Imagining Intersectional Futures: Feminist Approaches in CSCW
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Workshop CSCW 2017, February 25–March 1, 2017, Portland, OR, USA Imagining Intersectional Futures: Feminist approaches in CSCW Sarah Fox Anna Lauren Hoffman Abstract University of Washington University of California, Berkeley The aim of this one-day workshop is to explore Seattle, WA, USA Berkeley, CA, USA theoretical and methodological approaches that help us [email protected] [email protected] consider issues of gender, sexual orientation, and power in the design of socio-technical systems. This Amanda Menking Shaowen Bardzell program builds on two previous workshops on the topic University of Washington Indiana University of feminism and CSCW. With this instantiation, we are Seattle, WA, USA Bloomington, IN motivated by an explicit commitment to [email protected] [email protected] intersectionality—a recognition that the effects of various oppressions cannot be understood Stephanie Steinhardt independently. Considerable time will be devoted to Cornell University discussing work in post-colonial feminism, queer Ithaca, NY, USA theory, Women of Color feminism, and feminist critical [email protected] disability studies. Through generative conversation with participants, feedback on works-in-progress, and the initiation of outlets for new feminist CSCW work, we aim to 1) build on existing research and practice and 2) identify concerns and approaches for both designing Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are and assessing research oriented toward intersectional not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that and feminist futures in the context of CSCW and social copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights computing. for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Author Keywords CSCW '17 Companion, February 25 - March 01, 2017, Portland, OR, USA Feminism; intersectionality; design; collaboration ACM 978-1-4503-4688-7/17/02. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3022198.3022665 ACM Classification Keywords K.4.0 Computers in Society: general. 387 Workshop CSCW 2017, February 25–March 1, 2017, Portland, OR, USA Introduction Background Building on two prior workshops on the topic of Over the past decade, CSCW has come to embrace feminism and CSCW [17,25], we propose a follow-up several forms of feminist thought. This shift is marked workshop that will welcome participants interested in by calls for theoretical and methodological intersectional feminist perspectives on cultures of consideration [3,5,23], recognition of similarities in collaboration and design futures. In this workshop, ways of thinking between feminist epistemologies and CSCW scholars and practitioners will engage theoretical contemporary concerns of design research scholarship and methodological approaches in and around CSCW [16], and, more recently, design cases in which authors and social computing that consider problems and have chosen to take up a feminist lens in enacting their problematics of gender, sexual orientation, power and work (e.g., [1,7,12,13,15]). Here, issues of power, other emergent topics motivated by a commitment to inequity, and gender are of crucial concern, rather than intersectionality. Originating in activist traditions and matters to be dismissed as markers of researcher bias taken up in fields like gender studies, legal theory, and [2,20]. sociology, intersectionality recognizes that the effects of various oppressions (like racism, sexism, ableism, Building on this scholarship, our proposed workshop homophobia, imperialism, and beyond) cannot be welcomes participants to take up intersectional understood independently of one another. Thus, perspectives and question approaches to addressing considerable time will be devoted to discussing related oppression that center on a single, monolithic category work in post-colonial feminism, queer theory, Women (i.e., women). The concern with intersectionality is of Color (WoC) feminism or womanism, and feminist inspired by critiques of the white-led women’s critical disability studies. movement of the 1970s [10], black feminist scholars like Hill Collins [8,9], Lorde [21], and hooks [18], and We view this workshop as an opportunity to extend the more recent work by Queer and Trans People of Color, conversation about how to productively develop as well as critical disability scholars [19]. These bodies feminist research and practice and establish a of work share a commitment to questioning prominent commitment to intersectional analyses in the context of feminist platforms that—implicitly or explicitly— CSCW and social computing. Through generative foreground the concerns of heterosexual, cisgender, conversation with invited and accepted participants, and able-bodied middle-class white women. feedback on works-in-progress and the initiation of two outlets for new feminist CSCW work (e.g., an Informed by earlier work in this vein, legal scholar independently published zine, and a proposal for a Kimberlé Crenshaw [11] coined the term special issue of JCSCW highlighting the scholarship of ‘intersectionality’ in 1989, arguing that single-axis workshop participants around feminism and futurism), frameworks for understanding oppression minimize the we will build on existing research and practice by experiences of anyone who is not the assumed identifying concerns and approaches for both designing “standard.” In her multidimensional analysis of two and assessing research oriented toward feminisms. workplace grievance cases, she illustrated how 388 Workshop CSCW 2017, February 25–March 1, 2017, Portland, OR, USA antidiscrimination laws were categorized in such a way feminism toward more pluralistic and generative to only recognize discrimination based on a single engagements with power, dominance, and privilege. variable—gender or race, but not both at the same We also seek to organize around notions of praxis, time. Instead, an intersectional approach sees action directed to alter oppressive structures. structures of dominance like sexism, racism, ableism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia as The outputs of the workshop will extend the 2015 interacting and compounding to create unique workshop website content including the annotated conditions of oppression and discrimination. bibliographic resource of the previous CSCW workshop and acting as a landing page for interested parties in In more recent years, the concept of intersectionality feminist CSCW. We will identify friendly spaces in which has moved across a variety of fields with research to engage in feminist CSCW discourse, like journals, focused on social justice initiatives and interventionist conferences, and popular newspapers and magazines. approaches. HCI scholars Smyth and Dimond [24], for Finally, we will develop an independently published zine instance, propose an Anti-Oppressive Design intended for public consumption, and will begin to framework, inspired by scholarship within the field of organize and identify writing targets for a special social work [6]. As a means for information technology journal issue of JCSCW. (IT) developers to engage in discussions of oppression in its complexity, this process asks the designer to do Workshop Structure the work of recognizing the structural barriers and In an effort to avoid reinforcing a single, prescribed privilege that might be at play before the development notion of feminism or some predetermined of any IT begins. understanding of what might constitute scholarship under its banner, we approach the organization of this Drawing on these efforts within and beyond CSCW, our workshop through a lens of “producing a spirit of proposed workshop seeks to extend CSCW’s feminism” [14]. Here, we draw on three of our co- commitment to feminist theory by welcoming multiple authors experiences organizing and/or participating in and varied approaches to understanding oppression. one or both of the previous feminist CSCW workshops. Together we will engage in grounded speculation [4] In doing so, we aim to prioritize collective, participatory about the futures of intersectional feminist approaches activity, encourage pluralistic conversation, and focus to designing and researching social computing systems. on positionality (how one is positioned in relation one’s subject, one’s field, and so on). Workshop Goals and Outcomes The goals of the workshop are first and foremost to Pre-workshop Plans build a community of researchers and practitioners We will invite participants via our existing networks, working at the intersection of feminist theory and including mailing lists and social media groups with a CSCW. Specifically, we seek to facilitate conversations focus on distributing the call among scholars and necessary to move beyond any single conception of practitioners in the fields of HCI, feminist theory, 389 Workshop CSCW 2017, February 25–March 1, 2017, Portland, OR, USA design, science and technology studies, and information concerns raised during the WIP presentations. This will science. Participants will be selected based on the be an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to depth of their position papers in productively engaging discuss issues not typically addressed in traditional with concerns for intersectional feminist approaches academic fora. through design, or the thoughtfulness of their critiques. We hope to accept 20-25 participants.