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- Björkman, Christina
(författare)
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Challenging Canon : The Gender Question in Computer Science
- 2002
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The gender question in computer science is often presented as: "Why are there so few women in computer science and what can be done about that?" This question usually focuses on women. Sometimes 'men' or 'gender' enter the discussions. However, it is not common that the second part of the sentence - computer science - is considered. The papers in this thesis challenge, in different ways, how the gender question is usually perceived and discussed within the community of computer scientists, and where solutions are looked for. The approach taken is to move focus from women/gender to the discipline of computer science itself. This means the question is raised towards a more general level, towards "the science question", discussing the discipline, its paradigms and knowledge processes. Theories and methodologies from gender research, used within computer science, offer new possibilities to develop broader and more complex understandings of "the gender question in computer science".
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- Björkman, Christina
(författare)
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Computer Science, Gender and Knowledge : Situated Readings
- 2003
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Ingår i: How do we make a difference?. - Luleå : Division Gender and Technology, Luleå University of Technology. - 9197256897 ; , s. 157-174
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A text is read, interpreted and comprehended in different ways, depending on for example the perspectives of the reader. As a reader I take an active part in the creation of meaning when I interact with the text and so also, indirectly, with the author(s). In this paper I explore what I call situated readings, using the concept of partial perspectives in reading a text. I will read a text on women and computer science, an article from Communications of the ACM 1997. This article has gained a lot of attention and is still frequently cited within the community of computer scientists. This reading exercise reflects my own development, in that I explicitly try to make use of my background and experiences. I am a lecturer in computer science, and for a number of years I have been interested in questions and issues surrounding the under-representation of women within computer science and in the various different attempts to define, describe and suggest solutions to this ‘problem’. I have gone from taking part in, and actively leading, projects targeting women within CS, to an interest in trying to gain a complex understanding of this issue and challenging existing frameworks and explanations. The reading will reflect how my questions mainly concerning the low number of women in CS have evolved, as a result of experience and later from feminist studies, into other questions, approaching “the science question” (Harding 1986).
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- Björkman, Christina
(författare)
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Crossing Boundaries, Focusing Foundations, Trying Translations : Feminist Technoscience Strategies in Computer Science
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis I explore feminist technoscience strategies in computer science, starting in “the gender question in computer science”, and ending up in communication and translation between feminist technoscience research and computer science educational practice. Necessary parts in this work concern issues of boundary crossings between disciplines, and focusing on the foundations of computer science: what it means to “know computer science”. The point of departure is in computer science (CS), in particular CS education. There are at this starting point two intertwined issues: the gender question in computer science (often formulated as “what to do about the situation of women in computer science?”) and the foundation question: “what does it mean to know computer science?”. These are not primarily questions looking for answers; they are calls for action, for change and transformation. The main focus and goal of this thesis concerns how to broaden the meaning of “knowing computer science”; to accommodate epistemological pluralism and diversity within the practices and among the practitioners of CS. I have identified translation as fundamental, to make feminist research and epistemological perspectives communicable into the community of computer science practitioners. In this, questions of knowledge and how knowledge is perceived and talked about are central. Communication and translation also depend on the ability and willingness to cross boundaries, to engage in “world- travelling” (Lugones). Additional issues of importance are asking questions open enough to invite to dialogues, and upholding critical (self) reflection. An important goal for feminist research is transformation. Because of this, interventions have been part of my research, interventions in which I myself am implicated. The work has been based in feminist epistemological thinking, where the concepts of positioning and partial perspectives (Haraway) have been of particular importance. After an introduction, the thesis consists of three parts, each part relating to one of the three issues in the title, issues identified as important for feminist technoscience work in computer science. In part A, I investigate and discuss what it means to be simultaneously an engineer/computer scientist and a feminist technoscience researcher. What boundary crossings, challenges, conflicts, negotiations and issues of being inside and outside are involved? This part also focuses on what the implications of these boundary crossings and different “mind-sets” are for transformatory work in science and engineering education, as well as a discussion of what feminist technoscience research can be and how it can be used for interventions and transformations. Part B focuses on foundations of computer science. This part consists of studies of texts, which I critically read and query from a feminist technoscience perspective, in order to challenge existing approaches and concepts within computer science. The texts are about the gender question in computer science; foundational topics of “what is computer science”, as well as epistemological questions concerning approaches to knowledge in computer science: “what does it mean to know computer science”? Part C deals with a concrete intervention project aiming at establishing conversations with computer science faculty. In this project, the issues of communication and translation appear as central. The focus in this part is communication between computer science educational practice and feminist technoscience research, language as a carrier of epistemology, and a discussion of translation.
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- Björkman, Christina
(författare)
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Feminist Research and Computer Science : Starting a Dialogue
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. - Harborough : Troubador Publishing. - 1477-996X. ; 3:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper I discuss how feminist research focusing epistemological issues can be used within computer science (CS). I approach and explore epistemological questions in computer science through a number of themes, which I believe are important to the issues of what knowledge is produced as well as how it is produced and how knowledge is perceived in CS. I discuss for example paradigms and metaphors in computer science, the role of abstractions and the concept of naturalisation. In order to illustrate epistemological views in CS and how these can be questioned from the viewpoints of feminist epistemology, I also do a close reading and commenting of a recent book within the philosophy of computing.
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- Björkman, Christina, et al.
(författare)
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Gender and IT Goes Second Millennium
- 2006
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Ingår i: E-CAP 2006 European Computing and Philosophy Conference. - Trondheim.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Where does feminist research on gender and IT stand today? What are the possibilities now and for the future? How does today’s research both build on and break with earlier approaches? In this article, we make a journey, where the starting point is taken in re-visiting two positions, liberal feminism and radical feminism, in the history of gender and (information) technology. We make a historical exposé to highlight some of the questions feminist technology research has been engaged in, in order to relate, inspire, challenge and partly also provoke future research. We then link these approaches to our own position in feminist technoscience research. This perspective opens up the world of information technology as a world of networks, relations, and negotiations going on within localised and situated practices, where IT and gender are continuously co-constructing each other. Feminist technoscience research challenges much of the present understandings, interpretations and even experiences of information technology and it demands re-thinking the foundations of computing. We discuss concepts and figurations developed within feminist technoscience research, that encourage us to imagine, think and do things differently, and we ask: “How do we make a difference?”
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- Björkman, Christina
(författare)
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Invitation to Dialogue : Feminist Research meets Computer Science
- 2005
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Ingår i: The Gender Politics of ICT. - Enfield : Middlesex University Press. - 190475046X ; , s. 223-236
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper I discuss how feminist research focusing epistemological issues can be used within computer science (CS). I approach and explore epistemological questions in computer science through a number of themes, which I believe are important to the issues of what knowledge is produced as well as how it is produced and how knowledge is perceived in CS. I discuss for example paradigms and metaphors in computer science, the role of abstractions and the concept of naturalisation. In order to illustrate epistemological views in CS and how these can be questioned from the viewpoints of feminist epistemology, I also do a close reading and commenting of a recent book within the philosophy of computing
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- Björkman, Christina, et al.
(författare)
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Social Sciences and Humanities Engage and Motivate Engineering Students
- 2006
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Ingår i: SEFI 2006 - 34th Annual Conference: Engineering Education and Active Students. - Uppsala.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the year 2000 a new interdisciplinary M.Sc. Engineering Programme started at Uppsala University, Sweden. The programme, named Systems in Technology and Society, combines science and technology with studies in humanities and social science. Of the 4.5 year long programme (all MSc Engineering education in Sweden are 4.5 years), one third (a total of 1.5 year, spread over the first 4 years) of the curricula consists of courses in humanities and social science. The courses are based in different disciplines such as economic history, social and economic geography, business studies, political science, philosophy, history and history of ideas and science. The courses are integrated with each other, in order to stimulate a deeper knowledge within the interdisciplinary academic field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The students of this new programme are more active in discussing the relevance of different content, in order to understand why they should study this. We see this as a result of the training in critical analysis and reflection that they obtain in the courses within humanities and social science.
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