Feminist Futures Helsinki (FFH) is a hackathon which builds on feminist theories of power, emotion and intersectionality, to imagine alternative futures for the Finnish society. It is a space for creativity and radical ideas, where everyone is welcome.
A HACKATHON FOR SYSTEMIC CHANGE. This past year has made the social and economic divides in society (locally and globally) more evident than ever. This hackathon challenges the notion that complex, societal issues can be fixed by simple technology. Feminism asks us to analyse and challenge institutionalised power, to embrace emotion and to think beyond binary structures – and that is what we want to do with this hackathon.
“NOTHING ABOUT US, WITHOUT US”. We believe that the people who will be most impacted by the design, should be leading the process. Therefore we hope to engage people who are directly impacted by the topics of the hackathon and who are often underrepresented in decision-making.
WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM? This hackathon was inspired by, and will run in parallel with Our Feminist Futures, organised by the “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck!” collaborative and supported by MIT. Our work is building on the foundation that they have created.
HOW? Feminist Futures Helsinki will be online and run from May 15th to May 31st. The length of the hackathon is to ensure deep understanding of the issues at hand, and to ensure that we are able to embrace participants with care work and other responsibilities. However, we will still have all the awesome elements of a traditional hackathon such as inspiring talks, engaging workshops, and teamwork. The output of the hackathon can take many forms, and we encourage participants to think beyond the traditional hackathon prototype with short-term impact, and embrace systemic and long-term perspectives on strengthening bonds with the community, challenging narratives and building bridges for future dialogues.
WHERE & WHEN? Due to the geographical focus of the topics, we are looking for 50 participants based in Finland. The hackathon will take place between May 15th to May 31st and applications will be open between April 16th to April 27th. Participants will apply individually through a form that will help our team better understand their motivations to join. Our team will then create multidisciplinary teams to match everyone’s interests, preferences, availability, and needs.
WHAT WILL THE HACKATHON FOCUS ON? The hackathon will have four tracks/topics for which the participants will imagine alternative futures and receive mentoring from our partner organisations. These tracks are still to be decided, as we want to develop them in detail with our partners, but they will likely focus on topics such as health, community, relationships to nature, technology and representation.
Circulate the message below:
Join the Feminist Futures Helsinki hackathon from May 15-31, 2021. Apply here from Friday April 16 onwards. The online hackathon will be a collective space for imagining creative and radical futures, where everyone is welcome.
This past year has made the social and economic divides in society (locally and globally) more evident than ever. This hackathon challenges the notion that complex, societal issues can be fixed by technology alone. Feminism asks us to analyse and challenge institutionalised power, to embrace empathy and emotion, and to think beyond binary structures -lets do it together in this hackathon.
“NOTHING ABOUT US, WITHOUT US”. We believe that those impacted by design should be leading the design process – that’s why we are partnering with grassroots and community organisations in Finland for this hackathon. We hope to engage people whose lives are affected by the topics we’ll be delving into and who are often underrepresented in decision making.
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Nitin Sawhney 