Feminist
Mobilities:
Dynamics of
Public and
Private
Gillian Youngs
Leicester University
gy4@le.ac.uk
Web page
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Outline

This paper seeks to ‘locate’ the
concept of mobility in the context of
traditions of feminist theory and
practice and their reformulations in
relation to ICTs.
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
Its main arguments are rooted in
explorations of new forms of virtual
materiality and the importance of
historical constructions of gendered
social space to critical
understanding of them. It is based
on a number of years of theoretical,
practice and policy-related
research by the author, including
with national and international
NGOs and different sections of
UNESCO.
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Gender and ICTs
Theory/practice
 Active/engaged participant observation –
Women on the Net
Lifelong Learning
Lifelong Learning Across the World
 Network Development
Development
International Feminist Journal of Politics
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Key areas:
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Virtual/Global women’s movement
Contextualized meanings of
networking
Communities and practices
Connections, presences and
activism
Virtual political spheres
Identities in process
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Virtual/Global women’s
movement
Feminist International Relations
Transcendent politics
(New spaces, new forums, new
processes)
APC Women’s Programme
WSIS Gender Caucus
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Contextualized
meanings of networking
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Contrasting meanings of
‘international/global’
Varied importance/role of the ‘local’
Historically embedded limitations
on access
Importance of established
relationships to technologies,
including in the area of identities
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Communities and
Practices
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Role of discourses in relation to
inclusion/exclusion
Different forms of
expertise/knowledge and problems
of bridging them
Generation of new boundaries of
misunderstanding
Practices of networking involve
discovery of boundaries
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Connections, presences
and activism
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Diverse forms of ‘being’ in
cyberspace
Distant/indirect linkages to global
networks and forms of activism
Fluid communities with multiple
(institutional) presences and roles
Cyberactivism partly defined in
practice
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Virtual political spheres
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More than just organizations and
their interventions?
New political spaces of imagining
and creative connection/action?
Feminist information flows
Global consciousness raising
(public and private)
The feminist web – an alternative
political domain?
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Identities in process
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Politics as discovery rather than
given
Self-defined and time/campaign
bound processes
Multiple identities (across and
within real/virtual worlds)
Disruption and fluidity
The virtual ‘beyond’ the real
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Publications
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'Cyberspace: The New Feminist
Frontier?' in Ross, K. and Byerly,
C. (eds). Essays in Feminism and
Media. Oxford: Blackwell. In press.
Forthcoming, 2004.
(co-edited with Eleonore Kofman)
Globalization: Theory and Practice.
2nd ed. London: Continuum, 2003
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Publications
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'Closing the Gaps: Women,
Communications and Technology.'
Development. 45(4), 2002.
'Feminizing Cyberspace:
Rethinking Technoagency.' In J.
Parpart et al. (eds). Rethinking
Empowerment: Gender and
Development in a Global/Local
World. London: Routledge, 79-94,
2002.
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Publications
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'Questions of Agency and the
Internet: A New Way of Learning',
in Youngs, G., Ohsako, T. and
Medel-Anoneuvo, C. (eds)
Creative and Inclusive Strategies
for Lifelong Learning: Report of
International Roundtable 27-29
November 2000. Hamburg:
UNESCO Institute for Education,
2001.
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Publications
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'Theoretical Reflections on
Networking in Practice: The Case
of Women on the Net' in E. Green
and A. Adam (eds) Virtual Gender:
Technology, Consumption and
Identity. London: Routledge, 2001,
84-99.
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Publications
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'Internet Politics and States' in
Kramarae, C. and Spender, D.
(eds) Routledge Encyclopedia of
Women: Global Women's Issues
and Knowledge. London:
Routledge, 2000, 1154-6.
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