Located accountabilities in technology production

The relevance of recent feminist reconstructions of objectivity for the development of alternative practices of technology production and use is explored and three contrasting positions for design are discussed as alternative bases for a politics of professional design practice.

Abstract

This paper explores the relevance of recent feminist reconstructions of objectivity for the development of alternative practices of technology production and use. I take as my starting place the working relations that make up the design and use of technical systems. Working relations are understood as sociomaterial connections that sustain the visible and invisible work required to construct coherent technologies and put them into use. I outline the boundaries that characterize current relations of development and use, and the boundary crossings required to transform them. Three contrasting positions for design – the view from nowhere, detached intimacy, and located accountability – are discussed as alternative bases for a politics of professional design practice. From the position of located accountability, I close by sketching aspects of what a feminist politics and associated practices of technology production could be.