Blake Chitty Webliography Wed Tute@11

Blake Chitty
Webliography Wed tute@11

Guiding Question No 6: Haraway’s ‘Manifesto’ is a political text generated from socialist feminism of the 1980s. In what ways have feminists taken up her radical ideas since then?

Campbell, K. ‘The Promise of Feminist Reflexivities: Developing Donna Haraway’s project for Feminist Science Studies’, Hypatia, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2004, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3810936 pp. 162-182. Accessed 02/09/2010

Kirsten Campbell’s article focuses exclusively on the significance of Haraway’s work for feminist science studies. This is a particularly demanding paper in which Campbell provides a complex argument about the merits of Haraway’s concept of situated knowledges. Positioning Haraway’s research alongside the work of Bruno Latour and Sandra Harding, Campbell uses notions of reflexivity to expose the tensions that exist between constructivist studies of science and feminist studies of science, particularly in regards to how knowledge is constituted She argues that, because Haraway’s work is feminist and constructivist, a number of unresolved dilemmas pervades her work and ultimately weakens the ontological foundations of her model. Although, according to Campbell, Haraway proposes a strategy for negotiating the very different approaches constructivist and feminist studies of science take to the construction of knowledge, she contends that Haraway’s model for developing feminist science studies is inadequately developed, insufficiently elaborated and thereby weakened. At the core of Campbell’s critique of Haraway’s work is her assertion that Haraway does not demonstrate how the practices that she advocates actively constitute and produce a feminist political standpoint.
Although Campbell does not provide a detailed reading of Haraway’s ‘Manifesto’, her article is helpful in that she interrogates some of the fundamental ideas that underpin Haraway’s work. Concepts such as situated knowledges, subject positions, diffraction and reflexivity are thoroughly explored here and while Campbell’s argument is, at times, extremely difficult to follow, it is useful in that it demonstrates how Haraway’s writings can, with further development, serve as a platform from which models of science studies can evolve.

Crewe, J. ‘Transcoding the World: Haraway’s Postmodernism’, Signs, Vol. 22, No. 4, 1997, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3175223 pp. 891-905. Accessed 06/09/2010

Jonathan Crewe’s article considers the critical reception of Haraway’s work within the discourse of postmodernism, particularly the ‘Manifesto’, and claims that her work has not been given the attention that it warrants. Crewe speculates on the reasons why Haraway’s work has been overlooked by postmodernists such as Brian McHale and Frederic Jameson and calls for a greater recognition of, and fuller inclusion of Haraway’s work, within postmodern theoretical debates. He proposes that the widespread enthusiasm that initially accompanied the publication of Haraway’s ‘Manifesto’ has not been sustained within postmodern theorising and that there is a risk that the ‘Manifesto’ will be remembered as a document whose value was inflated. In considering the omission of Haraway from the postmodern canon, Crewe subtly suggests that the marginalisation of her work stems not so much from her feminist position but more from the fact that her distinctive version of postmodernism negates and renders the aesthetic characterization of postmodernism redundant.
Crewe’s article is especially interesting in that he considers Haraway’s work beyond the disciplinary confines of science or technology studies. In so doing, Crewe broadens the arena in which Haraway’s ideas can be considered and exposes the challenges that her work poses for postmodern scholarship. His suggestion that Haraway disturbs the criteria by which humanities scholarship is rendered worthwhile leads to a questioning of the scholarly paradigms into which Haraway’s work is, or is not, situated.

Hennessey, R. ‘Women’s Lives/Feminist Knowledge: Feminist Standpoint as Ideology Critique’, Hypatia, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1993, http://www.jstor.org/stable/381029 pp. 14-34. Accessed 01/09/2010

Rosemary Hennessey offers a close reading of Haraway’s ‘Manifesto’ within the context of feminist standpoint theory. Drawing on the work of Sandra Harding, Hennessy seeks to untangle the complex material relations that exist between standpoints and positions such as feminist, women’s lives and women’s experiences. For Hennessey, Haraway’s figure of the cyborg is appealing precisely because it offers an alternative basis for a feminist standpoint that goes beyond categories of nature and/or culture. In situating Haraway’s cyborg within the broader context of feminist standpoint theory and by speculating on the ways in which the cyborg offers a position that is not fully grounded in traditional notions of identity, Hennessey’s article is especially illuminating in that she clearly articulates how and why the cultural and discursive dimensions of the cyborg offer a viable basis for an alternative feminist politics.

Wajcman, J. ‘Reflections on Gender and Technology Studies: In What State is the Art?, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2000, http://www.jstor.org/stable/285810 pp. 447-464. Accessed 06/09/2010

Judy Wajcman provides a useful overview of how gender and technology studies emerged, particularly in regards to the ways in which feminist scholars articulated technological developments in relation to issues such as domesticity and gender relations at work and within the home. Wajcman asserts that by the late 1980s, the focus of research was moving away from the relationship between women and technology towards an examination of the processes by which technology is developed and the means and processes by which gender is constituted. Wajcman sees the relationship between gender and technology as one of co-construction whereby new forms of technologies and gender relations can be co-produced so that they are mutually constitutive.
In turning to the work of Donna Haraway, Wajcman notes that her research represents one of two key lines of inquiry that have emerged over the last two decades. While Wajcman acknowledges that Haraway’s research has been at the forefront of re-thinking the impact of technology on notions of self and gender, she notes that information and communication technologies comprise a second major line of research. Wajcman sees a split in the recent feminist literature between that which is concerned with biomedical technologies and that which addresses communication and information systems, particularly the ways in which the internet can destabilise notions of gender identity. Although Wajcman claims that the liberating potential of cyberspace that is celebrated by Sadie Plant and Dale Spender has/is being greatly exaggerated, she does call for greater inter-disciplinary research across these two research trajectories. By bringing these two research areas together, Wajcman suggests, the balance between them can be more finely calibrated so that attention is given to how technology shapes gender relations as well to how gender relations are shaping the design of technologies.

Wyatt, S. ‘Feminism, Technology and the Information Society: Learning from the past, imagining the future,’ Information, Communication & Society, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2008, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691180701859065 pp. 111-130. Accessed 02/09/2010

Wyatt’s article positions Haraway’s ‘Manifesto ‘ within the broader social and political context of the 1970s and 1980s with a particular emphasis on the changing nature of the feminist political agenda. Wyatt considers Haraway’s ‘Manifesto’ alongside the work of Shulamith Firestone, Valerie Solanis and Sadie Plant, and examines how feminist investigations into the relations between gender and technology have developed since the 1970s. Wyatt argues that debates about the relation between gender and technology have been subject to historical ebbs and flows that oscillate from positions of optimism, as exemplified by Solanis and Firestone in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to the more pessimistic views held by Cynthia Cockburn and Juliet Webster in the 1980s, and, to a re-emergence of optimism that accompanied the development of the internet in the 1990s, as evident in the writings of Plant. Throughout these debates, technology was regarded as being either oppressive to women, or, was held to be potentially liberating. For Wyatt, Haraway’s concept of the cyborg embodies an alternative to these polarised positions and opens up new possibilities for political transformation, particularly in regards to the opportunities afforded by the relationship between science and technology.
Wyatt’s article provides a useful synopsis of the recent debates about the relation between gender and technology and her situating of Haraway’s ‘Manifesto’ within those debates offers a valuable framework for contextualising Haraway’s work. However, Wyatt claims that there is a widening gap between empirical and theoretical research and she questions the ability of the theoretical research undertaken by figures such as Haraway to initiate political change. She suggests that much of the research undertaken over the last few decades has not led to widespread political change or action and suggests that research on gender and technology production and regulation is required in order that action-oriented political transformation can occur. This aspect of Wyatt’s article is particularly interesting in that it questions the transformative capacity of theoretical research.