Paper short abstract:

Our joint presentation will explore the usefulness of science and technology studies (STS) to understanding practices and politics of bodily self-fashioning. We'll consider the analytical gains and liabilities of applying STS approaches to the study of beautification and modification in African cities.

Paper long abstract:

We propose to give a combined presentation on the usefulness of science and technology studies (STS) to understanding practices and politics of bodily self-fashioning in African cities and beyond. Our interest in this topic stems from our respective research on hairstyling and skin lightening, and our participation in a collaborative research project, based at the University of Cape Town, on skin lightening.

What are the analytical gains and possible liabilities of applying STS approaches to the study of bodily practices of beautification and modification in cities in West, South, and East Africa? When we cast peoples' efforts to arrange hair, alter skin color, and adjust body parts as technological practices - as opposed to or in addition to analyzing them as beauty rituals, consumer habits, or modes of self-expression - what do learn? What might we lose? Should the decision to designate such practices as technological lay with scholars, the historical and ethnographic subjects they study, or in some combination of these perspectives? What elements are indispensable to STS approaches? Must they necessarily include an attention to the materiality of the objects and processes involved? How might approaching practices of bodily self-fashioning as transnational technologies alter our views of African cities and their hinterlands?