Women Who Work: The limits of the neoliberal feminist paradigm

This article examines Ivanka Trump's Women Who Work, arguing that it represents the newest permutation of the neoliberal feminist subject. After providing an overview of the recent emergence of neoliberal feminism, I explain why the book should be considered part of the wider cultural landscape in which this variant of feminism has increasingly become commonsensical. I then turn to demonstrate how Women Who Work construes the ideal female subject not only as generic human capital but also incites her to invest in herself constantly, where activities ranging from professional workshops through hobbies to friendships are understood as practices that appreciate the value of the self. The conversion of women into generic rather than gendered human capital remains, however, incomplete, since the ideal of a happy work–family balance continues to serve as a push back to the wholesale erasure of traditional notions of sexual difference. Finally, I highlight that neoliberal feminism is erasing other long‐standing divisions and political differences. Not only does the private–public divide collapse, but so, too, does the distinction between one's private self and one's public enterprise as the self itself becomes an enterprise. This dual process of collapse and reconfiguration shapes the newest neoliberal feminist subject, the main protagonist of Trump's Women Who Work.     

Knowing cows: Transformative mobilizations of human and non‐human bodies in an emotionography of the slaughterhouse

This ‘emotionography’ of the slaughterhouse elucidates how the identities of both human and non‐human individuals are constructed by line and lairage workers. Hegemonic masculine ideals that underpin slaughterhouse work mean that the emotions of workers as well as the emotional experience of cattle are either denied, diminished or repressed. Based on fieldwork in an Irish slaughterhouse, I articulate how the industrial slaughter of animals entangles human and non‐human life in metamorphic processes that seek to diminish the emotionality of individuals, maintaining the boundary between human/non‐human animals. These transformations simultaneously pacify the emotional toll of killing non‐human individuals and reinforce perceptions of cows as sellable, killable and edible in the commodification of bovine bodies. Amidst the relative absence of emotions in slaughterhouse ethnographies, this article reveals how emotions emerge, erupt and confound the act of slaughtering cattle for slaughterhouse workers unsettling categorizations of masculinity and ‘animals as food’.     

Arranging sensations: smell and taste in augmented and virtual reality

The development of digital taste and smell underscores the importance of cultural dimensions of bodily perception in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices. This can be seen in Vocktail and Season Traveller, two digital devices incorporating taste and smell. Vocktail is an AR technology that augments the experience of drinking water, or even air, through the electrical stimulation of tastebuds and the manipulation of color and smell. Season Traveller is a VR game in which the user moves through four seasonal landscapes. It uses wind, odor, and temperature in addition to the more standard audio-visual displays. The cultural dimensions of these devices can be examined using phenomenological terms. They instigate perceptual circuits, and call on and create sedimented habits. Although VR and AR are often thought of in terms of their similitude to reality, understanding Vocktail and Season Traveller this way illustrates the world-creating dimension of multisensory devices. These technologies structure and shift thresholds of taste and smell, reworking past perceptual styles and habits to develop new perceptual experiences. In so doing, Season Traveller and Vocktail throw to the fore questions about the conditions according to which people exercise their senses in digitally dominated environments.     

Level of choice in older women’s decisions to retire or continue working and associated well-being

Retirement is a complex life transition. Women’s retirement, like their work lives, may be further complicated, for example, by family or financial obligations; they may feel forced to retire or to continue working or feel they have the choice to do so. This study examines the role of voluntary versus involuntary retirement or continued work participation among retirement-age women; specifically, the relationships between choice, work status, and well-being. Compared to women forced to retire, women who chose retirement or continuing to work had higher levels of life satisfaction. Findings highlight the importance of examining retirement within the life course context.     

Life Balance and Work Addiction Among NCAA Administrators and Coaches

Intercollegiate athletics represent an industry prone to challenges of work addiction and life balance. Work addiction and life balance domains in male and female intercollegiate athletic coaches and administrators (N = 245) were examined using multiple regression analysis. Higher levels of stress/anxiety, sleep disturbance, and career satisfaction and lower levels of quality of relationships and friendships were the strongest predictors of work addiction. Counseling focused on reducing the negative aspects of work addiction, while maintaining job performance, may benefit this population.     

Finding common ground: how superdiversity is unsettling social work education

For social work education in the Netherlands, the rapid transition towards superdiversity means that its capacity to adapt to this new reality and to adjust to diverse students’ backgrounds is fiercely challenged. The key aim of this article is to discuss how social work educators are dealing with the unsettling challenges of increasing diversity, based on the research outcomes of an explorative study amongst Turkish–Dutch and Moroccan–Dutch female professionals. Two different groups of educators were asked to comment on the outcomes of this study. One of the dilemmas for educators is to determine what can be considered supportive and inclusive and as reducing inequality in education. The authors used two key theoretical concepts, ‘superdiversity’ and ‘the capability approach’. These theoretical perspectives were used to deconstruct the rather massive concepts of diversity and social justice, by emphasising contextual approaches. Both perspectives stress the urgent need to involve students as ‘active agents of change’, by building a social work community to stimulate and facilitate an on-going dialogue. To successfully fulfil a pivotal role in the upward mobility or emancipation of ethnic minority students, social work education needs to be adjusted to accommodate diverse student groups.     

虚拟现实技术社会影响的哲学思考

虚拟现实技术是一种新的人机交互模式,它可以将人的感官调动起来,使其获得视觉、听觉、触觉等多种感知,从而产生＂身临其境＂的沉浸感觉。文章对虚拟现实技术在哲学方面产生的冲击进行了深刻剖析,并详细论述了虚拟现实技术发展所带来的对社会的积极和消极的影响。     

论和谐校园建设中的高校思想政治工作

国际国内形势的发展变化,使高校思想政治工作面临更加复杂的局面。针对新形势、新情况,我们只有不断创新,寻找新的工作方法、工作途径,加强与改进思想政治工作,才能为社会主义事业培养出合格的建设者和接班人。     

论民营企业内部会计控制

民营企业内部会计控制薄弱,会计秩序混乱,严重制约了民营企业经营管理水平的提高,因此内部会计控制是一个亟待解决的难点问题.文章结合规模较大的民营企业内部会计工作现状,从政府外部约束、社会审计以及民营企业会计基础工作等方面,深入分析了民营企业内部会计控制薄弱的原因,提出了改进民营企业内部会计控制的综合配套具体措施.     

论会计监督与会计控制

在会计是“对连续综合的经济信息进行的管理”这一本质认识基础上,对会计监督及会计控制出现的渊源及其相互之间的内在联系进行了论证和说明,指出:会计监督是人的主观能动的过程,是观念的总结;会计控制是量化的过程控制,其理想形式是会计电算化,上述两者之间是相互不可替代的,因此可以将它们抽象地称为会计职能的两大方面。