230165 SE Gender, Science, Governance (2014W)

Common to STS approaches is the notion that the epistemic and the social are not separate in science but rather co-constituted, and gender dynamics are one facet in these processes of intermingling. The course will consider, using historical and present-day examples, gender dynamics in science and technology and how they shape each other in complex ways. The gender dimension in science and technology will be addressed in relation to two broad areas of concern. Firstly, the class will examine how gender has been central to science, technology and medicine, both through the exclusion of women as well as through the ways scientific knowledge and technology are gendered. Relatedly, interrogating gender neutrality of science and technology, we will look into the ways science and technology have contributed to shaping our understandings of masculinity and femininity. Secondly, building on the ways cultures of science have been historically gendered, we will look into the current shifts in the organization of research. Over the past several decades change processes are underway that alter research governance. How do the current change processes reorder the masculine organization of science and technology? What space is there for gender equality action in the competing governance regimes, and what kinds of gender equalities do they enact? We will close with an exploration of whether feminist scholarship in science and technology studies has affected knowledge production and technology design as well as research and innovation policy making, and what space has been crafted for feminist undertakings in science.