Abstract
Exploring subjectivity is a powerful theoretical practice of feminist science studies that has enabled scholars to open the black box of authority, objectivity and purity around science in order to include multiple voices and perspectives in new and powerful ways. This paper contributes to this existing dialog on multiplicity while supplementing it with the formation of subjectivities within social worlds. Using a snap shot of an inquiry into rice, technology and gender from my field site in West Africa I explore a residue of our theoretical work in feminist science studies and our scholarship on subjectivity in order to draw attention to the production, temporality, and translation of subjectivity in our thinking and research. In addition, the paper explores the potentiality and actuality in naming subjects, in order to reflect on where we might be going in our theorizing about the shifting entanglements between culture and subjectivity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
All of these binary labels are problematic. For this paper, I will use ‘third world and first world’ precisely because it problematic and it so clearly symbolizes a numerical and scientific ranking that I want to emphasise.
This section is co-authored with Abou Traoré, a colleague at the University of Kankan. The research project was part of a two country seed grant sponsored by Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences on the ‘Impacts of Agricultural Technologies on Food Security and Economic Prosperity for West African Farm Households’ with Leland Glenna and David Alder doing the same household surveys in Ghana.
Threshing is described as being done equally by both men and women because it is hard work and labor intensive (a more detailed description of the threshing is needed to speak further on how the tasks of threshing are divided and who does them).
References
Alic, M. (1986) Hypatia's Sisters. London: The Women's Press.
Barad, K. (1999) Agential realism: Feminist interventions in understanding scientific practice. In: M. Biagioli, (ed.) The Science Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 1–11.
Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Blackman, L., Cromby, J., Hook, D., Papadopoulos, D. and Walkerdine, V. (2008) Creating subjectivities. Subjectivity 22: 1–27.
Bloor, D. (1991) Knowledge and Social Imagery. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Bowker, G. and Star, S.L. (1999) Sorting Things Out: Classifications and Its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Brighton Women and Science Group. (1980) Alice Through the Microscope: The Power of Science over Women's Lives. London: Virago.
Burkitt, I. (2008) Subjectivity, self and everyday life in contemporary capitalism. Subjectivity 23: 236–245.
Callon, M. (1999) Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the scallops and the fisherman of St Brieuc Bay. In: M. Biagioli, (ed.) The Science Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 67–83.
Carney, J.A. (2001) Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.
Gill, R. (2008) Culture and subjectivity in neoliberal and postfeminist times. Subjectivity 25: 432–445.
Griffin, S. (1979) Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her. London: The Women's Press.
Haraway, D. (1997) Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan_Meets_OncoMouse Feminism and Technoscience. New York: Routledge.
Harding, S. (1998) Is Science multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Harding, S. (2008) Sciences From Below: Feminisms, Postcolonialities, and Modernities. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Keller, E.F. (1985) Reflections on Gender and Science. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lederman, M. and Bartsch, I. (eds.) (2001) The Gender and Science Reader. London and New York: Routledge.
Longino, H. (1981) Scientific objectivity and feminist theorizing. Liberal Education 67: 187–195.
Longino, H. (1990) Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Lowe, M. and Hubbard, R. (1983) Women's Nature: Rationalizations of Inequality. New York: Pergamon Press.
Malcolm, N. (1988) Subjectivity. Philosophy 63 (244): 147–160.
Manthorpe, C. (1985) Feminists look at science. New Scientist 7 (March): 29–31.
Mayberry, M., Subramaniam, B. and Weasel, L.M. (eds) (2001) Feminist Science Studies. New York & London: Routledge.
Merchant, C. (1980) The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper & Row.
Metcalfe, A. and Game, A. (2008) From the de-centered subject to relationality. Subjectivity 23: 188–205.
Nagel, T. (1986) The View from Nowhere. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rose, H. (1994) Love, Power and Knowledge: Towards a Feminist Transformation of the Sciences. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Rosser, S. (1986) Teaching Science and Health from a Feminist Perspective. New York: Pergamon Press.
Rossiter, M. (1982) Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schiebinger, L. (1993) Nature's Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Segerberg, M. (1979) Re/de/evolving; feminist theories of science. Off Our Backs 9 (3): 12.
Shiva, V. (1986) Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. New Jersey: Zed Books.
Star, S.L. and Bowker, G.C. (2007) Enacting silence: Residual categories as a challenge for ethics, information systems, and communication technology. Ethics and Information Technology 9: 273–280.
Traweek, S. (1988) Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Tuana, N. (1986) Re-presenting the world: Feminism and the natural sciences. Frontiers 8: 73–78.
Wyer, M., Barbercheck, M., Giesmans, D., Örün Öztürk, H. and Wayne, M. (eds) (2001) A Reader in Feminist Science Studies: Women Science and Technology. New York & London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bauchspies, W. Potentials, actuals and residues: Entanglements of culture and subjectivity. Subjectivity 28, 229–245 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.19
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.19