Towards an Affirmative Ethics of Women's Smartphone Uses in Victoria, Australia

In this article, I argue that while smartphones can increase women's capacities to act for themselves and others, smartphones can also act agentially in the interests of corporations and limit women's capacity to act. To make this argument, I consider the value of Rosi Braidotti's [2019. Posthuman Knowledge. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press] posthuman knowledge theory of ‘affirmative ethics’ for understanding women's relationships with their smartphones. Applying a posthuman lens shows how the smartphone can increase women's capacities to affect and be affected [Gatens and Lloyd. 1999. Collective Imaginings: Spinoza, Past and Present. New York: Routledge]. However, this potential for positive feelings or relations must be considered in light of how the agency of the smartphone itself may interrupt these capacities through data sharing, targeted advertising and other capitalist practices. I argue that we must situate smartphone as part of the messy, incomplete and ongoing process of trying to live well and ethically in the present moment.