Gender mainstreaming and evaluation in the EU: comparative perspectives from feminist institutionalism

This article presents a focused comparative analysis of the institutionalization of two governance practices in the European Commission that levy distinct challenges to the gender status quo: gender mainstreaming (which overtly challenges gender bias) and evaluation (which does not have explicit feminist aspirations). With reference to five dimensions, we identify evaluation as relatively strongly institutionalized, and gender mainstreaming as relatively weakly institutionalized. We draw on the explanatory power of feminist institutionalism to unpack these findings, arguing that a feminist institutional perspective can shed light on this variation, as it provides greater insight into the formal and informal institutions that constrain, enable and shape the implementation of evaluation and gender mainstreaming. We assert that the notion of path dependency, the logic of appropriateness, and the concept of layering serve as useful tools to understand the gendered nature of the European Commission. This research provides insights into the institutional factors that impact the implementation of gender equality strategies (such as gender mainstreaming). In turn, this contributes to the development of more effective strategies to promote institutional change toward greater equality.     

Zine infrastructures as forms of organizing within feminist social movements

This paper explores how feminist social movements are organized and re-generated across and through different media, both online and offline, using the example of zines. We critically examine the emergence and growth of an intersectional feminist zine community through a 6-year in-depth qualitative netnographic and ethnographic study. Theoretically, we build on work concerning feminist digital information and archival infrastructures, bringing it together with work on feminist digital activism. We make three key contributions: first to theorize zines and their communities as infrastructures, which cut across the social, digital, and material. Second in understanding the political potential of engagements in zine infrastructures in which the individual and collective are entangled, and third in revealing how the current generation of young feminists move across and work at the interfaces of formats to benefit from their synergistic, but also their agonistic, relations to form new affective solidarities.     

Mental Health Practitioners’ Experiences During the Shared Trauma of the Forced Relocation from Gush Katif

The study examined the experiences of 48 Israeli mental health practitioners who helped the residents of Gush Katif during the forced relocation. The practitioners spent between 1 week and a year-and-a-half assisting these residents. Shortly after the relocation, they participated in one of four debriefing groups, which aimed to process and summarize their work. Phenomenological analysis revealed three main themes: (1) Who are our clients: the government or the residents? (2) Blurring boundaries between professional and personal self; and (3) Returning home. The study highlighted the challenges associated with intervening in shared trauma, especially in realities of political conflict.     

To Revise or Not to Revise?

This personal analysis of the revision process of the ICIDH is set in the context of the international disability movement. With analogies to feminism, it shows how the medicalisation of disability is itself disablism and, while recognising many flaws in the revised version, encourages the disability movement to use the new version to its own advantage.     

Warrior Heroes and Little Green Men: Soldiers,Military Training,and the Construction of Rural Masculinities*

Abstract In this paper I examine military masculinities as a form of rural masculinity. I argue that one model of military masculinity, the warrior hero, acts as a dominant military construction of masculinity. I examine how the countryside as a location, and rurality as a social construction, impinge upon the construction of the ideal type of the warrior hero. The paper draws on recruitment literature, Ministry of Defence publicity materials, popular accounts of soldiering, and Army videos to trace out the practices and representations that construct the dominant discourse of the warrior hero. The paper is grounded conceptually in theories of gender identity and rurality as social constructions. I conclude by questioning the political consequences, both for rural life and for the armed forces, of this hegemonic model of masculinity.     

Structured Home Study Evaluations: Perceived Benefits of SAFE Versus Conventional Home Studies

Structured decision-making methods are gaining ascendance in child welfare services, in which professionals combine standardized methods of data collection and analysis with clinical judgments. This study measures professionals’ perception of a new approach to home study assessments, the Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE). Findings indicate that workers favor the use of SAFE overall. Less experienced workers are especially positive about SAFE, while more experienced workers and supervisors tend to be less positive. State-by-state differences also emerged. Open-ended responses offer areas for clarification, training, and potential improvement.