Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power
Ron Eglash, Jennifer L. Croissant (Editor), Giovanna Di ChiroBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
From the vernacular engineering of Latino car design to environmental analysis among rural women to the production of indigenous herbal cures-groups outside the centers of scientific power persistently defy the notion that they are merely passive recipients of technological products and scientific knowledge. This is the first study of how such "outsiders" reinvent consumer products-often in ways that embody critique, resistance, or outright revolt.Contributors: Richard M. Benjamin, Miami U; Hank Bromley, SUNY, Buffalo; Massimiano Bucchi, U of Trento, Italy; Carmen M. Concepción, U of Puerto Rico; Virginia Eubanks, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Lisa Gitelman, Catholic U; David Albert Mhadi Goldberg, California College of Arts and Crafts; Samuel M. Hampton; Michael K. Heiman, Dickinson College; Linda Price King; Valerie Kuletz; Lisa Jean Moore, College of Staten Island, CUNY; Brian Martin Murphy, Niagra U; Paul Rosen, U of York; Michael Scarce, Peter Taylor, U of Massachusetts, Boston; Turtle Heart. Ron Eglash is assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Jennifer Croissant is associate professor at the University of California. Giovanna Di Chiro is assistant professor at Allegheny College. Rayvon Fouché is assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.Synopsis
The subject investigated here in 20 contributions intertwines at least a half dozen disciplines and may grow up to be a discipline of its own some day. The contributors are (mostly) academics involved with sociolgy, the media, science & technology, public policy, the environment, and gender studies, among other fields. Uniting the diverse collection of topics is the effort to understand how and when non-scientists have adapted, improved, created, and sometimes subverted the technolgy and information handed down by the professional establishment. Among the diverse topics are computer networks and alternative media, the bodybuilder's pharmacy, grassroots environmental monitoring, the bicycle and the politics, phonographs and cultural identies, young gay men and the technological self, and an American Indian computer art project. The editors and their affiliations: Ron Eglash and Rayvon Fouche (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Jennier Croissant (U. of Arizona), and Giovanna Di Chiro (Mount Holyoke College). Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR