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This article provides an experience report on an interdisciplinary cooperation between two gender researchers and two automotive engineers at a German technical university. It focuses on the negotiation processes around a joint research proposal, dealing with the question of how to create concepts for a trustworthy human-machine interaction in automated driving systems that satisfy the requirements of different user groups. These systems aim to offer the choice of automobility to groups of users who have so far had rather limited access, or have had reasons to refuse usage. Discussions in the interdisciplinary team are still ongoing. Their substantial shifts and their expected methodological and epistemological effects are analyzed from a feminist science and technology studies (STS) perspective. The general objective of this paper is to provide insights about the contributions and challenges of integrating approaches from gender studies into the field of automotive engineering in order to support interdisciplinary dialogues that foster a socially fair and inclusive digital transformation.

The journal uses a Creative Commons License CC BY 3.0.

Gender studies in computer science was only recently established at German universities. This research area is often understood as either addressing the problem of getting more women into IT professions or focussing on alleged gender differences in the design and use of IT. In contrast, the main objective of this dissertation is to identify and systemize gendering processes in products, theories, methods and assumptions of computer science (i.e. computational artifacts), in order to propose technology design methods, which aim at de-gendering these artefacts. The thesis focuses on three topics of inquiry: 1. Theoretical foundation: How can gendering and de-gendering processes of computational artifacts be theorized? 2. Practices of gendering: What are dimensions and mechanisms of gendering computational computational artifacts? 3. Methodological concepts for de-gendering: How can computational artefacts be designed, which can be characterized as de-gendered technologies

Mit zunehmender Institutionalisierung der Geschlechterforschung in den Naturwissenschaften ist die Veröffentlichung eines einführenden Lehrbuches, das für Studierende naturwissenschaftlicher Disziplinen und der Gender Studies geeignet ist, notwendig geworden. Der vorgelegte Sammelband stellt sich der doppelten Herausforderung, interdisziplinäre Übersetzungsarbeit in beiderlei Richtung zu leisten, und meistert diese – mit kleineren Abstrichen., querelles-net, Nr. 22 (2007): Pädagogik & Psychologie

Das internationale Symposium “Embodied Agents of Life- and Cyberscience. Turbulente Körper und soziale Maschinen“ (5. - 7.7.2002) brachte knapp dreißig ForscherInnen aus den Geistes- und Naturwissenschaften zusammen, um Fragen des 'technological embodiment' zu diskutieren. Die konsequent transdisziplinäre Herangehensweise und die sozio-materiale Auseinandersetzung mit aktuellen Technologien ermöglichte ein tiefergehendes Verständnis gegenwärtiger Körperformierungen, Maschinenkonzepte und Technofakte jenseits eindimensionaler Technikeuphorie oder -pessimismus. Den Auftakt der Arbeitstagung bildeten zwei Vorträge international renommierter Wissenschaftsforscherinnen. N. Katherine Hayles (USA) untersuchte Umschreibungen des 'Humanen' in den neuesten Entwicklungen der Robotik-Forschung, während Lucy Suchman (GB) in ‚Embodied Agencies at the Interface’ zeigte, dass die Konzepte von Software-Agenten, Wearable Computing und Intelligenten Häusern klassenhierarchische und geschlechtsspezifische Phantasien reproduzieren. Anschließend wurde in den Arbeitsgruppen „Sozialität mit Menschen und Maschinen”, “Im/Materialität – oder der Mythos vom Verschwinden des Körpers“ und „Emergenz – Formalisierung des Unverfügbaren?“ auf der Grundlage von Positionspapieren diskutiert. Dabei ließen sich zentrale Erkenntnisse zur technologischen Verkörperung und neue Forschungsfragen entwickeln. Insgesamt wurde deutlich, dass eine kritische Gesellschaftsanalyse und Genderforschung wie auch die Technologieentwicklung unabdingbar der Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung bedarf. Gesellschaftstheorie, Körpertheorie und die Techniktheorie bilden ein ‚seamless web’, das nur an der Schnittstelle von Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften adäquat analysiert werden kann. Das Symposium mit seiner innovativen Gestaltung hat erste Schritte in dieser Richtung unternommen und damit den notwendigen Anschluss an die internationale Debatte geleistet., The international symposium “Embodied Agents of Life- and Cyberscience. Turbulente Bodies and Social Machines“ (5. - 7.7.2002) brought together almost 30 researchers from the natural sciences and humanities in order to discuss topics of technological embodiment in the age of technoscience. The consistent transdisciplinary approach and the socio-material engagement in current technologies gave the participants a deeper understanding of present concepts and formations of bodies, machines and artefacts beyond one-dimensional technological enthusiasm and affirmation. The conference started with two lectures from internationally renowned researchers in science and technology studies. In “Computing the Human” N. Katherine Hayles (USA) focussed on reinterpretations of the ‘human’ which occurred in the latest developments in robotic research, while Lucy Suchman (GB) elaborated on the fantasies of class and gender within the concepts of software agents, Wearable Computing and Intelligent Environments in her talk “Embodied Agents at the Interface”. Later, three open discussion groups concentrated on the topics “Sociality between humans and machines”, “Im/Materiality or the myth of dissolution” and “Emergence – formalizing the unavailable”, prepared by position papers of all participants. These debates gave profound insights into the field of technological embodiment and raised new research questions. In summary, the symposium emphasized that critical analyses of society, gender studies and technology design need science and technology studies. Theories of society, the body and technology form a seamless web which can only be explored on the interface of science and humanities. The symposium with its innovative form took first steps in this direction and linked the research in the field of technological embodiment and its gendering to international debates.