care.

This collection of essays explores the effects of information technology on women's employment and the nature of women's work in the third world. Contributors discuss the challenges faced by women, along with their responses and organizing strategies, as they adjust to new technologies in less affluent communities. Also outlined are the roles that family, ideology, state policies and trade union structures can play in distributing information technology-related employment among women and men. Particular chapters highlight differences in the interests and needs of different groups of women, challenging the concept of a monolithic, specifically feminine vision of technology and science. The book provides a critique of postmodernism and ecofeminism and suggests ways in which modern technologies could promote gender equality in the developing world.

A growing anthropological literature addresses the articulation of gender roles and ideology with health status, the organizing of health care, and health policy. This book presents as interdisciplinary focus on these issues viewed in a cross-cultural perspective. The book will be relevant to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and to clinicians and others interested in public health policy. Most of the contributors to the book are anthropologists engaged in cross-cultural research. Others include a literary theorist, a physician, and an ethicist, all of whom are primarily concerned with medical discourse, medical research, and the delivery of health care within North America. The premise of all these authors is that women and men seeking medical care should be conceptualized as gendered persons functioning in particular socioeconomic contexts. In addition, all the authors share the assumption that analysis of the production of health, as well as the provision of health care, must consider gender, ethnicity, and class as relevant factors.

In the early days of Pong and Pac Man, video games appeared to be little more than an idle pastime. Today, video games make up a multi-billion dollar industry that rivals television and film. The Video Game Theory Reader brings together exciting new work on the many ways video games are reshaping the face of entertainment and our relationship with technology. Drawing upon examples from widely popular games ranging from Space Invaders to Final Fantasy IX and Combat Flight Simulator 2, the contributors discuss the relationship between video games and other media; the shift from third- to first-person games; gamers and the gaming community; and the important sociological, cultural, industrial, and economic issues that surround gaming.

Η οικονομική και κοινωνική αναδιάρθρωση που συντελείται εδώ και τρεις περίπου δεκαετίες επηρέασε σημαντικά όχι μόνο τη φύση της εργασίας, αλλά και το ρόλο της μέσα στην παραγωγική διαδικασία και στην κοινωνία γενικότερα. Η χρήση των νέων τεχνολογιών και η πορεία των ευρωπαϊκών κοινωνιών προς την κοινωνία της γνώσης δημιούργησαν νέα δεδομένα και προκάλεσαν διεύρυνση των οικονομικών και κοινωνικών ανισοτήτων μεταξύ νέων κοινωνικών ομάδων. Οι ομάδες υψηλού κινδύνου δεν είναι οι ίδιες με το παρελθόν. Η γνώση και η κατοχή δεξιοτήτων αποτελούν σημαντικούς παράγοντες οριοθέτησης, στη σημερινή εποχή, των φτωχών, των ανέργων και των κοινωνικά αποκλεισμένων. Η εργασία, στην παρούσα φάση, δεν δείχνει να εκμεταλλεύεται, όσο θα ανέμενε κανείς, αυτές τις τεχνολογικές εξελίξεις προς όφελός της. Ταυτόχρονα παρατηρείται, υπό τη πίεση της παγκοσμιοποίησης και των οικονομικών και δημογραφικών περιορισμών, ο πολλαπλασιασμός των νέων μορφών εργασίας και η μη αντιστοίχηση των κοινωνικών αναγκών με την προσφορά των υπηρεσιών του συστήματος κοινωνικής προστασίας. Ποιο είναι λοιπόν το μέλλον της εργασίας; Επιστροφή στο παρελθόν, στην εποχή του άγριου καπιταλισμού, ή φυγή προς τα εμπρός; Η απάντηση είναι και θα είναι μόνο πολιτική.

Το βιβλίο αυτό πραγματεύεται τη σχέση φύλου και τεχνολογίας έτσι όπως διαμορφώθηκε στη διάρκεια του τεχνολογικού εκσυγχρονισμού του τραπεζικού συστήματος στην Ελλάδα Ειδικότερα, παρουσιάζει τον τρόπο που "κατασκευάστηκε" το φύλο των διατρητριών, των ταμειολογιστών και των επιστημόνων της πληροφορικής στον μεγαλύτερο τραπεζικό οργανισμό της Ελλάδας, την Εθνική Τράπεζα, σε συνθήκες αυξανόμενου ανταγωνισμού στον τραπεζικό κλάδο και σε μια κοινωνία με έντονα ιεραρχικές σχέσεις ανάμεσα στα φύλα. Αποτελεί συνεισφορά στη διερεύνηση των επιπτώσεων των νέων τεχνολογιών στην ανθρώπινη εργασία. Στηρίζεται σε εκτενή επιτόπια έρευνα και στη θεωρία της κοινωνικής ενδογένειας του φύλου και της τεχνολογίας.