Information processing as gendered knowledge work: A historical case study

Recent scholarship on gender and organizations has developed an analytical conception of knowledge work attentive to embodied knowledge, tasks stratified by gender and ideological definitions of skill. This article applies such an approach to a historical case study in which women were quite literally information processors. In press clipping bureaus young women manually read and sorted thousands of newspaper articles into parcels of keyword‐indexed information for the use of paid subscribers. Using newspaper accounts of this work in the United States from 1884 to 1940, the article shows how gendered definitions of working tasks and bodily abilities were crucial to the organization of this early form of industrial‐scale, commodified information processing. Separating the concept of knowledge work from dependence on contemporary technologies and labour conditions suggests new possibilities for reappraising other forms of labour as gendered knowledge work.     

New social intervention technologies as a challenge in social work: IFSW Europe perspective

ABSTRACT

This study aims at analyzing the degree of training, use, and practice of the new technologies among the social work professionals in their work environment and at finding out their main reluctance or reservations to a more intensive use of ICTs in the performance of their tasks. For this purpose, a structured and closed questionnaire has been sent to the chairpeople of the professional organizations’ members of the International Federation of Social Workers Europe (IFSW Europe), which also includes Turkey and Israel. The reason for this choice lies in the fact that the representatives for the professional organizations have a privileged view on the situation of the profession from a global perspective and are the key informants on the current situation surrounding the social workers. This study allows us to know, among other results, that the success of ICTs among the professionals will depend on their ability to adapt to the specific professional nature of the social worker in the intervention domain. However, the uncertainty regarding the security of the personal data treatment, regarding the increase of the non included or paid work hours, and also, regarding the increase of professional stress are key factors explaining the reluctance of some professionals to a more intensive use of ICTs.     

Kinship care or upbringing by relatives? The need for ‘new’ understandings in research

This article addresses knowledge production on formal kinship foster care. In spite of growing interest in this phenomenon, little attention has been paid to how kinship care should be understood in research – as a service under child protective services or as upbringing by relatives. Each of these understandings leads to different research questions and creates guidelines for what falls into or outwith the focus of research. In kinship care research, this phenomenon has primarily been studied as a service. Research that seeks to evaluate the effect of kinship care compared to non-kinship care is used as a case to discuss the implications for the type of knowledge that researchers produce. While we acknowledge the importance of this research, we demonstrate the many challenges it involves and why this should not be the primary focus in kinship care research. On the background of these limitations, we argue in favour of approaching kinship care as upbringing by relatives – as ways in which family life can be organised and structured. This can lead to relevant knowledge that will enable us to obtain a better understanding of what kinship care is and involves.     

The Decent Work Questionnaire: Development and validation in two samples of knowledge workers

This research develops a Decent Work Questionnaire (DWQ) to measure workers’ perceptions of decent work. Current measurements of decent work are almost completely lacking at the individual worker level of analysis, and this study contributes to filling the gap. The authors designed their DWQ based on the substantive elements used by the ILO in its Decent Work Agenda, with the final 31‐item version of the DWQ yielding seven factors related to decent work. Showing good reliability coefficient values and good convergent and discriminant validity, this DWQ could open up new avenues for empirical studies on the concept of decent work.     

幼儿园教师实践性知识发展阶段的实证研究

幼儿园教师的实践性知识是教师在从事保育工作与教育实践的过程中逐渐生成的关于"如何做"的相对稳定的知识体系，它切实关注教师的生活体验和保教实践状态。研究采用问卷调查法对186名幼儿园教师进行了调查。结果发现：幼儿园教师具备的实践性知识水平不高，实践性知识各发展阶段经历的时间差异显著，实践性知识各因素的发展阶段呈"W"型。另外，幼儿园教师对实践性知识的需求程度以及影响幼儿园教师提升实践性知识的因素有明显的阶段差异。通过建立满足不同发展阶段需求的专家引领机制、提升幼儿园教师的儿童观察与行为分析能力、提供"跳出"现场"看"现场的时空条件、共建幼儿安全风险分担机制等措施，为幼儿园教师实践性知识的发展提供支持。     

新手教师实践性知识的发展策略研究——基于课堂目光语的现状调查

目光语是运用眼睛的动作和眼神来传递信息和感情的一种体态语，作为一种实践性知识在课堂教学中起着重要的作用。首先，观察新手教师和熟手教师运用目光语的课堂教学实录；其次，采用量化和质性研究方法对比新手教师和熟手教师运用目光语的差异，并首次提出"教学目光率"的概念；再次，结合"三角互证"的方式进行访谈；最后，总结出教学专家课堂目光语运用的原则与方法，提出"观摩比较-分项设计训练-综合设计训练-录制教学视频-自评他评"的实训方案，为新手教师自主发展实践性知识以及教师教育者开展相关培训提供参考和借鉴。     

Leading the debate for the business case for gender equality,perilous for whom?

This research examines how the framing of the business case for gender equality (BCGE) in the European Union (EU) translates in the Irish national context and how different actors have engaged with this framing exercise. A central concern is how gender knowledge is mobilized by different actors as they compete to shape discourse, policy and practice on gender equality. We draw upon theoretical work that has interrogated the relationship between neoliberalism, gender inequality and feminist mobilization before reviewing critical assessments of the BCGE. The primary focus of this paper, having mapped this theoretical debate, is to analyse the role different Irish actors and organizations play in reproducing key frames and to examine the ambiguous or ambivalent engagement of different interest groups with this agenda. In turn, we assess the degree to which the agenda enables or disables structural change in access to power. We explore three case studies through which the BCGE in the EU was reinforced, adapted, resisted and rejected in our discussions, and draw out the constraints, opportunities and outcomes in each. Our first case study, which sets the national context for the following case studies, reviews how the Irish state interacts with the EU to frame gender equality and how it partners with key actors (state feminism and femocrats, private actors and feminist actors) to advance the BCGE. The second case study examines the role of the leading Irish feminist civil society organization (CSO) in the Women on Boards campaign that reinforces the dominant instrumental discourse associated with EU and national framing of gender parity on boards, and the ambiguity of feminists about this campaign. The third case study examines how Irish financial elites symbolically engage with gender parity on boards while simultaneously seeking to veto the implementation of gender representation targets proposed in the EU Capital Directive. It is clear that a degree of instrumentality informs most actors’ framing of BCGE. We also find evidence of how power actors and financial elites, while rhetorically engaging in BCGE and employing it when relevant to develop reputational capital, will seek ultimately to protect the status quo rejecting the governance benefits implied in BCGE. Ultimately, our cases illustrate the potential of the BCGE to support the inclusion of women in governance structures yet demonstrate that engaging with BCGE is perilous for some.     

Collective‐unconscious apologetics of plutocracy and oligarchy: Chicago economics' ideological preferences revealed by the sociology of knowledge

The article places and analyzes the Chicago school of economics within the framework of Mannheim's sociology of knowledge or ideas that posits and documents social determinants of ideas and ideologies. This framework reveals the Chicago school as the explicit or implicit ideology and utopia of plutocracy, oligarchy and aristocracy in the sense of apologetics of these social classes and/or systems, thus being the class form of ‘apologetic economics’. Specifically, first, Chicago economics reveals itself as the collective‐unconscious apologetics of plutocracy, oligarchy and aristocracy. Second, it appears as the ‘collective‐conscious’ apologetics in this respect. In addition, it come close to the mostly covert collective‐unconscious or conscious apologetics of theocracy and fascism. The article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the social, in particular class, factors of Chicago and related schools of economics and generally of economic ideas, theories and policies by applying Mannheim's sociology of knowledge, especially its emphasis on the collective unconscious as the source of ideology.     

大学师生关系:概念、特性与维度

大学师生关系是高等教育中最基本、最重要的一对关系。探究大学师生关系的概念、特性与维度,实际上是对“什么是大学师生关系”“如何辨别大学师生关系”以及“如何评价大学师生关系”三大问题的回应。大学师生关系的本质是一种力的存在,是大学教师与大学生之间所形成的相互影响力与作用力。大学教师与大学生基于知识发生交往而形成的高等教育联系即为大学师生关系,其具有教育性、独立性、自由性、创造性、精神性等独特属性。交往与知识是大学师生关系研究的两大重要观测维度,其中,交往是大学师生关系存在的前提条件与决定因素,知识是大学师生关系的生发动因与重要目标。理想的大学师生关系形态应该是紧密型交往与平权型知识的良好契合。     

从扶乩到灵学：近代科玄论战下的知识与理性

近代知识精英在接受正规科学的同时，受到了西方当时流行的心灵学刺激与启发，将传统扶乩信仰推至灵学研究的崭新维度。灵学支持者期望诉诸理性和科学去认识科学知识之外的灵学知识，以对未知世界的敬畏去促进在精神和道德层面改造已知世界，实现灵学救国。与此同时，以《新青年》为代表的灵学反对者则坚持彻底的科学主义和理性态度，将灵学视为有碍科学发展的落后迷信。两种截然不同立场的背后，是近代知识界在欧风美雨冲击下对现代知识与传统学问的共同反思，亦是对舶来之科学、宗教、迷信等概念以及现代启蒙精神的有益探讨，更为之后的科玄论战提供了理论素材并拉开序幕。在启蒙文化的引领下，中国社会逐渐以理性化、现世化为主导，灵学也已经不能适应时代发展的要求。从灵学之争到科玄论战，不仅反映出中国现代化与世俗化之路的复杂性与曲折性，也构成以科学范式研究宗教现象的历史基础。