Management in/as Comic Relief: Queer Theory and Gender Performativity in The Office

Our discussion here focuses on gender performativity — the evocation of gender through stylized modes of interaction and the recitation of particular cultural norms — in the BBC comedy series The Office. We suggest that The Office can be read as a cultural text that brings sedimented ways of thinking about and enacting gender into relief, a technique that effectively ‘queers’ management and organization as gendered phenomena. In doing so, we argue that not only does The Office parody the ways in which management is configured according to the terms of what Judith Butler has described as the ‘heterosexual matrix’, but that it also represents a parodic critique of the gendered ways in which this configuration is enacted in everyday organizational encounters. We also suggest that, in addition to its capacity to be read as a parody of gender performativity, The Office reflects queer theory's concern, particularly as the latter has been articulated in Butler's writing, to reveal something of the pathos inherent in the desire for recognition that underpins the hegemonic performance of gender. In this respect, our reading of The Office emphasizes that, as a popular cultural text, it throws into (comic) relief the extent to which the desire for recognition underpins the organizational performance and management of gender in accordance with the terms of the heterosexual matrix.     

Validating difference and counting the cost of exclusion in the lives of people who identify as on the autistic spectrum

This current issues piece will explore how autobiographies written by people with autism can help identify sensory processing differences that might be viewed as possible attributes in an enabling society, but for which ableist perceptions are often negative. In concrete terms, these constructions may be preventing people from entering employment and making an economic contribution. The first autobiography written by someone who identified as being on the autism spectrum was by David Eastham in 1985. Since then, over 50 such books have been published. The emergence of such autobiographies challenges assumptions about what it is to be on the autism spectrum. It was often assumed people with autism were incapable of such social communication, as autobiographies assume abilities such as self-awareness, imagination and the ability and desire to communicate. These were all traits that were thought to be absent in someone diagnosed with autism. Consequently, the presence of these autobiographies destabilises and questions the dichotomy that was set up between what constitutes ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ behaviour.     

The media and urban contention in China: a co-empowerment model

Since the 1990s, China has witnessed a rapid rise in urban contention, which has become increasingly apparent. This study proposes a co-empowerment model regarding the relationship between the Chinese media and contentious politics. It compares two recent cases of urban contention. On the one hand, protestors leverage media exposure to arouse public attention, organize action, and adjust their actions according to the information revealed by the media; on the other hand, the media are empowered to exploit the limited space in news coverage, protect their professional integrity, enhance their credibility, and develop close ties with the civil society. This mutually strengthening process is the most important feature of the co-empowerment model. The co-empowerment model influences the trajectories of contention and facilitates greater media autonomy in an authoritarian regime. This study's contribution is a thematic analysis of the co-empowering relationship between media and urban contention in illiberal states.     

The discursive construction of dyslexia by students in higher education as a moral and intellectual good

Interest in dyslexia as a topic of discussion in education, and in the media, runs through peaks and troughs. Dyslexic students in higher education must navigate their way through the possible meanings attached to the label, appropriating some and rejecting others, yet needing the label as a means to access support. The aim of this article is to explore the ways in which dyslexic university students constructed dyslexia and being dyslexic as moral issues during two focus group conversations. These conversations were discursively analysed with reference to Gee and Willig. Three key themes emerged following analysis: the interaction between the power of the grade as a marker of worth and the status of the dyslexia label; the tensions between acknowledging difficulties with writing and the construction of high literacy as morally aspirational; and the uncertain, yet persistent, construction of dyslexia as a valuable label and a moral good.     

Learning as othering: narratives of learning,construction of difference and the discourse of immersion in study abroad

This article shows ethnographically the process of learning as othering in study abroad: acknowledgement of ‘learning’ through immersion – without clear structure or markers of learning – constructs cultural difference of the host society. It is because acknowledgement of learning something is necessarily the acknowledgement of the prior ignorance about it due to difference. Study abroad thus privileges particular types of difference in the name of learning them, under-appreciating domestic minorities’ cultural differences.     

The future of the family as envisioned by young adults in Ireland

This article reports on young university students’ visions of the future of the family in Ireland, a country that has experienced dramatic economic fluctuations and extensive social change over recent decades. Using a text-based role-play method, we obtained 34 students’ written responses to two different scenarios pertaining to the family. Analysis of these texts indicates a strong orientation to a future where religion plays little or no role, and tolerance and freedom to choose govern family formation. The fear is expressed that some groups may be deprived of the freedom to marry and have children on grounds of economic inequality. Together, these two visions create a dialectic between more freedom (in choosing values/partners/whether to have children) and less freedom (due to inability to afford the ‘luxury’ of family life), reflective of the post-Catholic, economically exposed context. We show that young agents draw on social debates, traditions, their experiences and social positions in imagining futures of the family, illustrating interplay between structure and agency. It is interesting and significant that some social forces are seen as catalysts of both ‘stronger’ and ‘weaker’ families, in particular religion/the Church is used to explain both decline and flourishing of the family in the future.     

中国传统文化元素在上海世博会中的运用及对文化创意产业的启示

2010上海世博会以其独特的理念、新颖的形式成为全世界的视觉盛宴,其中各国传统文化艺术元素的合理运用成为主要特点。本文针对上海世博会展馆对中国文化艺术元素的运用进行梳理,并寻找出规律,进而对其传播效果进行分析,以期对上海城市文化研究、上海国际文化大都市建设,以及中国文化创意产业的发展提供借鉴,并对弘扬世博精神、传播城市文化、发展先进理念起到积极的作用。     

The ableism elephant in the academy: a study examining academia as informed by Australian scholars with lived experience

Abstract

The academy should be a welcoming environment for people with disability. Across Australia, however, there is a current shortage of programmes supporting people with disability to develop their careers as researchers. This article critically investigates current practice and experiences concerning universities and the employment and career development of people with disability as advised by the literature, and how this practice aligns with the lived experiences of several of our authors. Our review of the literature utilising Scopus, PsycINFO and ProQuest databases found a deficiency of research attention on this topic, with only 16 relevant articles identified. This paucity of literary evidence has been augmented in the article by personal stories shared by four of its authors. By focusing on evidence-based measures with potential to support disability employment and career pathways throughout universities in Australia and elsewhere, this article challenges leaders to address ableism and to advance a more inclusive academy.     

The Use of Tobacco as Gambling Currency by Federal Offenders in Canada Before and After a Tobacco Ban

In 2008 tobacco was banned in federal correctional institutions in Canada. In this paper we compare the use of tobacco as currency for gambling in two studies that we conducted, one before and one after the tobacco ban. The data from two studies were compared. The questionnaires were administered to offenders in federal and provincial institutions in Ontario. Study 1 included 254 male offenders and study 2 included 395 male offenders. The focus in this paper is on one questionnaire about the type of wager made while incarcerated. It was found that the use of tobacco as a currency in gambling went from 28.6% of those offenders who gamble to 2.3% of those offenders who gamble. In addition, there was an overall decrease in the number of federal offenders who reported gambling while incarcerated. However, information gained from the questionnaire and from interviews with incarcerated offenders suggests that there has been a shift to money wagers and that gambling inside has become more serious since the tobacco ban. The results suggest that the ban on smoking has resulted in a change in the type of currency used for gambling inside correctional institutions in Ontario Canada.     

Visibility as Resistance by Muslim Americans in a Surveillance and Security Atmosphere

Based on ethnographic data on South Asian Muslims in Los Angeles and analysis of publications of the largest Muslim organization in North America, this article shows how Muslim Americans manage their hypervisibility in the post‐9/11 security atmosphere, which has intensified after ISIS terrorist attacks at home and abroad. At the individual level, Muslim Americans try to distance themselves from the “Muslim” label, which associates them with “terrorists.” Instead, many self‐categorize into the seemingly more favorable “moderate” identity, which could sometimes render Muslims politically passive. Contrastingly, Muslim organizations strive to construct a “Muslim American” identity that can allow Muslims to engage in mainstream politics by reframing Islam as compatible with American values. Theoretically, this article engages with the scholarship on security, surveillance, and visibility to show how the observed's visibility is not always only repressive but can also be used to resist imposed categories. However, findings reflect how the racialization of Muslims and the security regime give these strategies a double edge—while providing some advantages, these do little to dismantle Muslims’ hypervisibility and the security atmosphere. Overall, findings shed light on the contemporary issue of Muslim identification—not just in terms of how others see Muslims but also how Muslims see themselves.     

‘The Rotten Banana’ fires back: The story of a Danish discourse of inclusive rurality in the making

The popularity of a particular term – the Rotten Banana – has paralleled the one-sided centralisation of public services since the Danish Municipal Reform of 2007. The Rotten Banana denotes peripheral Denmark, which takes a geographically curved form that resembles a banana, and it symbolises the belief that rural areas are backward and (too) costly. This article shows how the negative connotations of rural areas have come to outweigh the positive ones and to legitimise liberal visions of the ‘sustainable’ welfare state. Whereas previous studies on the perceptions of rural dwellers have focused on the discourses of rurality that produce rural outsiders, this article builds on the work of de Certeau and of Laclau and Mouffe. Based on both quantitative and qualitative data, the study shows how, in Denmark, negative connotations and centralisation have together spurred a new and political mobilisation in many parts of the ‘banana’. Through skilful ‘consumption’, rural dwellers have adapted the alienating liberalist ‘logic of equivalence’ to their own use and produced a ‘logic of difference’, thus challenging the predominant political discourse of rurality. As a result, the Danish Liberal government was forced to introduce a new and more inclusive rural policy in September of 2010 and grant rural dwellers a political voice in parliament.     

Death,Modernity and Monuments: The Realities Expressed in the Monuments of the Hanshin–Awaji Earthquake*

Many monuments have been constructed to commemorate the Hanshin–Awaji earthquake. If a memorial represents the need to reaffirm one's ties to “a world,” each monument is supposed to provide an image of that “world.” An analysis of the monuments shows that they are greatly influenced by the character of the various organizations and groups that constructed them. Therefore, the monuments almost appear to be linked to the duties or functions of these groups. However, two realities appeared across these organizations. At first, there is a pattern in the monuments to mourn the death of those with whom one in familiar. It expresses a spiritual feeling about death. Second, we often find the word “we” in the monuments. The word “we” expresses reality in a homogeneous space. Although each reality does not correspond to a particular type of group or organization, they cannot be expressed simultaneously in the one monument. The result of the research shows that the two realities are constituted through different means.     

From Liberal Pluralism to Critical Multiculturalism: The Need for a Paradigm Shift in Multicultural Education for Social Work Practice in the United States

The mandate to educate students to work toward ending oppression and other forms of injustice is clear, but there has been little discussion in the multicultural literature about the kinds of knowledge that are needed to prepare students for such work. This article discusses the need for a paradigm shift from liberal pluralism to a critical approach to social work education and practice. It also outlines a set of core themes to guide multicultural curriculum development. These include (a) culture, (b) race and racism, (c) oppression, (d) multiple identities, (e) power, (f) whiteness and privilege, (g) historical context, and (h) social change. Obstacles to incorporating these ideas into the curriculum and recommendations for overcoming such obstacles are also discussed.     

The Production of Difference and Maintenance of Inequality: The Place of Young Goan Men in a Post‐Crisis UK Labour Market

This article examines the ways in which young migrant men are constructed as potential employees in a British town where service sector employment, often on a casual or precarious basis, dominates the bottom end of the labour market. Low‐wage jobs in many British towns are now constructed as feminized, low waged and demanding personal skills of empathy and servility. In this context, young men, and especially young men of colour, including recent in‐migrants, are at a disadvantage, constructed by employers, agencies, co‐workers and customers as less eligible workers than ‘locals’. We use the experiences of young men from Goa as a lens though which to trace the ways in which expectations and experiences when looking for employment produce a hierarchical division of labour in precarious jobs at the bottom end of the service sector.     

The evaluation of workers by customers as a method of control and monitoring in firms: Digital reputation and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation

As a method of surveillance and monitoring, the evaluation of workers by customers and employers and the disclosure of the results pose a series of challenges for the current legal framework of the European Union (EU). Employees subject to such evaluations are exposed to a far more intense and wider degree of monitoring of their work than traditional workers. The phenomenon arises from the adoption of a customer perspective, seeking to make work observable at all times, without any cost to firms. In this light, the author analyses the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which establishes very specific restrictions when requesting and disclosing information about workers.     

The Composite Biography as a Methodological Tool for the Study of Childhood in History

This article presents a composite biography of an orphaned girl and her mother in Medieval London. Though the mother was sound in mind and body, she had no control over her daughters inheritance and place of residence. In addition, her underage daughter was married without her consent. The composite biography can bring to life the otherwise dry renditions of families experiences that are present in court records and other historical documents.     

The architectural form and landscape as a harmonic entity in the vernacular settlements of Southwestern Saudi Arabia

The paper aims to describe the architectural form and landscape as a harmonic entity in vernacular settlements of southwestern Saudi Arabia. The qualities of vernacular settlements and their integration and responsiveness to the physical, social, economic and cultural environment are demonstrated in this study. The socio-economic activities and customs in southwestern Saudi Arabia are presented as part of the historical process. The paper looks at the major elements of the vernacular villages and landscape as cultural-specific images. While appreciating this, the author laments the way this harmony has been disrupted not least aesthetically as a consequence of modernism which had an impetus on changing life style and social expectation. The cultural-specific images involve direct relationships between the architectural and urban forms as systems and events that are taking place in or around that form. One thesis is that each element of the vernacular village and landscape is linked to an image that shapes and influences human behavior and appreciation, thereby helping to shape larger environmental patterns. Beyond the meaning that specific elements inherit, they have functional and economic values. As a result, their visual qualities are believed to be effective in enhancing behavior through their visual attributes. One of the most important conclusions is that, there are many features of modern village extensions and landscape elements that enhance the interaction with the physical environment that ordinary citizens value, and there are elements of the vernacular villages and landscape that people regret to lose, such as ‘qasabahs', weekly markets, cultivation of terraces, etc. This is inspite of today's, modern planning and design techniques that are being sought to produce new architectural forms and landscape elements. Any attempt to substitute vernacular forms without taking into account the values that the older forms held is considered a failure of adopted modernist attitudes.     

The Conjoint Session as a Tool for the Resolution of Separation-Individuation in the Adult Mother-Daughter Relationship

In the present article, two case reports are used to examine the adult mother-daughter relationship from the point of view of the mother. The two mothers, in midlife, looked to their adult daughters to perform selfobject functions. The daughters of these patients felt threatened by their mother's desire for emotional dependence and had emotionally distanced themselves from their mothers. Emotional estrangement from their daughters had caused these patients to experience feelings of depression severe enough to seek treatment. The article describes the use of a conjoint mother-daughter session within the context of the mother's individual treatment to help these mothers to recognize the unresolved separation-individuation in their relationships with their daughters and to promote a healthier connection in the mother-daughter relationship.     

The methodological involvement of the emotional design and cognitive ergonomics as a tool in the development of children products

To demonstrate the relationship between design and emotional development for kids, this article offers an initial approach about the definition and historical aspects of emotion in product development, citing the main authors of this issue. Based the field research conducted with children from 2 to 6 years of age, was also describes the basic ideas of Piaget in the child psychology and pre-operational stage (age group studied) and the significance of children's toys from the perspective of Vigostsky. Using this theoretical framework and results of field research, we can infer some emotional design as advocated by the producers of positive affect on humans and its relationship with the child's development and choices of their toys.