Christina Dunbar-Hester's Books

Low Power to the People

Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

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Low Power to the People

Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

The United States ushered in a new era of small-scale broadcasting in 2000 when it began issuing low-power FM (LPFM) licenses for noncommercial radio stations around the country. Over the next decade, several hundred of these newly created low-wattage stations took to the airwaves. This book describes the practices of an activist organization focused on LPFM during this era.--Publisher's description.

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Page Count

299

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262028123

ISBN 13

9780262028127

Hacking Diversity

The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

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Hacking Diversity

The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

We regularly read and hear exhortations for women to take up positions in STEM. The call comes from both government and private corporate circles, and it also emanates from enthusiasts for free and open source software (FOSS), i.e. software that anyone is free to use, copy, study, and change in any way. Ironically, rate of participation in FOSS-related work is far lower than in other areas of computing. A 2002 European Union study showed that fewer than 2 percent of software developers in the FOSS world were women. How is it that an intellectual community of activists so open in principle to one and all -a community that prides itself for its enlightened politics and its commitment to social change - should have such a low rate of participation by women? This book is an ethnographic investigation of efforts to improve the diversity in software and hackerspace communities, with particular attention paid to gender diversity advocacy"--

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Page Count

288

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691182078

ISBN 13

9780691182070

Oil Beach

How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

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Oil Beach

How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

In this engaging interdisciplinary investigation, Christina Dunbar-Hester, a leading scholar in the area of democratic control of technologies, focuses on the relationships between commerce, environment, and nonhuman life forms in San Pedro Bay, which houses the contiguous ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The harbor is a heavily industrialized area built atop a land- and waterscape that is important for wildlife, containing estuarial wetlands, the LA river mouth, and a marine ecology where colder and warmer Pacific Ocean waters meet. This is a unique spot for industry too--this port complex is amongst the top-ten biggest container ports in the world, and the harbor is also home to major oil operations. Dunbar-Hester, a professor of Science & Technology Studies and Communication at the University of Southern California, centers her account on multispecies life in the period of about 1960 to the present, which coincides with the era of modern environmental regulation in the United States. Focusing on cetaceans, bananas, sea birds, and otters whose lives are intertwined with the vitality of the port complex itself, Dunbar--Hester reveals how logistics infrastructure destroys ecologies as it circulates goods and capital--and helps readers to consider a future where the accumulation of life and the accumulation of capital are not in violent tension"--

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Page Count

267

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022681971X

ISBN 13

9780226819716

Oil Beach

How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

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Oil Beach

How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

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Page Count

267

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University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022681971X

ISBN 13

9780226819716

Hacking Diversity

The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

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Hacking Diversity

The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

A firsthand look at efforts to improve diversity in software and hackerspace communities Hacking, as a mode of technical and cultural production, is commonly celebrated for its extraordinary freedoms of creation and circulation. Yet surprisingly few women participate in it: rates of involvement by technologically skilled women are drastically lower in hacking communities than in industry and academia. Hacking Diversity investigates the activists engaged in free and open-source software to understand why, despite their efforts, they fail to achieve the diversity that their ideals support. Christina Dunbar-Hester shows that within this well-meaning volunteer world, beyond the sway of human resource departments and equal opportunity legislation, members of underrepresented groups face unique challenges. She brings together more than five years of firsthand research: attending software conferences and training events, working on message boards and listservs, and frequenting North American hackerspaces. She explores who participates in voluntaristic technology cultures, to what ends, and with what consequences. Digging deep into the fundamental assumptions underpinning STEM-oriented societies, Dunbar-Hester demonstrates that while the preferred solutions of tech enthusiasts—their “hacks” of projects and cultures—can ameliorate some of the “bugs” within their own communities, these methods come up short for issues of unequal social and economic power. Distributing “diversity” in technical production is not equal to generating justice. Hacking Diversity reframes questions of diversity advocacy to consider what interventions might appropriately broaden inclusion and participation in the hacking world and beyond.

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Page Count

288

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691194173

ISBN 13

9780691194172

Low Power to the People

Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

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Low Power to the People

Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism

By: Christina Dunbar-Hester

An examination of how activists combine political advocacy and technical practice in their promotion of the emancipatory potential of local low-power FM radio. The United States ushered in a new era of small-scale broadcasting in 2000 when it began issuing low-power FM (LPFM) licenses for noncommercial radio stations around the country. Over the next decade, several hundred of these newly created low-wattage stations took to the airwaves. In Low Power to the People, Christina Dunbar-Hester describes the practices of an activist organization focused on LPFM during this era. Despite its origins as a pirate broadcasting collective, the group eventually shifted toward building and expanding regulatory access to new, licensed stations. These radio activists consciously cast radio as an alternative to digital utopianism, promoting an understanding of electronic media that emphasizes the local community rather than a global audience of Internet users. Dunbar-Hester focuses on how these radio activists impute emancipatory politics to the “old” medium of radio technology by promoting the idea that “microradio” broadcasting holds the potential to empower ordinary people at the local community level. The group's methods combine political advocacy with a rare commitment to hands-on technical work with radio hardware, although the activists' hands-on, inclusive ethos was hampered by persistent issues of race, class, and gender. Dunbar-Hester's study of activism around an “old” medium offers broader lessons about how political beliefs are expressed through engagement with specific technologies. It also offers insight into contemporary issues in media policy that is particularly timely as the FCC issues a new round of LPFM licenses.

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Age

Page Count

299

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262320509

ISBN 13

9780262320504

Book's by Christina Dunbar-Hester

Low Power to the People

Low Power to the People

Hacking Diversity

Hacking Diversity

Oil Beach

Oil Beach

Oil Beach

Oil Beach

Hacking Diversity

Hacking Diversity

Low Power to the People

Low Power to the People

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