[hackerspaces] "Hackerspace, patriarchy, equality" (was "Tor, Technocracy, Democracy")

[matt]

I mean, when I was in college, there were a grand total of five women who
entered the engineering school.  Now, the education school... there were
probably five men.

The origins of disparity in gender in several occupational paths are far
removed from the industries/organizations tied into them.

I think an analysis of root cause here is necessary in addressing any
disparity.  As a strong proponent of gender equality in plumbing I feel
this discussion is essential to a better future for our species.

-openfly

On Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 12:00 PM, Vesna Manojlovic <becha at xs4all.nl> wrote:

> Hackerpace(s), patriarchy, equality
> 2015-10-03, by BecHa
>
> http://becha.home.xs4all.nl/hackerspaces-patriarchy-equality.html
>
> While reading "Tor, technocracy, democracy" by @dgolumbia,
> I found it striking how many similarities there are between the attitudes
> of Tor community about ruling-by-technology & hackerspace community about
> being (mostly) (white) men, while at the same time claiming that their
> ethics areabout openness (to all) and sharing (with all).
>
> If few of the words are replaced with other words, and the article
> shortened, what is left reads like a well-founded criticism of the
> patriarchal hackerspaces culture:
>
> s / Tor / hackerspace
> s / technocrat / hacker
> s / technocracy / patriarchy
> s / democracy / equality
> s / political / socio-political
> s / technology / hacking
> s / technological / masculine
> s / democratic / societal
> s / government / feminist
>
> [Thank you, @dgolumbia, for the original text; I made this derivative work
> out of admiration and respect for your insightful words]
>
> [Original at: http://www.uncomputing.org/?p=1647]
> [words in square brackets are inserted by me]
>
>
> Hackerspace, patriarchy, equality
>
>
> As important as the technical issues regarding hackerspace are, at least
> as important - probably more important - is the socio-political worldview
> that hackerspace promotes (as do other projects like it).
>
> While it is useful and relevant to talk about formations that capture
> large parts of the hackerspace community, like "geek culture" and
> "cypherpunks" and libertarianism and anarchism, one of the most salient
> socio-political frames in which to see hackerspace is also one that is
> almost universally applicable across these communities: hackerspace is
> patriarchal.
>
> Patriarchy is a term used by socio-political scientists and scholars to
> describe the view that socio-political problems have masculine solutions.
>
> In a terrific recent article describing patriarchy and its prevalence in
> contemporary digital culture, the philosophers of hacking Evan Selinger and
> Jathan Sadowski write:
>
> Unlike force wielding, iron-fisted dictators [macho-men], hackers derive
> their authority from a seemingly softer form of power: scientific and
> engineering prestige [meritocracy]. No matter where hackers are found, they
> attempt to legitimize their hold over others by offering innovative
> proposals untainted by troubling subjective biases and interests. [or
> privilege]
>
> Such patriarchal beliefs are widespread in our world today, especially in
> the enclaves of digital enthusiasts, whether or not they are part of the
> giant corporate-digital leviathan. Hackers ("civic, "ethical," "white" and
> "black" hat alike), hacktivists, WikiLeaks fans, Anonymous "members," even
> Edward Snowden himself walk hand-in-hand with Facebook and Google in
> telling us that coders don't just have good things to contribute to the
> socio-political world, but that the socio-political world is theirs to do
> with what they want, and the rest of us [women] should stay out of it: the
> socio-political world is broken, they appear to think (rightly, at least in
> part), and the solution to that, they think (wrongly, at least for the most
> part), is for programmers to take socio-political matters into their own
> [male] hands.
>
> While these suggestions typically frame themselves in terms of the words
> we use to describe core socio-political values - most often, values
> associated with equality - they actually offer very little discussion
> adequate to the rich traditions of socio-political thought that articulated
> those values to begin with.
>
> That is, patriarchal power understands hacking as an area of precise
> expertise, in which one must demonstrate a significant level of knowledge
> and skill as a prerequisite even to contributing to the project at all.
>
> This would be fine if hackerspace really were "purely" masculine -
> although just what a "purely" masculine project might be is by no means
> clear in our world - but hackerspace is, by anyone's account, deeply
> socio-political, so much so that the developers themselves must turn to
> socio-political principles to explain why the project exists at all.
>
> [the hackerspace wikipedia entry:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace
>
> "Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people share
> their interest in tinkering with technology, meet and work on their
> projects, and learn from each other."
>
> ... which refers to hackers ethics:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic#The_hacker_ethics :
> Sharing, Openness, Decentralization, Free access to computers, World
> Improvement]
>
>
> Hackerspace, like all other patriarchal solutions (or solutionist
> technologies) is profoundly socio-political. Rather than claiming it is
> above them, it should invite vigorous socio-political discussion of its
> functions and purpose .
>
> Rather than a staff composed entirely of technologists, any project with
> the potential to intercede so directly in so many vital areas of human
> conduct should be staffed by at least as many with socio-political and
> legal expertise as it is by technologists. It should be able to articulate
> its benefits and drawbacks fully in the operational socio-political
> language of the countries in which it operates. It should be able to
> acknowledge that an actual foundation of societal polities is the need to
> make accommodations and compromises between people whose socio-political
> convictions will differ. It needs to make clear that it is a
> socio-political project, and that like all socio-political projects, it
> exists subject to the will of the citizenry, to whom it reports, and which
> can decide whether or not the project should continue. Otherwise, it
> disparages the very societal ground on which many of its promoters claim to
> operate.
>
> I think many in hackerspace know much less about politics than they think
> they do.
>
> We are often told that hackerspace is just trying to do good, trying to
> inspire respect for human decency and human rights, and that its community
> is just being attacked because it is "an easy target." Yet the contrary
> story is much more rarely told: that hackerspace encourages a patriarchal
> dismissal of societal values, and promotes serious and seriously uninformed
> anti-feminist hostility.
>
> Does hackerspace do "good"? No doubt. But it also enables some very bad
> things, at least as I personally evaluate "good" and "bad." You can't say
> that on the one hand the good it enables accrues to hackerspace’s
> benefit, while the bad it enables is just an unavoidable cost of doing
> business.
>
> [bad things = exclusivity, elitism, one-upmanship, inequality, racism,
> sexism... ]
>
> With very limited exceptions (e.g. speech itself, and even there the
> balance is contested) we don’t treat cultural phenomena that way. The
> only name for striking the right balance between those poles is politics,
> and it is entirely possible that the socio-political balance hackerspace
> strikes is one that, were it better understood, few people would assent to.
> Making decisions about matters like this, not the expanded and putative
> "right to privacy," is the foundation of equality.
>
> Unless hackerspace learns not just to accommodate but to encourage such
> discussions, it will remain a project based on patriarchy, not equality,
> and therefore one that those of us concerned about the fate of equality
> must view with significant concern.
>
> [References to other writings about gender gap in hackerspaces:
> https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/Ladies_Night#Women_and_hackers
> https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/Ladies_Night#Gender_gap_in_tech
> http://becha.home.xs4all.nl/hackerspaces-hiding-behind-openness.txt
> http://becha.home.xs4all.nl/gender-gap-in-hackerspaces.txt
> http://becha.home.xs4all.nl/missing-female-voices-hackerspaces.txt]
>
>
> --
> community, cooperation, commons, squirrels      //
> http://becha.home.xs4all.nl
> nature, anarchy, utopia, anthropocene, collapse //
> https://lists.puscii.nl/wws/arc/uncivilization
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