Vortrag von Jennie Olofsson "Are Things OK or as Usual?" Ethnographic Studies of the Implementation Process of a Robotic Welding System [04.02.2009]

Jennie Olofsson, Wissenschaftlerin an der Luleå Technical University, Schweden, Department of Human Work Sciences trägt im Institut zu folgendem Thema vor: "Are Things OK or as Usual?" Ethnographic Studies of the Implementation Process of a Robotic Welding System.

Abstract:
The talk engages in the implementation process of a robotic welding system, and how existing sexual division of labour is affected (reinforced as well as defied) by the advent of the installation. This talk draws on a fieldwork conducted in a small mining town in the Northernmost parts of Sweden. Following how female welders gradually undertook the assignment as robot operators, I sought to further disclose the assumed intimacy between men and technology. As the robotic welding system turned out as an object for male aversion, the profession as a robot operator was also, interestingly, feminized. The study contemplates gender as repetitively enacted and constituted in social processes, but also as contingent on material constraints. Altered working conditions subsequently foster renewed orders in which traditional divisions between so-called male- and female undertakings are troubled.

• Die Veranstaltung findet statt am 10. März 2009 um 14.00 Uhr im Kolloquiumsraum des ITAS, Gebäude 451, 2. OG, Raum 412.