We draw on feminist technoscience to analyze actions and activities performed between participants in a Participatory Design workshop that unfolds in a realm of e-government. Stepping into this empirical site we want to show how participants (invited persons, researchers, methods, artifacts, gender stereotypes) become with each other. With such take on research endeavors we feed into current discussion in feminist research by illustrating how theory and practice intertwine and create realities. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2018.

Science is according to the Swedish legislation for higher education (Högskoleförordningen) a central quality aim for higher educations. In the Swedish Higher Education Authority’s (UKÄ) new quality assurance system, the integration of gender equality is one of several quality aspects that are being measured. This paper concerns a planned study with the aim to explore how feminist technoscience can contribute to challenging existing science practices, and a critical approach, while at the same time work as a theoretical resource for the integration of gender equality in Swedish higher IT educations. Feminist technoscience makes possible critical questions about scientific practices in both educational contexts and in work life, about researchers’ positioning, about consequences, and about power issues. Posing such questions is central in IT educations, since we live in a society in which digital technologies increasingly constitute preconditions for a working reality, and both reproduce existing structures and form new patterns. In this reality it is central to ask whether current science practices are enough, and how feminist technoscience can make a difference, in those educations that produce the IT experts of the tomorrow. The study will be conducted as a qualitative field study with a focus on how teachers and students in Swedish higher IT educations practice science and a critical approach, and feminist technoscience in their educations. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2018.

This paper is based on exploratory interventions in a small city in the south-eastern part of Sweden. The interventions were inspired both by the art movement of Situationists and site-specific games. The activities were also supported by a diversity of theoretical perspectives. During winter 2016 eight women explored by developing playful methods what a city, understood both as a social and material space, could mean for a group of women recently moved to the city. Through the playful approach the project opened up room for participatory design and abled the group to formulate eight rules, also available for other city explorers in other cities.

8 women in a dark Nordic winter forest, playing around with flashlights, accompanied by the echoing of a world famous Arabic singer from their mobile phones-

what has this to do with creative and playful cities?

This forest expedition was a part of a non-traditional participatory research and action project from southeastern Sweden. The project provides the empirical material for our reflective story. The overall aim of the project was to investigate, through playful explorations, how a diverse group of women can transform for us unfamiliar places, both concerning geographical, cultural, social aspects, and also how places in themselves can transform people. Ultimately the project also challenged the notion of citizenship not as a legal term but as an active and ongoing becoming. The core group of the project was created by academic scholars, municipality and a number of female immigrants from Syria.

When we started to plan the project we were in need of theoretical guides that could support us in our playfulness, without losing the critical and situated understanding of our trajectory and hence we identified some key concepts provided by our epistemological companions, such as:  caring (de la Bellacasa, 2012), touching/becoming (de la Bellacasa, 2009), messiness (Law, 2004). To meet up these approaches we had to rely on and develop methods that could enable the exploratory playfulness; therefore, we turned to the artistic movements of Situationists and Surrealists.

These choices demanded a sensitive awareness towards ourselves, each other and the places. We locate this project as a transdisciplinary framework of site-specific games, participatory design and feminist research.

8 mujeres jugando con linternas en un oscuro e invernal bosque Nórdico, acompañadas por los ecos en sus celulares de una cantante árabe mundialmente famoso -

Qué tiene que ver esto con ciudades creativas y divertidas?

Ésta expedición al bosque fue parte de un proyecto no tradicional de investigación-acción participativa en el sud-este Sueco. El proyecto proporcionó el material empírico para nuestra historia reflexiva. El objetivo general del proyecto fue investigar, a partir de divertidas exploraciones, cómo un grupo diverso de mujeres pueden transformar para nosotros lugares desconocidos, por un lado sobre los aspectos geográficos, culturales y sociales, y por otro sobre cómo lugares por si mismos pueden transformar a las personas. En el fondo el proyecto también desafió la noción de ciudadanía, no como un término legal, sino como un activo y continuo "llegar a ser". El equipo central del proyecto estuvo conformado por académicos, agentes de la municipalidad, y un grupo de mujeres inmigrantes Sirias.

Cuando comenzamos a planificar el proyecto tuvimos la necesidad de referentes teóricos que pudieran apoyarnos en nuestra diversión "playfulness", sin perder el entendimiento crítico y situado de nuestra trayectoria. Así pues, identificamos algunos conceptos clave provistos por nuestras acompañantes epistemológicas, tales como: cuidado "caring" (de la Bellacasa, 2012), tocar-sentir/llegar a ser "touching/becoming" (de la Bellacasa, 2009), desorden "messiness" (Law, 2004). Para encontrarnos con estos enfoques hemos usado y desarrollado métodos que pudieran facilitarnos una exploración divertida "the exploratory playfulness"; por lo tanto nos inclinamos hacia los artísticos movimientos de Situacionistas y Surrealistas.    

Estas elecciones demandaron una conciencia sensible de nosotras mismas, de cada una y de los lugares. Nosotras localizamos este proyecto como un marco transdisciplinario de juegos geolocalizados "site specific games", diseño participativo e investigación feminista.

GENISLAB, is a four year project (2011 - 2014) within the 7th Framework Programme for research and technology. The aim of the project is to promote organizational change in six European scientific organizations. Each partner develops its own Tailored Action Plan based on three dimensions, Gender Budgeting, Human Resources (HR) Management and Gender and Organisational Culture and Stereotypes. This report presents results of quantitative and qualitative data on Gender Budgeting and HR management as well as comments on organizational culture.

Ur förordet: Högskolans ”tredje uppgift” är att samverka med aktörer utanför högskolan och göra det som ett nytt sätt att bedriva undervisning och forskning och inte som någon extra pålagd vid-sidan-uppgift. De tre artiklarna i detta nummer av FoU vid MAM har vi samlat under titeln I närkamp med den ”tredje uppgiften”. De är exempel på hur samverkan med utomakademiska aktörer kan se ut i praktiken. Denna praktik är förstås olikartad. Här i förordet lyfter jag fram två teman i artiklarna. Ett tema är vad för slags samverkan det är fråga om. Det andra temat är att samverkan kan vara konfliktfylld. Sammantaget säger dessa teman något viktigt om samverkansuppgiften: Vilka samhällsaktörer är inblandade och hur ska de olika intressen de representerar hanteras produktivt när nya utvecklingsgrupperingar skapas i FoU-arbetet?

The experiment presented here was conducted within the R&D project X-Ovation, taking place in southeastern Sweden during 2009-2012 and financed by the European Union structural funds. The project owner is a science park and the other project participants are a technical university, a municipality and regional emergency services. The aim of the project is to try to find new ways for dialogue between government and citizens using digital social media and to explore social innovation in municipal services development. The project consist of several smaller activity teams located for example at the public library, the municipal department for business development and the one stop service. The project also initiates own experiments and interventions to explore and investigate possibilities and constraints for multiple ways to communicate within the municipality; mainly focusing on communication between citizens and representatives of the participating municipality. One of the figurations that the project group has adapted is the concept of park bench 2.0. A physical park bench, as an old but still existing symbol for informal meetings in open public spaces, with an idea of a digital open public space; two metaphors and also artifacts which together form an imagined park bench 2.0, aiming to encourage and enhance new forms for informal meetings. Firsthand, the experiment was done to expose different imaginings, expectations and desires on free speech, the public sphere and the dialogue between the public and government. Second, the experiment is a starting point for further exploration on the design of public controversial things, in this context dealing with the politics of artifacts in eGovernment processes and in the interplay between government and the public.

Experimentet som presenteras här har genomförts inom FoU-projektet X-Ovation i sydöstra Sverige under 2009-2012, finansierat av EU:s strukturfond. Projektägaren är en Science Park och de andra projektdeltagarna är en teknisk högskola, en kommun och en regional räddningstjänst. Syftet med projektet är att försöka hitta nya vägar för dialog mellan myndigheter och medborgare via digitala sociala medier och att utforska social innovation i den kommunala serviceutvecklingen. Projektet initierar även egna experiment och interventioner för att utforska och undersöka möjligheter och begränsningar för olika sätt att kommunicera inom kommunen, främst med fokus på kommunikation mellan medborgare och företrädare för den deltagande kommunen. En figuration som projektgruppen har anammat är begreppet parkbänk 2.0. En fysisk parkbänk - en gammal men existerande symbol för informella möten på offentliga platser - kombinerat med en idé om ett digital offentligt rum, två metaforer och artefakter som tillsammans bildar den föreställda parkbänk 2.0. Först och främst gjordes experimentet för att exponera olika föreställningar, förväntningar och önskemål om yttrandefrihet, den offentliga sfären och dialogen mellan det offentliga och kommunen. För det andra är experimentet en utgångspunkt för vidare utforskning i design av offentliga kontroverser, som i denna kontext handlar artefakter och processer i samspelet mellan kommunen och allmänheten.

The Swedish public sector is involved in an overwhelming change process aiming toward creating a good-service society based on information technology. Rationalisation, efficiency and effectiveness are the leading signs in the dominating discourse of Swedish society of today. This discourse is silent about public sector employees, their agencies, their participation, and how the public sector is the dominant labour market for women. Alternative stories of women’s presence in the creation of a good-service society are presented with a focus on performances of gender, skills, learning and technology. The empirical material was collected in municipalities in the south east of Sweden. Methods sensitive to everyday practices in order to create space and time for women and their stories were developed and used. The methodological approaches, feminist technoscience, provide opportunities to move beyond the dominating IT discourses in order to make visible other discourses where women are present.