Photographic portraits of migrants in South Africa: framed between identity photographs and (self-)presentation

This essay explores how migration within the African continent is framed visually by passport photos as well as artistic documentary projects based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It offers examples of what type of photographic (self-)portraits are constructed, which photographs circulate and how African migrants’ self-images as well as South African society’s perception of them are affected by certain photographic images. The method employed is a close reading of some paradigmatic photographs. In addition, I will discuss different – and often gendered – ways in which African migrant subjects may become visible. In short, this essay asks, what photographic portraits construct the hegemonic view of the African migrant subject in the public sphere? Accordingly, the tension between visibility and invisibility of African migrants’ lives emerges in the interstices of the inquiry. The paper first looks at the taking of identity photographs, since the passport photo exemplifies how the individual is made visible by the nation state. It can simultaneously serve as a poignant reminder of the ambivalent qualities of photography: on the one hand, documenting and codifying, and on the other hand, creatively representing. In this context, the essay explores the possibility of remaining invisible or “opaque,” but also the conceivably more empowering representational aspect of photography such as we see in participatory (art) projects, which may be connected to the visual politics of self-expression and reflection.     

A Chinese beauty story: how college women in China negotiate beauty,body image,and mass media

This study examines how young Chinese women negotiate beauty and body image in context with mass media, paying particular attention to the relationship between ongoing sociocultural change in contemporary Chinese society and the attitudes and behaviors among young women towards beauty. Qualitative in nature, this study explores the “beauty stories” of 13 college women in mainland China through in-depth interviews. Several distinctive themes were found: (1) These women believed the ideal beautiful Chinese woman should have a tall and thin body, big eyes, a watermelon seed-shaped face, fair skin, and qi zhi (inner beauty); (2) Body image issues were centralized in these women's everyday experiences, and they were under significant cultural, societal, familial, and peer pressure to pursue physical beauty; (3) Cultural and media influences on their perceptions of beauty were complex and multi-layered; and (4) The women were hopeful of both potential positive social change and the liberation of Chinese women, and they were concerned about the superficiality and extreme beauty standards advocated in the media. The findings suggest that the contemporary Chinese beauty story is essentially different from the Western one, extending the existing literature on beauty and body image to include an Eastern and Chinese perspective.     

Seeing (in)security,gender and silencing: posters in and about the British women’s suffrage movement

Feminist Security Studies focuses on expanding the referent object to individuals and non-state collectives, looking beyond the military sector to include questions of identity, and uncovering (in)security in unexpected places. An important part of this debate concerns silence, particularly how certain individuals are silenced and how this might be challenged through images. This article looks at the ways images can be used to make gender-specific security problems visible. It holds that text, images and practices interact to construct (in)security and outlines a tripartite text-image-practice model for analyzing these interactions. Through a case study of the British women’s suffrage movement it illustrates the potential of the text-image-practice model. The suffrage movement leveraged visuals, militancy and practices like hunger-striking to resist attempted silencing by the government across textual, verbal and visual planes. Using this case, it shows how posters were used to try to silence Suffragettes and how Suffragettes resisted silencing. Thus, it demonstrates that images are important sites of feminist resistance and security politics that can communicate a politics of the body. The article also offers an illustration of how historical cases of gender insecurity and resistance as well as their visualization can be brought into Feminist Security Studies.     

The (postcolonial) return of grand theory in American sociology: Julian Go on postcolonial thought and social theory

Julian Go's BJS annual lecture is discussed in reference to his landmark OUP text Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory (2016). Go is one of the most prominent names in a "third wave" of post-colonial thought, now spearheading a post- (or de-) colonial turn in sociological theory, something that has professionally revived the sub-field of "grand" social theory in mainstream US sociology. While endorsing the aims and substantive themes of this turn, the review raises questions about the delayed timing of this post-colonial wave in the discipline, both relative to the humanities more generally, and to the impact of post-colonialism in other national contexts. Go's challenge is, in effect, something quite particular to teaching social theory in the US sociology context. The review goes on to question how effectively the critique speaks to mainstream empirical practitioners, given its lack of focus on transforming technical methods. It concludes by raising concerns about the relationship of Go and other "third wave" decolonial theorists to Marxism and Marxist politics.     

Women leaders,self‐body‐care and corporate moderate feminism: An (im)perfect place for feminism

This article offers self‐body‐care as an aspect of corporate moderate feminism and a manifestation of postfeminism for women leaders. It explains how postfeminism as a bodily practice surfaces through women leaders' body work and how women ‘top' leaders strategize to stabilize their credibility by identifying their own and other women' body work needs and the steps they take to meet these. Self‐body‐care extends understandings of body work as part of postfeminist governmentality and contributes to understandings of moderate feminism as that which deflects and reflects feminism and constrains and empowers subjects. As such self‐body‐care offers an (im)perfect space for disruption and for Gender and Organization Studies (GOS) scholars to pursue the implications and potential of postfeminism. We call for women elite leaders to be part of feminist futures and illustrate self‐body‐care as an aspect of corporate moderate feminism by highlighting complexity in the postfeminist thesis and reflexively re‐examining two of our previous published empirical studies of women ‘top' leaders.     

Polarization and progress in the black community: Earnings and status gains for young black males in the era of affirmative action

We examined the occupational mobility and earnings attainment of young black and white male workers in the period 1974–1981 for evidence of class polarization among blacks in the era following the 1960s' antidiscrimination legislation. Our model links occupational status and earnings to the social resources of education and father's socioeconomic status, using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1968–1981. The results suggest that such resources operated more strongly for advantaged blacks than for whites. But for less advantaged blacks, race remained a significant barrier. As predicted by the polarization hypothesis, enforcement of affirmative action guidelines was beneficial, but only to more qualified blacks.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, August 1987.     

(Un)Making home at the borderlands of the rural and the urban: Chinese migrant women’s narratives

This study examines the discourses collected in interviews with second-generation Chinese rural migrant women in Chongqing to unpack how they make sense of home. Guided by Blunt and Dowling’s (2006 Blunt, A., & Dowling, R. (2006). Home. New York, NY: Routledge.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) critical geography of home and Anzaldúa’s concept of borderlands, we interpret three overlapping themes: (a) constantly (re)making “home” that is neither here nor there; (b) bordering in-between aging parents and young child(ren); (c) social and political changes (un)making home in migration. Our findings endorse approaching “home” as a verb to better capture complex experiences with homing at borderlands.     

‘That black boy’s different class!’: a historical sociology of the black middle-classes,boundary-work and local football in the British East-Midlands c.1970−2010

ABSTRACT

Seldom has leisure as a cultural activity been used to examine the boundary-work and lived realities of black middle-class men in the UK. Drawing on ethnographic data taken from a three-year study of one East-Midlands based African-Caribbean founded football club c.1970-2010, the article addresses these points. It widens existing knowledge on the British black middle-classes in three ways. (1) It indicates that the emergence of the black middle-classes in Leicester is discontinuous, and connected to wider social policies designed to improve the effectiveness of front-line services and pacify urban black youth in the 1980s. (2) Using Lacy’s black Lower and Upper middle-class (BLMC and BUMC) schemata, the paper sketches-out the boundary-work which exist between the club’s black working-class and BLMC and BUMC members, and between the BLMC and BUMC men within the club. (3) That sport possesses its own class-dimensions which further divided black men in Leicester during this period.     

Changes in the Political Iconography of East Central European Capitals after 1989 (Berlin,Warsaw, Prague,Bratislava)

The fall of communism in 1989/1990 has led not only to the establishment of new political systems and ideologies, but also to significant modifications in the visual self-representation of the respective states in Eastern and East Central Europe. Statues of communist heroes were abolished and replaced by monuments and memorials reflecting the new political situation. New state buildings were erected, and the old ones remodelled and adapted to the representational needs of the new authorities. In some cases, the political changes even have had a strong impact on principles of city planning, effecting urban structures of symbolic value.

The focal points of these developments are the capital cities, being principal places of the execution of state power as well as of its self-representation. However, the conditions for the staging of the state in the capital are in each case different. They depend on one hand on the architectural shape and historic role of the city, and on the political situation and self-image of the state on the other.

The article provides a comparative analysis of the changes in the political iconography of four East Central European capitals—Berlin, Warsaw, Prague and Bratislava—since 1989, focusing on selected monuments, architectural projects for state institutions and concepts of town planning.     

Resisting sexism and speciesism in the social sciences: Using feminist,species‐inclusive,visual methods to value the work of women and (other) animals

Visual methods offer social scientists some promising possibilities for valuing the work of women and animals in domestic homes and formal organizations, such as schools, hospitals, residential care facilities and other workplaces. In this article, we consider how visual methods might be used to ‘put women and animals in the frame’. We draw data and inspiration from our What is it About Animals study [2015–2016], which involved an online call for people over 16 years of age, to post pictures, poems, stories and videos depicting what animals mean to them. We pay attention to attempts to resist sexism and speciesism in the valuing of work, including emotional labour. We consider the possibility of post‐humanist methods for animal subject‐hood, and a sociology of animals, emotions and work. We end with a discussion of possible future visual methods projects to value the work of women and (other) animals.     

Marriage matters for Black middle-class women: A review of Black American marriages,work, and family life

It is well documented that Black women tend to experience lower marriage participation than non-Black women because of the marriage squeeze, including an unequal sex-ratio within age cohorts, and the increase in economic precarity among Black men. The experience of the marriage squeeze impacts poor, and college educated Black women, but this is only one viewpoint. Drawing on work and family research at the intersection of racial identity, gender, and class, I argue that marriage provides Black middle-class women access to privileges and resources like safety and kin networks within a U.S. nation-state constrained by racism and sexism. By relying on marriage, Black middle-class women can realize personal and familial desires, as well as encounter patriarchal oppression. I end this review with a discussion on future directions for research in this area, and a discussion on imagined futures for Black women that incorporates self-love and self-actualization.     

Intersectional Identities: Influences of Religion,Race, and Gender on the Intimate Relationships of Single Singaporean Malay-Muslim Women

Studies on rising singlehood in Asia have largely focused on the economic dimension. This article widens that lens by examining how religious beliefs influence single Singaporean women’s views toward marriage. Applying the intersectional paradigm expands our understanding of how religion maintains or challenges cultural norms as well as gendered and racial meanings. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 27 unmarried Malay-Muslim Singaporean women, it argues that instead of conceptualizing religion as a barrier that hinders the formation of intimate relationships, we can better understand its role in terms of how single Malay-Muslim women appropriate it to negotiate cultural constraints that limit their ability to tie the knot. The research bears important implications on how cultural and religious forces affect marriage patterns in multicultural and multireligious societies.     

Exploring the organization of daily life among women with disabilities in Belo Horizonte,Brazil: perspectives of functionality and temporality

Time is a fundamental instrument of orientation for social life, and it is closely intertwined with both public and private spaces and the resources contained therein. The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the organization of daily life among women with disabilities in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, from the perspective of temporality. Results were obtained by a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, using a sample of 50 women with physical/motor disabilities. They self-reported difficulties when walking and/or climbing stairs. The analysis of time use by individuals with disabilities revealed six main types of activities associated with daily life: personal care, paid work, studying, housework, free time, and travelling from one place to another. The results reveal that although the daily lives of these women are hampered by their functional limitations, their lives are also directly influenced by their physical and social contexts and their attitudes.     

Not yet the postcolonial era: The (super) nation-state and transnationalism of cultural studies: Response to Ang and Stratton

Abstract

What is the epistemological and political status of the nation-state in the current practices of Cultural Studies? What is the relationship between the transnationalization of capital/super-states and the transnational turn of Cultural Studies? Through analyzing discursive sites of ‘regionalization’, ‘the Postcolonial’, ‘globalization’, this essay attempts to pinpoint unquestioned assumptions in the critical phase of ‘internationalizing’ Cultural Studies. Unless counter-hegemony positions and strategies can be collectively discussed, argued over and formulated, Cultural Studies as an internationalist project will run the risk of losing its critical edges and even reproducing the existing power structure of the nation-states and global capital. An openended geo-colonial historical materialism is proposed to revitalize Cultural Studies as part of a global decolonization movement.     

She persisted: the pursuit,persistence, & power of African American women in social work graduate programs at Historically Black Institutions (HBI)

Social work graduate programs have long grappled with ways to attract and retain students at the intersection of race and gender. The central structure of this analysis is a hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study on the pursuit and persistence of African-American women in graduate Social Work programs at a Historically Black Institution (HBI). The data in this article were derived from the responses of 13 participants written in their own words. The themes that emerged around the pursuit of a social work degree were (a) service to Black communities, (b) resistance to misrecognition, and (c) a seat at the table. After sharing the salient characteristics of the findings, the article opens a discussion around the significance of HBIs in educating social workers to work in urban communities and the implications for policy and practice.     

(Dis)Abled bodies,gender, and citizenship in the Swedish sports movement

The aim of this article is to examine how the Swedish Sports Organization for the Disabled (SHIF) portrays disabled people. A text analysis of two policy documents, ‘Disability Sports Policy Programme’ and ‘Sports Objectives – A Summary of Aims and Guidelines for the Sports Movement’, examines ways in which sports are supposed to affect people’s bodies and contribute to society. Counter to its own aim to integrate disabled people, SHIF constructs such people as different and subordinated to able-bodied people, setting up an insurmountable boundary between the two groups.     

The sound of liminality: MHD's afro trap,affective listening,and the (re)invention of Afropean identities in France

This article is an exploration of the world making capacities of afro trap. Through an extended case study of MHD's discography, I ask what can be learnt about the liminal experiences of postcolonial black citizens, or Afropean citizens, in France, by listening to popular music. I argue that through embracing, reinventing, and (re)producing familiar Afropean soundscapes, MHD claims and creates from his liminal subject position. Going against the assumption that Frenchness and blackness are always mutually exclusive and in tension, this music sonically proposes a way of being otherwise in France, stemming from this liminality. I see in what I call ‘the sound of liminality’ an instance of ‘queering ethnicity,’ one which channels the affective capacities of sound. I propose affective listening as a method that, incorporating autoethnography to consider critical listening positionality, facilitates a renewed attention to sound as an object of sociological inquiry.     

Policy advocacy and leadership training for formerly incarcerated women: An empowerment evaluation of ReConnect,a program of the Women in Prison Project,Correctional Association of New York

There is limited knowledge on re-entry initiatives for formerly incarcerated women specifically on building women's advocacy and leadership skills. Our research highlights an empowerment evaluation on ReConnect, a 12-session; innovative advocacy and leadership development program rooted in an integrated framework of empowerment, and transformational leadership theories. Using thematic analysis, we coded three focus groups with 24 graduates, for themes that matched our framework's concepts. ReConnect graduates reported being empowered by the information they received on parental rights, housing, and employment. Participants agreed that ReConnect improved their communication skills, preparing them to advocate for themselves and community members.     

Racial penal governance in Australia and moments of appearance: disrupting disappearance and visibilizing women on the inside

ABSTRACT

The paper considers the lives of women that are invisibilized by the racial penal governing mechanisms of the settler state. It demonstrates how a racial penal governance is configured historically by its interlockings with multiple and hierarchical systems of oppression that intervene differently in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and women, convict women, racialized diaspora and marginalized white women. The paper engages with four ‘moments of appearances’ that interrupt and speak back to racial penal governance. Mirzoeff’s The appearance of Black Lives Matter (2017, https://namepublications.org/item/2017/the-appearance-of-black-lives-matter/) theorization of decolonial spaces of appearance is integrated to the analysis of historical and recent moments of appearance visibilized in the testimonials of Thomas Brune, the Aboriginal youth Co-editor of the Flinders Island Chronicle in 1837 in the Wybalenna prison Camp and of Zoe, Alison and Pamela who have lived experience of prisons. These are embodied moments that make lives in prisons appear and matter.