A feminist perspective on digital geographies: activism, affect and emotion, and gendered human-technology relations in Australia

Jessica McLean*, Sophia Maalsen, Sarah Prebble

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Feminist digital geographies are an important part of the digital turn currently underway in geographic scholarship. At the same time, feminist movements are taking advantage of, and emerging from, digital spaces. This article considers how the digital intersects with gender and what opportunities the digital affords feminist movements. We do so by drawing on a case study of feminist activism within Destroy the Joint (DTJ), an online social media activist group, and build a qualitative analysis of a dynamic, reflexive digital space. Qualitative studies of emotion, affect and the power of digital geographies, including social media spaces populated by groups like DTJ, demonstrate how cultural and social practices are changing along with technologies. This research does not draw on a techno-deterministic approach to digital geographies but forwards a feminist perspective that critically engages with the constraints and possibilities of the complex, paradoxical and contingent within the digital.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)740-761
Number of pages22
JournalGender, Place and Culture
Volume26
Issue number5
Early online date23 Feb 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 May 2019

Keywords

  • activism
  • affect
  • digital geographies
  • emotion
  • feminism
  • social media

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