Abstract
This paper reports on an ongoing, 5-year, international feminist intervention research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, “Re-Figuring Innovation in Games”. The project includes researchers, students, game designers, community members, and video game companies in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. Its most fundamental goal has been to build an explicitly feminist coalition to intervene in the habitually hostile and misogynist cultures of making and playing digital games. To date, our collective work has involved examining the structural and cultural issues in play that continue to successfully marginalize, harass and exclude women and others from a highly lucrative technology industry. The paper will also focus on describing some of the interventions that effectively interrupt and reconfigure persistent patterns of inequality, and demonstrate how the international network is striving to realize local, and extra-local change.
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Notes
- 1.
Using Montreal Massacre shooter Marc Lepine’s name, as well as his words, the warning read: “Feminists have ruined my life and I will have my revenge” – chilling reminders of the obstacles women face to this day.
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Acknowledgements
This project has taken a herculean effort with much thanks going to Suzanne de Castell, Helen W. Kennedy, Nicholas Taylor and Emily Flynn-Jones for their fabulous support and willingness to “go big”. Thanks also to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Partnerships Grant program for funding support.
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Jenson, J. (2020). Re-Figuring Innovation in Games: A Feminist Interventionist Project. In: Groen, M., Kiel, N., Tillmann, A., Weßel, A. (eds) Games and Ethics. Digitale Kultur und Kommunikation, vol 7. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-28175-5_5
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