Crafting Code: Gender, Coding and Spatial Hybridity in the Events of Pyladies Dublin

Forthcoming in S. Luckman and N. Thomas (eds) Craft Economies: Cultural Economies of the Handmade, Bloomsbury.

The Programmable City Working Paper 19, 2016

14 Pages Posted: 19 Jun 2016

See all articles by Sophia Maalsen

Sophia Maalsen

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - Faculty of the Built Environment

Sung-Yueh Perng

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth)

Date Written: May 24, 2016

Abstract

In this paper we look at the integration of the digital and the resurgent interest in crafting artefacts. We do this by focusing on the work, relationships and spaces occupied by Pyladies Dublin - a coding group intended for women to learn and 'craft' code in the programming language of Python. Pyladies offers an interesting and fruitful case study as it intersects gender, relations of making and places of making, nested firmly within the digital world. The relations of making within the Pyladies group provides salient insight into the production of code, gender and space. Pyladies is predominantly attended by women with the focus to encourage women to become more active members and leaders of the Python community. By producing code in a friendly space, the group also actively works towards producing coding subjectivities and hybrid, mobile spatiality, seeking to produce coding and technology culture that is diverse and gender equitable. We base our ethnographic study to suggest ways in which Pyladies Dublin is consistently engaging in crafting code and crafting coding subjectivity and spatiality.

Keywords: gender, coding, subjectivity, spatiality, programming, software, technology, smart city, smart citizen

Suggested Citation

Maalsen, Sophia and Perng, Sung-Yueh, Crafting Code: Gender, Coding and Spatial Hybridity in the Events of Pyladies Dublin (May 24, 2016). Forthcoming in S. Luckman and N. Thomas (eds) Craft Economies: Cultural Economies of the Handmade, Bloomsbury., The Programmable City Working Paper 19, 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2797168 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2797168

Sophia Maalsen (Contact Author)

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - Faculty of the Built Environment ( email )

4007 The Red Centre
Sydney, New South Wales 2052
Australia

Sung-Yueh Perng

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth) ( email )

Main Street
Maynooth, Kildare W23 F2H6
Ireland

HOME PAGE: http://progcity.maynoothuniversity.ie/contributors/sung-yueh-perng/

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