Vivian Anette Lagesen

The Strength of Numbers Strategies to Include Women into Computer Science

This paper investigates four different inclusion strategies used to recruit women to computer science: achieving a critical mass, educational reform, redefining the gendered symbolism of computer science and changing the content of the discipline. The relationship between and the relative importance of these four strategies are explored by looking at the extensive and successful Women and Computing Initiative (WCI) that was run by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), starting in 1996, to recruit and retain more women in computer science. The findings suggest that a direct effort to increase the relative number of women is the most important strategy. While raising the number of women recruited seems to affect the symbolic perception of computer science, this effect is difficult to achieve through attempts to directly change the symbolic image of the discipline. In addition, a substantial increase in the number of women appears to cause an improvement in their learning environment, probably because minority problems such as too much visibility and unwanted attention became less prominent.

A Cyberfeminist Utopia? Perceptions of Gender and Computer Science among Malaysian Women Computer Science Students and Faculty

The low and shrinking numbers of women in higher computer science education is a well-known problem in most Western countries. The dominant Western perception of the relationship between gender and computer science codes the latter as “masculine,” and the low number of women is seen at least partly as an effect of that coding. Malaysia represents a different case. There are large numbers of women in computer science, and computer science is not perceived as “masculine.” Rather, it is deemed as providing suitable jobs and good careers for women. This reflects an understanding of gender where femininities are constructed by association to office work, commonly recognized as a woman-friendly space because it is seen as more safe and protected than, for example, construction sites and factories. The findings suggest that gender and computer science may be more diversely coproduced than commonly believed in Western research.

Walking the line? The enactment of the social/technical binary in software engineering

This article shows how professional communication practices with customers are accounted for in software engineering. It looks at how communication and related activities are enacted and placed in relation to the so-called social/technical binary while also critically engaging with analyzing how this dualism is performed. Empirically, the article investigates how software engineering and communication with customers are framed in two settings: at one Norwegian university and in three Norwegian software companies. At the university, an effort was made to reframe software engineering as a communication-oriented rather than technically focused activity. However, faculty as well as students reproduced a technically focused framing of software engineering that externalizes communication. The framing observed in the companies was different, with less outspoken distinction between ‘technical’ and ‘social’ aspects. Rather, communication with customers was described as based and dependent on technical knowledge. However, a closer reading shows how the social/technical binary is maintained by a consistent reference to the technical in professional terms while communication is described in lay terms. Implications of this are discussed in the conclusion.

Reassembling gender: Actor-network theory (ANT) and the making of the technology in gender

In 1987, Bruno Latour published his seminal outline of actor-network theory (ANT) Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society. While ANT has remained controversial, its impact on science and technology studies (STS) is undeniable. One of the topics that emerged from Science in Action, and which Latour has continued to develop, perhaps most prominently in the 2005 volume Re-Assembling the Social, is a general theory of action. A main tenet of this theory is that society is an achievement of people engaging in producing a variety of associations of human and non-human elements. We might remind ourselves, paying attention to its subtitle, that Science in Action is an analysis of how scientists and engineers not only make technoscience, but society as well. Lately, Latour (2010) claims that in spite of his profound empirical interest, the main direction of his work is philosophical and centred on the critique of the concept of the modern. However, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Science in Action, it seems fitting to return to the sociological potential of Latour’s theory of action to explore further its potential to make sense of the role of technology – the non-human actors – in the re-assembly of how people construct themselves and their actions. I am interested in examining what Latour’s theory of action may contribute to a long-standing concern of feminist scholars in STS, namely the relationship between gender and technology.

Out of the boy's room? A critical analysis of the understanding of gender and ICT in Norway

The issue of gender and ICT and the concern about an emerging digital divide in Norway have been dominated by a fear that the symbolic content and practices around ICT—epitomized in the hacker stereotype—are turning women off by making them feel like entering a “boys room” when using ICT. State feminist policies have been developed to cope with these challenges, directed at schools and universities in particular. This paper provides a critical discussion of the state feminist understanding of gender and ICT, to argue the need for a more heterogeneous approach.

The Importance of Boundary Objects in Transcultural Interviewing

This article combines the idea of the active interview with insights from science studies and suggests that some concepts from science studies, like boundary objects and trading zones, should be utilized to understand and facilitate the production and analysis of data in a transcultural interview. This is illustrated by examples from interviews that the author conducted with women computer science students and faculty in a university in Malaysia. The article argues that the understanding of, as well as the performance of the transcultural interview might benefit from the highly pragmatic character of scientific investigations, focusing on using locally available resources to produce knowledge; and that this in turn may enhance our capacity to do feminist research.

Doing environmental concerns in consulting engineering

This article is a study of how environmental concerns are enacted and dealt with by consulting engineering companies in Norway. Consulting engineering companies play a key role in the ongoing shaping and reshaping of the physical qualities of nature and culture, of landscapes, and the built environment. To what extent do they take on such responsibilities and what makes them engage with environmental issues? What does it mean to do environmental concern? The far most important way of doing environmental concern was to fulfill legal regulations and framework. This compliance with legal rules was not as much about professional ethics as it was a translation into business opportunities. Such a re-assemblage of environmental concerns among consultant engineer companies may be called the legal compliance as business. Thus, legal codes and regulations seem to be the most effective instruments to shape environmental practices of consulting engineers.

Designing a ‘green’ building: expanding ambitions through social learning

The process of creating a specific building – Miljøbygget in Trondheim, Norway – is analyzed in order to understand how the project teams ambitions expanded to embrace ‘green’ issues and create new targets. The decisions and roles of key actors are investigated regarding these goals and criteria. The analysis draws on two concepts. First, translation theory is used to highlight the potential role of new knowledge or technology that originates outside of the project. Second, the concept of social learning is employed to understand the process of expanding ambitions, developing goals and criteria within the project, and how this is related to the collective exploration, discovery and analysis of new practices. The wider implications are considered with respect to innovation in the construction industry. The projects initial moderate energy efficiency ambition was transformed, first into stricter energy efficiency goals, then into broader environmental aims. The resulting innovation is an ambition-enhancing, experience-based and enthusiasm-driven process of social learning in the project team, marked by interpersonal trust, including trust regarding competence and contractual relations. Translation efforts were also found to be important for bringing new knowledge into the project. The conclusion discusses some policy implications.

Gender and Professional Practices in Software Engineering

In this chapter, I investigate how software engineers account for their professional practice in three different sites and cultural contexts, Norway, Malaysia, and California, and what role gender play in their accounts. I am exploring how they describe their work tasks, practices, skills, motivations and experiences, and where and how gender surfaces or become relevant in these accounts.

Gender and Technology: From Exclusion to Inclusion?

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by J. Wajcman, volume 9, pp. 5976–5979,