Abstract
This essay explores women and mobile intimacy through the story of "Neighborhoodworks.net"- a community-cooperative, never-launched Wi-Fi zone in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati-that intended to serve poor, unemployed, ambiguously raced single mothers whom project advocates called "Vanessa." "Vanessa" is significant as a "post-welfare" figure of feminine poverty who individualizes what, at other moments in history, has been understood as a political problem that demanded remedy via collective action. I conclude by calling on feminist scholars to move beyond taken-forgranted notions about the rewards of mobile privatization, and instead, embrace political struggle.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 517-527 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Feminist Media Studies |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2012 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Gender Studies
- Communication
- Visual Arts and Performing Arts