Cyborg Feminism

Cyborg Stem Cells in Public: Deconstructing and Taking Responsibility for Categorizations

by Nicola Marks

New Genetics and Society, (advanced online publication), due end 2012

“Cyborg” entities do not easily fit into pre-existing categories and can therefore be useful in deconstructing these... more “Cyborg” entities do not easily fit into pre-existing categories and can therefore be useful in deconstructing these categories and showing their contingency and political power. In this paper, some cyborg stem cells are examined. They were discussed in Australian public debates as well as during interviews with scientists. Multiple ways of making sense of them are possible, but one became dominant, was inscribed in Australian parliamentary documents and may now seem to be a simple reflection of nature. By showing other possible categorizations and highlighting the contingency and ambiguity of concepts such as “embryo”, or “fetus”, the established definition of these cells is contested. In particular, the way it can displace conversations about women’s bodies and the use in research of material from terminations is highlighted. Alternative stem cell categorizations are put forward; these are not “innocent” either, but may offer fruitful ways of talking about this area of technoscience in public.

"Companion Species under Fire: A Defense of Donna Haraway’s 'The Companion Species Manifesto.'"

by Chris Vanderwees

Vanderwees, Chris. "Companion Species under Fire: A Defense of Donna Haraway’s 'The Companion Species Manifesto.'" Nebula 6.2 (2009): 73-81.

Technonatures Introduction White Wilbert

by Damian White

An attempt to survey and think through the political implications of hybridity discourses such as Latour and Haraway for environmental politics. This is the introductory chapter from D.White and C.Wilbert (Eds) Technonatures: Environments, Technologies, Spaces, and Places in the Twenty-first CenturyISBN13: 978-1-55458-150-4, 2009.

Lots of other really interesting cuts in the book from Erik Swyngedouw, Sarah Whatmore, Mike Michael, Steve Hinchliffe and others ...check it out at Available from http://www.wlu.ca/press/Catalog/white-wilbert.shtml

The Modernistic Posthuman Prophecy of Donna Haraway

by Peta Cook

in Cabrera, D, Bailey, C. and Buys, L. (eds.) Social Change in the 21st Century 2004 Conference Proceedings, Centre for Social Change Research, School of Humanities and Human Services, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, December 2004

Donna Haraway’s (1991) vision of a post-gender cyborg has (re)sparked feminist interest in reclaiming patriarchal... more Donna Haraway’s (1991) vision of a post-gender cyborg has (re)sparked feminist interest in reclaiming patriarchal technological tools as a source of liberation from gender oppression. These utopian, cyborgian dreams of the dissolution of body and gender dualisms however, are flawed. This failing is founded on Haraway’s underestimation of the gender-influenced relationship between: the historical legacies of the cyborg; linguistic metaphors and symbols; and the lived subjective technological experiences of embodied materiality. Consequently, despite Haraway’s fantastical claims of the cyborg being able to transgress traditional hierarchical bodily-based binaries, this cyborg vision is distinctly modern in a nostalgic, linear, and utopian construction. As a result, these idealistic cyborg visions can be linked paradoxically to patriarchal discourses; the Cartesian philosophies of Christian religion; and the posthuman prophetical desires of the Extropian transhuman collective (Extropy Institute, 2003a, 2003b; More, 2003), such as featured in the works of Hans Moravec (1988) and Kevin Warwick (2002).

Artifizielle Weiblichkeit im Science-Fiction-Film: Über die filmische Verhandlung von Andersartigkeit

by Katrin Horn

Intervention, Management, Technological Error

by Jerome Whitington

Parallax, 2008, Special Issue: Science and the Political