Hi Christena and all
Thank you for appreciating my contributions, I have been wondering whether
discussion of means and values in changing our social constructs of gender
for design and wider community benefits were either too out-there, or maybe
too old-hat for people to want to engage.
It is difficult to judge how people will engage and respond, but I do like
to float concepts for discussion with others when I perceive a greater good.
I do however experience difficulty getting people to engage with the
subjects of Systemic Thinking and Complexity, and of course Innovation, my
'umbrella' subject, the creation and organisation of change and diversity. I
have a Jiscmail list set up for Innovation called POINT.
However, the problem highlighted of people feeling anxious because of the
potential reception of list members, regardless of gender, surely pales into
insignificance in comparison to the number of lurkers who simply do not have
the time to read never mind engage. I feel that while PHD-DESIGN has a
number of people able to sustain stimulating concepts from different areas
of expertise, the POINT list is too focussed and depends upon input from me,
which I have sadly found I just cannot do, as hard as I tried this summer.
This is not to say that the concern over perception of list members
responses is unfounded, but we should recognise that the e-mail interface
can so easily turn words into unintended attacks, though in other cases is
so quick to write into that for some people it is possible to write and send
something before editing it, in the way they might otherwise have done if it
were a letter, providing time for reflection upon emotional content.
The reason I chose to prioritise engagement with the Gender 101 theme was
because this topic was one of a number of key themes I'm developing in the
Centre for Design Research, with a view to creating a PhD research
scholarship opportunity in the future. Had I the time I would of course
engage more often, but now I have to catch up on a number of other
commitments.
It has been useful gathering people's viewpoints and references.
I will be watching :)
Cheers
Kev
Dr. Kev Hilton
Director of Research
The Centre for Design Research
School of Design
Squires Building
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST
Tel: 0191 243 7340
Fax: 0191 227 3148
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-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Christena
Nippert-Eng
Sent: 22 November 2006 13:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Gender
Grete and all,
It is almost impossible for me to snip out bits of Grete's spot-on,
careful and important post.
Grete, this was said beautifully and provides an extraordinary
opportunity for everyone to think about:
1) whether or not your personal observations are important enough to
warrant systematic research in order to see how widespread they are;
and
2) whether or not the profession could/should bear the consequences of
this (both the decision to do/not do the research and the findings of
any research that is done);
3) the proposal that we should always work together; and
4) (okay, I can snip here)
***
My way of writing here is according to Tannen?s text, typically
feminine: I
want to share my experiences with you ? a positive audience. If I
thought
you were more negative, I would keep silent.
...Most women and many men think best in a caring and generous milieu.
Why do
more men than women write on this list? What kind of forum do women
need to
wish to participate in public discussions?
***
For everyone's information, 6 people have written to me on this thread
off-list. One of those individuals decided to incorporate and make
public *his* astute comments shortly thereafter. I was glad he did
because they were smart and should have been shared, just like the
others.
The other 5 who wrote off-list were women, incidentally. Several of
whom are very, very obviously extremely expert (and correct!) in this
subject and - unlike me - specifically regarding the design
profession. The others were intensely interested and quite possibly
well on their way to such expertise.
All of these women remained silent on the list - with one exception.
By the time I realized what was going on, I actively encouraged one of
them to please post publicly as well. She most graciously did, and I
am grateful. By way of an account, however, she also told me how she
has not posted in years, since the hostile response to her first, and
only, post by one eminent individual on the list all that time ago.
I only wish I had known to cajol the rest of the off-listers as well,
because, holy cow, have I learned from them -- and that means everyone
else could have, too.
Grete opens the door to discuss something I have thought for a long
time: that we should all be worried about this list community, where
such a systematic, masculine gendering of the interactions so
effectively silences so many others.
This week had at least one classic, piece of garbage exchange that
absolutely did not have to happen, nor did it have to flood 1240
mailboxes except that, of course, from a hypermasculine standpoint,
there is no point to insulting another unless the insult is delivered
as publicly as possible.
But stay tuned. This was just one of a stream of exchanges that
alienate people on this list. I don't know how many, but I personally
know of some, and I'd be very surprised if it wasn't much bigger than
what I know for a fact. The metamessage here is that unless you think
this sort of thing is fun -- or a known risk worth taking in order to
have a bigger conversation about something you're really interested
in -- you ought to lurk, but never speak up.
Eviatar Zerubavel's most recent book, "The Elephant In the Room:
Silence and Denial in Everyday Life" points out that the Hebrew root
of the word "silence" is the same as that of the word "paralysis."
This list is supposed to be devoted to the encouragement of research,
researchers, and the design profession. The fact that it is (and has
been) potentially inducing both participatory silence and paralysis in
even a portion of its community is not good news.
I continue to appreciate Kevin's most enlightened standard-waving for
all these matters. And on the matter of "What kind of forum do women
need to wish to participate in public discussions?" I must also add
that Noemi Sadowska's paper from Lisbon, "Are we designing female
audiences? The case of BEME.com a women's commercial online portal" is
a must-read. It's about how false assumptions about what women do,
want, and are, led to the failure of this portal. It's also a
fabulous primer on much of what we have been talking about here and
how it matters to designers.
Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving holiday here in the States and I will be
off-line. If anyone is expecting more from me but getting silence,
this is why. :) I look forward to seeing what other intriquing posts
await when I return to my email -- and some treasured new colleagues.
With my very best wishes,
Christena
Christena Nippert-Eng, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Illinois Institute of Technology
312-567-6812 (office)
312-567-6821 (fax)
http://www.iit.edu/~socsci/faculty/nippert-eng.html
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