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* What is the most significant aspect of current literature on gender? * How does this literature engage with social theory? * How does the recognition of gender shift the central arguments of social theory? We know that gender defines and shapes our lives. The question addressed by Gender and Social Theory is that of exactly how this process occurs, and what the social consequences, and the consequences for social theory, might be. The emergence of feminist theory has enriched our understanding of the impact of gender on our individual lives and the contemporary social sciences all recognise gender differentiation in the social world. The issue, however, which this book discusses is the more complex question of the extent to which social theory is significantly disrupted, disturbed or devalued by the fuller recognition of gender difference. We know that gender matters, but Mary Evans examines whether social theory is as blind to gender as is sometimes argued and considers the extent to which a greater awareness of gender truly shifts the concerns and conclusions of social theory. Written by an author with an international reputation, this is an invaluable text for students and an essential reference in the field.
Vivid narratives, fresh insights, and new theories on where gender theory and research stand today Since scholars began interrogating the meaning of gender and sexuality in society, this field has become essential to the study of sociology. Gender Reckonings aims to map new directions for understanding gender and sexuality within a more pragmatic, dynamic, and socially relevant framework. It shows how gender relations must be understood on a large scale as well as in intimate detail. The contributors return to the basics, questioning how gender patterns change, how we can realize gender equality, and how the structures of gender impact daily life. Gender Reckonings covers not only foundational concepts of gender relations and gender justice, but also explores postcolonial patterns of gender, intersectionality, gender fluidity, transgender practices, neoliberalism, and queer theory. Gender Reckonings combines the insights of gender and sexuality scholars from different generations, fields, and world regions. The editors and contributors are leading social scientists from six continents, and the book gives vivid accounts of the changing politics of gender in different communities. Rich in empirical detail and novel thinking, Gender Reckonings is a lasting resource for students, researchers, activists, policymakers, and everyone concerned with gender justice.
This book reassesses theories of agency and gender identity against the backdrop of changing relations between men and women in contemporary societies. McNay argues that recent thought on the formation of the modern subject offers a one-sided or negative account of agency, which underplays the creative dimension present in the responses of individuals to changing social relations. An understanding of this creative element is central to a theory of autonomous agency, and also to an explanation of the ways in which women and men negotiate changes within gender relations. In exploring the implications of this idea of agency for a theory of gender identity, McNay brings together the work of leading feminist theorists - such as Judith Butler and Nancy Fraser - with the work of key continental social theorists. In particular, she examines the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Paul Ricoeur and Cornelius Castoriadis, each of whom has explored different aspects of the idea of the creativity of action. McNay argues that their thought has interesting implications for feminist ideas of gender, but these have been relatively neglected partly because of the huge influence of the work of Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan in this area. She argues that, despite its suggestive nature, feminist theory must move away from the ideas of Foucault and Lacan if a more substantive account of agency is to be introduced into ideas of gender identity. This book will appeal to students and scholars in the areas of social theory, gender studies and feminist theory.
How do various social theories explain gender inequality? Are these theories infused with masculinist biases that need to be redressed with insights from feminist theory? To address these questions, this collection of original essays features prominent sociologists discussing the strengths and the limitations of the theoretical traditions within which they have worked. Among the theoretical perspectives included are those of Marxism, world system theory, macrostructural theories, rational choice theory, neofunctionalism, psychoanalysis, ethno-methodology, expectation states theory, poststructuralist symbolic interactionism, and network theory. Each of the chapter-length essays of the first two sections provides an overview of the theory, explains its implications for gender inequality, reviews empirical research, and comments upon sexist biases or other limitations of the perspective. The final section contains chapters on feminist debates over methodology, critical commentaries on the preceding papers by four feminist scholars, and replies by the original authors.
During the past three decades, feminist scholars have successfully demonstrated the ubiq uity and omnirelevance of gender as a sociocultural construction in virtually all human collectivities, past and present. Intrapsychic, interactional, and collective social processes are gendered, as are micro, meso, and macro social structures. Gender shapes, and is shaped, in all arenas of social life, from the most mundane practices of everyday life to those of the most powerful corporate actors. Contemporary understandings of gender emanate from a large community of primarily feminist scholars that spans the gamut of learned disciplines and also includes non-academic activist thinkers. However, while in corporating some cross-disciplinary material, this volume focuses specifically on socio logical theories and research concerning gender, which are discussed across the full array of social processes, structures, and institutions. As editor, I have explicitly tried to shape the contributions to this volume along several lines that reflect my long-standing views about sociology in general, and gender sociology in particular. First, I asked authors to include cross-national and historical material as much as possible. This request reflects my belief that understanding and evaluating the here-and-now and working realistically for a better future can only be accomplished from a comparative perspective. Too often, American sociology has been both tempero- and ethnocentric. Second, I have asked authors to be sensitive to within-gender differences along class, racial/ethnic, sexual preference, and age cohort lines.
Southern Theory presents the case for a radical re-thinking of social science and its relationships to knowledge, power and democracy on a world scale. Mainstream social science pictures the world as understood by the educated and affluent in Europe and North America. From Weber and Keynes to Friedman and Foucault, theorists from the global North dominate the imagination of social scientists, and the reading lists of students, all over the world. For most of modern history, the majority world has served social science only as a data mine. Yet the global South does produce knowledge and understanding of society. Through vivid accounts of critics and theorists, Raewyn Connell shows how social theory from the world periphery has power and relevance for understanding our changing world from al-Afghani at the dawn of modern social science, to Raul Prebisch in industrialising Latin America, Ali Shariati in revolutionary Iran, Paulin Hountondji in post-colonial Benin, Veena Das and Ashis Nandy in contemporary India, and many others. With clarity and verve, Southern Theory introduces readers to texts, ideas and debates that have emerged from Australia's Indigenous people, from Africa, Latin America, south and south-west Asia. It deals with modernisation, gender, race, class, cultural domination, neoliberalism, violence, trade, religion, identity, land, and the structure of knowledge itself. Southern Theory shows how this tremendous resource has been disregarded by mainstream social science. It explores the challenges of doing theory in the periphery, and considers the role Southern perspectives should have in a globally connected system of knowledge. Southern Theory draws on sociology, anthropology, history, psychology, economics, philosophy and cultural studies, with wide-ranging implications for social science in the 21st century.
Explanations of how identities are constructed are fundamental to contemporary debates in feminism and in cultural and social theory. Formations of Class & Gender demonstrates why class should be featured more prominently in theoretical accounts of gender, identity and power. Beverley Skeggs identifies the neglect of class, and shows how class and gender must be fused together to produce an accurate representation of power relations in modern society. The book questions how theoretical frameworks are generated for understanding how women live and produce themselves through social and cultural relations. It uses detailed ethnographic research to explain how ′real′ women inhabit and occupy the social and cultural positions of class, femininity and sexuality. As a critical examination of cultural representation - informed by recent feminist theory and the work of Pierre Bourdieu - the book is an articulate demonstration of how to translate theory into practice.
Introduction: the editors -- Points of departure : gender & power and its sequels -- "Theories don't grow on trees" : contextualizing gender knowledge / Myra Marx Ferree -- Hegemonic, nonhegemonic, and "new" masculinities / James W. Messerschmidt and Michael A. Messner -- From object to subject : situating transgender lives in sociology / Kristen Schilt -- The larger scope of gender analysis -- Postcoloniality and the sociology of gender / Raka Ray -- Race, indigeneity, and gender : lessons for global feminism / Mara Viveros Vigoya -- Categories, structures, and intersectional theory / Joya Misra -- Four dimensions of relationship, struggle, and change -- Why "heteronormativity" is not enough : a feminist sociological perspective on heterosexuality / Stevi Jackson -- Gender inequality and feminism in the new economy / Christine L. Williams and Megan Tobias Neely -- Gender politics in academia in the neoliberal age / Barbara Poggio -- The holy grail of organizational change : toward gender equality at work / Yvonne Benschop and Marieke van den Brink -- Dynamics of masculinities -- Concerning tradition in studies on men and masculinities in ex-colonies / Kopano Ratele -- Rethinking patriarchy through unpatriarchal male desires / Gul Ozyegin -- On the elasticity of gender hegemony : why hybrid masculinities fail to undermine gender and sexual inequality / Tristan Bridges and C.J. Pascoe -- Agendas for theory -- Limitations of the neoliberal turn in gender theory : (re)turning to gender as a social structure / Barbara J. Risman, Kristen Myers, and Ray Sin -- Paradoxes of gender redux : multiple genders and the persistence of the binary / Judith Lorber -- The monogamous couple, gender hegemony, and polyamory / Mimi Schippers -- Conclusion: theory work, or reckoning with gender / Raewyn Connell -- About the contributors -- Index -- Notes
Crystallizing the essential principles of social reproductive theory, this anthology provides long-overdue analysis of everyday life under capitalism. It focuses on issues such as childcare, healthcare, education, family life, and the roles of gender, race, and sexuality--all of which are central to understanding the relationship between exploitation and social oppression. Tithi Bhattacharya brings together some of the leading writers and theorists, including Lise Vogel, Nancy Fraser, and Susan Ferguson, in order for us to better understand social relations and how to improve them in the fight against structural oppression.
This book investigates the complex strands that inextricably link gender and power relations, demonstrating how gender is constructed through the practices of power. The contributors argue that female' and male' are shaped not only at the micro-level of everyday social interaction but also at the macro-level where social institutions control and regulate the practice of gender. Power/Gender explores: how theorizing on power is affected when gender is taken into account; post-Foucauldian theory of gender and power; whether it is possible to separate gender and power; the connections between gender and the practice of power in political contexts, and how these connections work in the specific contexts of women's lives; and whether the construction of sex or gender is an expression of power relations.