Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to critically assess approaches to sex and gender in the Human Brain Project (HBP) as a large information and communication technology (ICT) project case study using intersectionality. Design/methodology/approach The strategy of the HBP is contextualised within the wider context of the representation of women in ICT, and critically reflected upon from an intersectional standpoint. Findings The policy underpinning the approach deployed by the HBP in response to these issues parallels Horizon 2020 wording and emphasises economic outcomes, productivity and value, which aligns with other “equality” initiatives influenced by neoliberalised versions of feminism. Research limitations/implications Limitations include focussing on a single case study, the authors being funded as part of the Ethics and Society Subproject of the HBP, and the limited temporal period under consideration. Social implications The frameworks underpinning the HBP approach to sex and gender issues present risks with regard to the further entrenchment of present disparities in the ICT sector, may fail to acknowledge systemic inequalities and biases and ignore the importance of intersectionality. Shortcomings of the approach employed by the HBP up to March, 2018 included aspects of each of these risks, and replicated problematic understandings of sex, gender and diversity. Originality/value This paper is the first to use an intersectional approach to issues of sex and gender in the context of large-scale ICT research. Its value lies in raising awareness, opening a discursive space and presenting opportunities to consider and reflect upon potential, contextualised intersectional solutions to such issues.
Highlights
The Human Brain Project (HBP) is an enormous research endeavour with immense transformative potential within ICT, neuroscience and related fields
Aspects of the HBP strategy discussed here are based upon first-hand experiences and observations of the presentations used at the Gender and Diversity Conference (9 March, 2018) as well as the Career-Building Workshop (8 March, 2018) and related discussions with speakers and participants at both events
The focus of sex and gender initiatives in the HBP and in ICT research more broadly is to increase participation and capitalise on the abilities of “diverse” teams to produce higher quality research, making the most of an untapped talent pool and becoming or remaining competitive in specific fields (Herring, 2009, though see Stojmenovska et al, 2017 for a critique). These aims replicate a conflation of sex and gender with “diversity” and unerringly echo strategies employed by corporate or state initiatives under the umbrella of Transnational Business Feminism and other forms of the neoliberalisation of feminism (Prügl and True, 2014; Roberts, 2015; Prügl, 2015)
Summary
The Human Brain Project (HBP) is an enormous research endeavour with immense transformative potential within ICT, neuroscience and related fields. It was funded in 2013 as a Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship to increase understanding of the brain. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ legalcode
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