Sue Clegg's 'Theorising the Machine: Gender, Education and Computing' (2001):
Sue Clegg is Professor of Higher Educational Research at Leeds Metropolitan University. The journal this article was published in, Gender and Education, was originally based in feminist politics, and is published for an international audience. This article theorises the relationship between gender, education and computing. To achieve this end, Clegg draws on two theoretical frameworks; critical realist insights in science and technology, and specific aspects of feminist standpoint theory. Clegg initially utilises the theory of technology in order to contextualise the article in Part One, and then in Part Two, uses the feminist theory to further critique and offer new understandings of the relationship between education, computing and gender. She offers a historical framework for understanding how discourses surrounding computing and information technologies have evolved. The article also considers how these discourses interact within school, university and ‘lifelong learning’ environments. It is important to note that within this article she considers the USA and Britain as her examples, and so her findings and theories may not translate to other countries. The academic nature of this article is reflected within the writing style, and is supported by a significant reference list.
Grayson Cooke's 'Human - 1 / Cyborg - 0: A Personal History of a Human-Machine Relation’ (2001):
Grayson Cooke is a senior lecturer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Southern Cross University, Lismore Campus, and the publihsing journal, Nebula, is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary Australian journal. In comparison with the other reviewed sources, this article has a rather short reference list. It references 6 academic works, and 7 films. The article, however, is significant because it offers an interesting context for the cyborg theory movement. It traces the evolution of the cyborg character within Australian society, from a representation of fear to an image so unthreatening that ‘HR companies have been able to harness it for its brand-potential’. And these reflections are from someone who ‘was there’, in the sense that in his doctoral studies in 1995, Cooke wanted to ‘rescue the cyborg from the margins of academic and cultural discourse’. The article is at once reflective and accessible in its writing style, yet still utilises academic sources to support his ideas. The main argument within this article is that the cyborg has changed from a revolutionary image, to one co-opted by, and in a sense killed, by mainstream society. He argues, and then explores how, while the term is dead, the concept of the cyborg is as important as it ever was.
P.K. Jamison's 'Contradictory Spaces: Pleasure And The Seduction Of The Cyborg Discourse' (1994) :
Further research was unable to determine what relationship the author enjoyed with Indiana University, and the Arachnet Electronic Journal on Virtual Culture is no longer operational. Jamison’s main critique within this article is how the addition of the concept of pleasure to cyborg theory, or to view the cyborg as a discourse of pleasure, would allow for a more nuanced understanding of human and machine relations. To support this argument, Jamison references extensively, using sources from a range of disciplines and topics. Under the following headings, Jamison re-imagines and critiques the cyborg as a discourse, and as a potential discourse of pleasure. ‘Cyborg-Pleasure-Seduction’ considers the importance of pleasure in understanding cyborg social relations; whereas ‘Images of Pleasure and Seduction: Angels and Dragons’ demonstrates and critiques how utopic and dystopic discourses can be used to engage both with both the original and pleasure-based cyborg. While ‘Cyborgs, History and Chaos’ critiques how the concept of pleasure can be used to reconceptualise the history of the cyborg, and indeed social relations. And ‘Contradictory Spaces’ allows Jamison to discuss how the concept of pleasure itself is changed within the cyborg discourse. Such an article is useful as it reinvents the cyborg discourse; it is however imperative to consider and contextualise this article in the time that it was written.
Jennifer H. Kelland's ‘Theorizing the Body: Developing a Framework for Understanding the Body in Online Learning Environments’ (2006):
This paper was written for the 2006 Adult Education Research Conference, an annual North American conference where adult education researchers can share their experiences and studies with international researchers, students and practitioners. Jennifer Kelland is with the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta. Further research has suggested that she is a doctoral candidate. This article discusses how the body in online learning environments must theorised, as it is too often considered absent. Under the headings of ‘Material and Online Learning Environments’; ‘The Physical Body: Senses, Movement and Experience’; ‘The Personal Body: Limits and Boundaries’; ‘The Political Body: Inscription on the Body’; ‘The Knowledgeable Body: Information Storage’; ‘The Expressive Body: Communicating and Connecting with Others’; and ‘Implications: Considering Tisdell’s Typology’, Kelland considers how the concepts of face-to-face learning can be re-examined to incorporate the body in the online learning environment. The end of each section also sees her posit questions to her audience, which could be a useful starting point for someone considering engaging with this as a research topic. As this was a paper presented to an adult education conference, the reader can trust the significance of the sources to the argument, and also reveals what issues are important to the academics within this specialised area.
Andy Miah's ‘Be Very Afraid: Cyborg Athletes, Transhuman Ideals & Posthumanity’ (2003):
Andy Miah is a lecturer in Media, Bioethics and Cyberculture at the University of Paisley in Scotland. The Journal of Evolution and Technology is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Within this article, Miah is considering the concept of post-humanism compared with the concept of transhumanism. He considers both sides of the suggestion that medicine is a transhumanist technology and suggests that people accept transhumanist technology when it is seen as repairing the human body, not enhancing it. Yet he also questions whether the lines between repairing and enhancing will soon become blurred, especially with the emergence of genetic research. He also suggests that elite athletes are an example of transhumanism; they use technologies to make their performances more than human. He cites the example of hyperbaric chambers as proof of the athletes’ reliance on technology, and hence cyborg nature. He also questions how performance enhancing drugs engage with the idea of athletes as cyborgs. The article is questioning in style; while well referenced, it brings up many interesting points without seeming to come to any concrete conclusion. Such an article should be used for its ability to raise questions that need to be answered by other sources.
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