What does wellbeing do? An approach to defamiliarize keywords in youth studies

Wellbeing has become a keyword in youth and social policy, a construct deployed as a measure of a good life. Often associated with physical and mental health, wellbeing encompasses numerous indicators, from subjective experiences of happiness and satisfaction to markers of economic prosperity and basic human needs of security. This article examines wellbeing as an organizing concept in discourses on young people and argues for defamiliarizing its truth claims and cultural authority by investigating what wellbeing does. We begin by examining the rise of wellbeing, drawing attention to its conceptual muddiness and ambiguity. Framed by the Foucauldian notion of problematization, the analysis proceeds along two routes: first, through an historical consideration of wellbeing as a relational concept with antecedents, focusing on ‘self-esteem’; and second, through a reading of wellbeing in contemporary educational policy. Informed by Somers' historical sociology of concept formation and Bacchi's critical policy analysis, we illuminate the mixed dimensions of wellbeing's reach, placing it within longer traditions of youth studies and psy-knowledges and showing its transformative promise as well as its individualizing effects. In doing so, we elaborate a methodological approach that can be adapted to examine other keywords in youth studies and social policy discourse.     

The Secret Downing Street Memo,the One Percent Doctrine,and the Politics of Truth: A Performance Text

Presented to the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in Montreal, Canada, on August 7, 2006, this performance text is a critique of the Bush administration and its reliance on science, or evidence‐based models of inquiry (SBR). SBR raises issues concerning the politics of truth and evidence. These issues intersect with the ways in which a given political regime fixes facts to fit ideology. Three versions of SBR are discussed. A model of science as disruptive cultural practice is outlined. I locate the interactionist project in the discourses surrounding the global war on terror and the war in Iraq. I conclude by calling for a merger of critical pedagogy with a prophetic, feminist postpragmatism.     

Post-modernism,truth and social work

Abstract

In this article, I suggest that social workers should be servants and seekers of truth and that they should do their utmost to re-legitimise the quest for truth in social life and professional practice. I hold that while post-modernism must be applauded for its incisive critique of the totalising tendency' of the quest for truth, especially when fuelled by passionate ideological conviction, yet its forthright rejection of truth itself has had disastrous social consequences and serious deleterious effects on professional practice in social work. Over the last two decades or so, the baby (truth] has been recklessly thrown out with the bath water (totalistic Ideologies) and the consequences have been sorely felt in society, in the personal lives of individuals, in the human service professions as a whole and in social work, especially of course in the writings and professional practice of those who have enthusiastically embraced post-modernism. I also suggest, however, that social work needs to take full advantage of the insights of post-modernism (and especially of Foucault) in order to avoid falling into a totalistic chasm' as the profession pursues its own quest for truth.     

ETHNOGRAPHIES OF PRACTICE—PRACTISING ETHNOGRAPHY

This paper argues that acquiring competencies in different approaches and procedures in qualitative or interpretative social research provides a strong foundation for case analysis in professional social work practice. When students of social work become familiar with such research and are encouraged to engage in their own supervised projects they develop skills for a circumspect and sensitive practice with clients. The paper reports on work with students of social work in Germany, which can be described as an attempt to help them to become self‐reflective ethnographers in their own affairs, of their own emergent social work practice. It spells out different phases of a process in which they learn to make their own practice strange. This process consists of developing different competencies in observing, analysing and writing, and requires a setting in which students' written observations and reflections can be shared and discussed by their peers in a critical, egalitarian and supportive manner. The author thinks that such a critical and self‐critical discourse which addresses professional issues in general, as well as the individual student's (or practioner's) experiences and reflections, can have important implications for the collective development of social work and its relationship with other professions.     

Sociology and the case for realism

It is argued that in the present era of ecological threat we need a critical sociology, which requires a realist ontology. Using Beck's Risk society as an example, I maintain that to the extent that postmodernist sociology rejects realism, its critical and substantive potential is compromised. The second half of the article argues that realism must extend also to moral positions, which are assessed in terms of knowledge of the natural and social world. Through various examples it shows that while postmodernist thinkers reject meta-narratives and universal truth, they are inevitably moral realist in practice when talking politics. Contra Bauman, sociology cannot dispense with the project of emancipation. The moral realist discourse of human needs permits us to move from statements about the world to recommendations for action.     

Health Care “As Usual”: The Insertion of Positive Psychology in Canadian Mental Health Discourse

The recent shift to a “positive psychological” approach that emphasizes a “health model,” rather than a “disease model,” in mental health discourses is intended both to reduce the stigma around mental health issues and to enable people to play a role in monitoring their own mental health. As a component of a larger study on access to and utilization of mental health services by immigrant women, and a partial reflection of the current ideological context of mental health policy and practice in Canada, this shift was examined by analyzing the Canadian Mental Health Association's mental health discourse as posted in Web-based text using features of critical discourse analysis. Although considered an improvement over previous approaches by some, the current mental health discourse continues to reflect ideologies that assume a universal psychology of individual mental health. Framing this research with aspects of sociocultural and postcolonial theories, this article seeks to identify the possibilities of this new discourse and expose its limitations in relation to immigrants to Canada.     

'Woman,Speak with a Loud Voice!'

This paper seeks to contribute to the critique of mainstream development discourse by conveying the ideas and issues raised by rural South African women. Building upon feminist and post-colonial discourses, this paper shifts the epistemological location of knowing to the women affected by development programmes and policies. Based upon interviews and discussions with over 600 women in rural communities, we offer a brief characterization of the South African context of rural women's lives, followed by rural women's comments about development, their daily struggles, and empowerment. Rural women's comments reveal a conception of development that is tied to their localized problem-solving skills and opportunities. Their response to the absence of development opportunities within their communities is to forge a space where they can negotiate between institutional spheres of power in order to address their needs. We argue that traditional development approaches overlook the space, or interstice, rural African women occupy between the modern state and traditional authority. For persons interested in development issues, rural women's experiences direct our attention to the in-between spaces as potential sites of empowerment.     

Homonationalism

This article tracks Jasbir Puar's term “homonationalism” as its meaning has transformed in her scholarly work as well that of Maya Mikdashi. I argue that homonationalism has evolved from its original formulation as, in part, a critique of politics, into, in its current guise, a diagnostic of international political relations. Although this transition offers insight into the international scene, I argue that homonationalism also loses its distinctiveness as a political formation in its own right as well as its critical capacity in the process. In particular, I argue that homonationalism becomes incapable of critically evaluating activist strategies, practices and discourses of political resistance.     

What do lesbians do in the daytime? Recover

This paper examines a narrative taken from an ethnographic interview, for the speaker's conversational construction of lesbian and other identities along with ideologized personal history. To tell her story, Marge shifts to the discourse style used in the meetings of addiction recovery groups. She prioritizes the recovery (twelve-step) program's coherence system, structuring her life story in conformity with its terms while narrating a complexly queered identity. Four analyses are given, beginning with a Labovian formal examination and proceeding with a consideration of three types of discourse echoing: interdiscursivity, intratextuality, and manifest intertextuality. This study demonstrates the analytical linking of nonpublic linguistic discourse to social discourses; individual identity construction to social construction (and its coherence systems); and personal history to historical eras. The paper adds the concept of a metalevel complicating action to narrative theory and develops a means of examining intratextuality for critical discourse analysis. It presents a revised view of essentialism for the sociolinguistic study of gender and sexuality.     

Critical rhetoric’s truth-telling function

The relationship between rhetoric and philosophy reveals competing orientations that guide what a subject can say about a domain of things and how that saying is informed by discourses of truth. In this article, I consider Raymie E. McKerrow’s admirable rendering of a “critical rhetoric” alongside Michel Foucault’s examination of parrhēsia to locate in critical rhetoric a truth-telling function that is formed in the ethopoetic relationship between subjects immersed in public discourse.     

The Production of the Female Entrepreneurial Subject: A Space of Exclusion for Women of Color?

SUMMARY

Using critical discourse analysis, this paper examines how the female entrepreneurial subject is constructed/produced within entrepreneurial discourses, how this subject is racialized, gendered and classed, and examines what practices contribute to the shaping of the female entrepreneurial subject. I specifically look at four areas/discourses central to entrepreneurship; that of independence, self-definition/self-monitoring, networking, and women's abilities as businesswomen. I contend that contemporary self-employment discourses mirror those of neo-liberalism/modernization where the notion of the independent liberal subject has the ability to self-determine and self-monitor, which is a sign of autonomy and mastery of the self. I also argue that the space of women's entrepreneurship legitimizes white middle-class women's experiences and excludes women of color from becoming active subjects in entrepreneurial discourses.     

Disciplining “Girl Talk”

ABSTRACT

Although empowerment is frequently invoked in social work discourse, it is nevertheless a complicated and contested practice method. A critical minority of social work theorists and practitioners point to the paradox of empowerment practice that reifies power differences and infringes upon client self-determination (Gruber & Trickett, 1987; Hartman, 1992; Pease, 2002; Simon, 1990). Despite the acuity of this critique, it has neither fully penetrated the discourse of social work practice nor been employed in close analyses of empowerment interventions. In order to address this gap, we conducted an ethnographic study of a feminist empowerment program for young adolescent girls. Our findings suggest that despite some evidence of success, there were also noteworthy instances in which program staff subverted the goal of empowering participants' voices and instead disciplined girls' talk along particular discursive lines. This study explores these practices and discourses and based on this illustration, calls for incorporation of critical reflection into empowerment-based social work practice.     

Styles of Intellectualism in Weber's Historical Sociology

The prevailing concept of the intellectual in contemporary sociology is an ideal type derived from Weber. Intellectuals are understood as politically disinterested, socially unattached individuals, who in their subjective intentions pursue knowledge for its own sake. Weber's ideal type thus provides the action framework for a sociology of knowledge that has been used as a direct counterclaim to Marxist theories of ideology. The author challenges this position, arguing that Weber's sociology of religion embraces important elements of a Marxist theory of ideology and thus presents an ambivalent concept of the intellectual that points toward a historicist sociology of knowledge.     

Women's entrepreneurship,neoliberalism and economic justice in the postfeminist era: A discourse analysis of policy change in Sweden

Since the early 1990s, there has been investment in women's entrepreneurship policy (WEP) in Sweden, which continued until 2015. During the same period, Sweden assumed neoliberal policies that profoundly changed the position of women within the world of work and business. The goals for WEP changed as a result, from entrepreneurship as a way to create a more equal society, to the goal of unleashing women's entrepreneurial potential so they can contribute to economic growth. To better understand this shift we approach WEP as a neoliberal governmentality which offers women ‘entrepreneurial’ or ‘postfeminist’ subject positions. The analysis is inspired by political theorist Nancy Fraser who theorized the change as the displacement of socioeconomic redistribution in favour of cultural recognition, or identity politics. We use Fraser's concepts in a discourse analysis of Swedish WEP over two decades, identifying two distinct discourses and three discursive displacements. Whilst WEP initially gave precedence to a radical feminist discourse that called for women's collective action, this was replaced by a postfeminist neoliberal discourse that encouraged individual women to assume an entrepreneurial persona, start their own business, compete in the marketplace and contribute to economic growth. The result was the continued subordination of women business owners, but it also obscured or rendered structural problems/solutions, and collective feminist action, irrelevant.     

The neoliberal mom: how a discursive coalition shapes low-income mothers’ labor market participation

Research has elucidated the conflict low-income mothers face when trying to comply with the imperatives of the neoliberalism and mothering discourses. Feminist scholars have argued that low-income mothers’ alternative conceptions of morality and behavior constitute an act of resistance to inferiorizing definitions embedded in these discourses. Drawing on this literature, I offer a new conceptualization of the seemingly contradictory discourses. Based on interviews with 48 low-income Israeli mothers, I suggest that the neoliberal ideology is not limited to the neoliberal discourse, which primarily measures the individual's commitment to the labor market, but rather has diffused into the mothering discourse, which sets the standards for good mothering. This diffusion constructs a discursive coalition of ‘neoliberal moms’, wherein the current hegemonic notion of good mothering and the neoliberal call for personal responsibility intersect and shape mothers’ perceptions and decision-making processes. Moreover, the neoliberal mom constructs an alternative morality: moral motherhood. Accordingly, the moral component of good mothering means taking personal responsibility to act in ways that promote one's children's future inclusion. I argue that the discursive coalition framework helps us to better understand mothers’ labor force entries and exits, and how these constitute a way of negotiating paths to social inclusion.     

Refashioning a Passionate Manager: Gender at Work

Despite what has been historically recognized as the masculinity of the credentials required for successful business life, contemporary managers now face new challenges. They are required to be caring and relationship‐oriented. The traditional masculine/feminine hierarchy of logic/emotion is being reshaped by the imperative to be ‘passionate’ in the workplace. This article argues that a new gendered truth plays an important part in the ‘regime of truth’ (Foucault, 1980, p. 131) that shapes current organizational life. This truth, championed by feminists to distinguish women's contribution to social life, forms part of our understanding of what it means to be a successful manager. To achieve success in the current environment managers must be, not just rational, but passionate about their work. The article provides readings of a range of texts to establish the centrality of gender and its relationship to contemporary postmodern discourses about change and difference in management practice. The article articulates both some of the new freedoms and constraints for managers. It also elaborates some of the mechanisms whereby this gendered truth reconfirms the traditional masculine/feminine hierarchy.

相似文献   

Becoming/Being a Cosmetic Surgery Patient: Semantic Instability and the Intersubjective Self

Against approaches that center the subject—the cosmetic surgery patient—as the primary site of inquiry regarding the “truth” of cosmetic surgery, I argue that we must rethink the positioning of the subject in considering cosmetic surgery's meanings. Here I offer a brief discussion of various feminist theories of the cosmetic surgery patient, as well as an account of my own experience of cosmetic surgery, to explore how the cosmetic surgery patient is semantically unstable, named and identified through a variety of discourses and social relations. This semantic instability suggests a need to examine the ongoing processes by which cosmetic surgery comes to have meaning and by which the subjectivity of the cosmetic surgery patient is produced.     

An analysis of internationalisation and intercultural outlook in Swedish teacher education

Foucault's discourse concept provides an instrument for the critical examination of internationalisation and, respectively, inter‐cultural education in Swedish teacher education. Three different discourses concerning internationalisation are treated in the article: solidarity with developing countries, immigrant knowledge, and integration within the EU. Attention is focused on the analysis of intercultural teaching upon those visions that governed implementation of the concept in teacher education, and on reality as it appears in evaluations of teacher education. The question is whether a dilemma exists for teacher education in realising the goals of intercultural education, or whether these goals merely act as teacher education's false banners? The article concludes with perspectives on the future of the development from immigrant knowledge to intercultural learning.     

“Tractorettes” or Partners? Farmers' Views on Women in Kansas Farming Households

In the United States, for various reasons, fewer farm families rely solely on their farming operations for their livelihoods. As the structure of agriculture changes and farm families adjust their livelihood strategies, do the discourses around gender relations in households also change? This article analyzes the portrayal of women's roles in farming households by drawing on interviews with Kansas field crop farmers, primarily regarding their land‐use decisions, but also inquiring about their farms and communities. The article addresses the following question: How do farmers' discourses compare to Brandth's (2002a) categorizations of three dominant discourses in the literature on gender in European family farming—the discourse of the family farm, the discourse of masculinization, and the discourse of detraditionalization and diversity? While Brandth finds the discourse of the family farm prevalent in the literature, overall, the discourse apparent from 30 farmer interviews is more characteristic of detraditionalization and diversity. Although men are primarily the principal operators in farming, overall, women were not portrayed simply as helpers. Rather, their roles are depicted as diverse and important to farm operations.