Gender, race, and the free software movement

Posted on by nee

I wouldn’t say that issues of racism and sexism are out of place or that they don’t belong in the free software movement, or that they are separate from it. I would say that the free software movement is connected and complementary to struggles against systemic oppression and exploitation, by focusing on the computing field   –which underlies so much of our reality, especially as so many aspects of human sociability and governance are now coming to rely on software. I would argue that it is crucial that noy only plutocracy is discussed as relevant to the free software movement, but that groups struggling against racism, sexism, and other injustices, begin to see the fundamental role of unfree software in perpetuating the forms of violence they are protesting and trying to change. 

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Published by nee

I sought meaning in academic research about conflict transformation in relation to art and media history, and efforts for recovering the commons (PhD Cultural Studies with the London Consortium). I worked and taught with a number of universities, art-centers and internationally funded programs with increasing focus on free and open source technology, until a child reactivated my connection with a circle of heart-giving art educators in Brasil and helped me see what the Situationists' meant with their rejection of alienated labour. My child and I started mapping out and learning from the bravest and most meaningful art-educational initiatives around the world, and we've been focusing on holding space and community for free play, towards what Silvia Federici describes as a re-enchantment. Through my own learning path (including on-going training in Waldorf and Forest school teacher training, What Future for Education, London Institute of Education 2019; Hand in Hand Professional’s Intensive 2020) I have come to see learning as a state of being that is meaningfully embedded and present in its social setting, prioritising applied responses to local and community needs, and contributing to each other’s creative, practical, scientific, emotional and other developmental processes through a recognition of the abundant nature of the necessary resources, materials, information, peer-to-peer learning, and tools. | neeii.info

1 thought on “Gender, race, and the free software movement”

  1. Good to hear and read this thanks for sharing with me will comment online too swamped these days – was thinking of you pls let me know if you still want all the books from moufflon warehouse for children if yes draft a short letter of the school and send to me will take to her and let’s arrange pick up am sure she will love the idea and be very happy to donate xxxx

    Sent from my iPhone

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