29 July 2016
The ease with which digital gadgets and robotics are enabling us to complete tasks faster and more efficiently would suggest that such technological progress is leading us to live our lives at a simpler pace, but the reality is everyday life appears to be accelerating.
It’s an irony and one that Judy Wajcman, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, will be addressing when she appears in conversation with UniSA’s Professor Anthony Elliott at an event organised by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, on Monday.
As part of the InConversation series, Professor Wajcamn will argue that there is no temporal logic inherent in technologies. It is we who build and design them for all-too-human purposes and desires.
Professor Wajcman will also be providing a masterclass earlier in the day which will examine the extent to which technical expertise is still marked by gender stereotypes and how the apparently neutral internet and even algorithms reflect mainstream values and culture.
As the author of books including The Politics of Working Life, TechnoFeminism, Managing Like a Man and, recently, Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism, Professor Wajcman is renowned for her writing on the social shaping of technology, gender theory, and the sociology of work.
Professor Anthony Elliott, Dean of External Engagement at UniSA, says that Prof Wajcman’s insights into technology and time are fascinating.
“Judy Wajcman’s work on the impacts of new technologies on society is pathbreaking, and we are delighted that Adelaide audiences will have the opportunity to engage with her and her research,” Professor Elliott says.
“Judy has really helped to capture what’s exactly at stake in the relentless speeding up of our professional and personal lives in these early decades of the twenty-first century”.
The From Gender and Technology To Feminist Technoscience masterclass will take place in UniSA’s Hawke Building with the InConversation event taking place at the same location from 6pm on August 1. Both events are fully booked.
Media contact: Will Venn mobile: 0401 366 054 email: will.venn@unisa.edu.au
Image: shutterstock_372297133
