Popular Technology Advocacy and Activism in an Age of IT

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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Virginia EubanksDepartment of Womens
StudiesThe World in a TomatoTues, February 1,
2005
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Popular TechnologyGrowing accessibility of
ICTs, large-scale shifts in global political
economy, and the increasingly flexible and
interconnected flows of capitalism have all had
profound effects on the nature of contemporary
advocacy and activism in the United StatesTwo
moments in 1984Goal is to define what a
technology for the people might look like.
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Popular Technologyhttp//www.populartechnology.o
rg/Virginia/
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society

• 3 QuestionsHow are the everyday objects in your
  life caught up in the webs and networks of
  globalization? Is technological progress the
  same as social progress? Progress toward what?
  For whom?What is the relationship between
  technology and society, particularly between
  technology and social equity?

Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Economics
Culture
Health
Race/Ethnicity
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Gender
Class
Science Technology
Environment
Colonialism
Forms of Knowledge
Agriculture
Politics
Industry
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Economics
Culture
Health
Race/Ethnicity
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Gender
Class
Science Technology
Environment
Colonialism
Forms of Knowledge
Agriculture
Politics
Industry
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
8
Economics
Culture
Health
Race/Ethnicity
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Gender
Class
Science Technology
Environment
Colonialism
Forms of Knowledge
Agriculture
Politics
Industry
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society

• The Tomato Across TimeScientific Moment
  Colonialism Industrial Moment
  CapitalismChemical Moment DevelopmentGenetic
  Moment NeoliberalismComputer Moment
  Globalization

Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Scientific Moment ColonialismShift from
ecological to modern science perspectiveColoni
alism creates export agricultureDenigrates
local practices and forms of knowledge.
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Industrial Moment CapitalismColonialism
separates production from consumptionNew tools
and processes decrease biodiversityIndustrialize
d agriculture creates a political dynamic the
technological package.
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Chemical Moment DevelopmentGreen Revolution
converts military petrochemical
industriesCommodification of hybrid plantsThe
agricultural treadmill becomes a chemical
treadmill.
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Genetic Moment NeoliberalismTransgenetic
organisms speed up evolution Intellectual
property rights and patentsFree Trade and
Tomato Wars.
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Computer Moment GlobalizationTechnologies of
efficiency and controlWorkplace flexibility
and just-in-time productionConsumer and
worker surveillance.
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society

• Shifting the CenterProgress for whom?Towards
  what?Who benefits?Who loses?

Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
Technology has built the house in which we all
live. The house is continually being extended and
remodeled. More and more of human life takes
place within its walls, so that today there is
hardly any human activity that does not occur
within this house. All are affected by the design
of the house, by the division of its space, by
the location of its doors and wallswe rarely
live outside this houseand the house is still
changing it is still being built as well as
demolished. Ursula Franklin
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture
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Popular TechnologyAdvocacy and Activism in an
Age of IT
TODAY 3 Questions World in a Tomato Progress Techn
ology Society
AnnouncementsWS 303 Please turn in response
papers before you leave. Papers will be returned
Thursday.
Virginia EubanksCAS 103 Lecture