Globalizing ‘Girl Power’: Corporate Social Responsibility and Transnational Business Initiatives for Gender Equality

The recent emergence of ‘transnational business feminism’ [Roberts, A. (2014). The political economy of ‘transnational business feminism’. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17(2), 209–231] accompanied by numerous ‘transnational business initiatives for the governance of gender’ [Prügl, E., &; True, J. (2014). Equality means business? Governing gender through transnational public–private partnerships. Review of International Political Economy, 21(6), 1137–1169] constitutes a significant area of debate in the feminist political economy literature. In this paper I focus on the confluence of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda with the visibility of gender issues in development and the resultant corporate agenda for the promotion of women and girls’ empowerment. The paper draws on two gender-focused World Bank collaborations with private sector actors: the Global Private Sector Leaders Forum and the Girl Effect campaign. The paper argues that the dominant model of corporate citizenship inscribed within the discourse of transnational business initiatives is framed in terms of capitalizing on the potential power of girls and women, achieving an easy convergence between gender equality and corporate profit. I suggest that the construction of an unproblematic synergy between these goals serves to moralize corporate-led development interventions and therefore does not challenge corporate power in the development process, but instead allows corporations to subscribe to voluntary, non-binding codes and cultivate a socially conscious brand image.     

Dosvox Usability: recommendations for improving interaction of blind people with the web using the system

At present, it is recognized that the Internet plays key role in universalization of opportunities in society in which we live. For people with disabilities, the content must be accessible in all websites, but the assistive technologies used must be adequate to the specific needs of people with disabilities. Dosvox is a free system developed in the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) specially designed for blind people and used by them in the performance of their tasks with the use of computers. Previously, through exploratory research based on the observation of the interaction of blind students with the Web, usability problems were identified in the Dosvox interface and in the Webvox, the Web browser included in the system, and these problems were related to the fact that the interface is designed in accordance with the mental model of these Information Technology professionals. This study consolidate the problems in earlier phases of the research, link the results with usability heuristics of Nielsen and propose several improvements to Dosvox and its development process.     

男男性服务群体的性、性网络、艾滋风险——以东北地区为例

男男性服务者是近些年来地下性产业中的新兴群体,其在性身份认同、服务分层、组织类别等方面呈现出比女性性服务者更为复杂的生存样态。同时,艾滋病在男男性接触群体的迅猛传播,也使男男性服务者成为艾滋病防治工作的重点干预对象。文章采用参与观察、个案深入访谈和专题小组讨论的定性研究方法,对我国东北地区男男性服务网络进行调研和分析,对商业性网络的隐秘特征和运行机制、男男性服务者的多元性存在状态进行文化阐释,并在此基础上分析不同性取向群体、不同场所、不同服务种类的艾滋病风险因素并给予社会科学的干预建议。