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".
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.
What kind of focus will feminist research develop at a technical university, where information technology (IT)38 constitutes the overarching research field? In this article we want to illustrate this question with the core issues that we have identified, as well as to animate these with the authors’ stories. Finally, we want to propose a short agenda of issues and challenges for future feminist technoscience research.
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.
The epistemological basis for computer science (CS), on which research and education as well as development of applications are founded, are fundamental for its production of knowledge. In this paper we raise the issue of how gender research developed within science and technology can be used within computer science, to approach and discuss foundations of the discipline, and what the implications of this reflection are for CS education. After an introduction, which serves to motivate the questions raised, we discuss issues concerning the foundations of computer science. We then introduce gender research, as we use it, and present some points where this type of research can contribute to the question "What does it mean to know CS?".