Feminist and empowerment theory and social work practice

Feminist and empowerment theories are especially important to the understanding of individual and sociopolitical levels of social work assessment and intervention. Incorporating feminist and empowerment approaches in practice will provide social workers with the knowledge, values and skills most likely to promote human rights and social justice. In this paper, we present an overview of both theories and illustrate them with a case example.     

Incumbent capability enhancement in response to radical innovations

Schumpeterian market disequilibrium marked by entrepreneurial entry and incumbent exit has long held an important place in management literature. The extant literature has overwhelmingly championed the newcomer, despite incumbents' obvious advantages in resources, experience and market knowledge. The current research provides evidence for the effectiveness of the incumbent's strategy of capability enhancement (along an established technological trajectory) while responding to radical technological innovations. We develop a cognitive process model that integrates managerial cognition with capability development and deployment views, depicting the dynamics of the incumbent's capability enhancement process. We analyze the cognitive drivers of organizational actions in all stages (rigidity, triggering event, and capability renewal) and elucidate the role of top management cognition in the processes of detecting and correcting errors in a strategic course of action. We ground our model in the case of a cork-stopper industry veteran's decline as corks ceded ground to screw tops and other stoppers in the wine industry. How a major company fought back in response to the emergence of these, in the industry context, radical technological innovations, provides the basis for our narrative. The proposed theoretical model contributes to literature on technology management (with regard to incumbent strategies in response to radical innovation threats) as well as the role of cognition in strategy (providing an explanation of the cognitive underpinnings of capability development).     

External knowledge search,absorptive capacity and radical innovation in high-technology firms

Open innovation and absorptive capacity are two concepts based on the idea that companies can leverage the knowledge generated externally to improve their innovation performance. The aim of this paper is to analyse the joint effect of open innovation and absorptive capacity on a firm's radical innovation. Open innovation is expressed in terms of external search breadth and depth strategies and absorptive capacity is described by distinguishing between potential and realized absorptive capacity. In order to test our hypotheses, we carried out empirical research in firms operating in high-technology industries. The results indicate that internal routines and processes for absorbing external knowledge help explain radical innovation as they show a significant effect of potential and realized absorptive capacity. Also, there is a moderating effect of absorptive capacity on open innovation. Specifically, potential absorptive capacity exerts a positive effect on the relationship between external search breadth and depth and radical innovation. Realized absorptive capacity moderates the influence of external search breadth. These findings confirm the complementary nature of absorptive capacity and open innovation search strategies on radical innovation.     

Presidential Address: Heroes,Warriors, and Burqas: A Feminist Sociologist's Reflections on September 11

My presidential address looked back at the gendered imagery of American heroes and warriors, Muslim terrorists, and oppressed Islamic women as they appeared in comparatively sophisticated media sources in the first 6 months after September 11. The imagery was conventionally gendered, but the actions of women and men reported in the same sources showed multiple gendering—heterogeneity within homogeneity. Making this multiplicity of gendering visible blurs and undermines gender lines and the inequities built on them. The social constructions of heroism, masculinity, and Islamic womanhood are core parts of the gender politics of September 11, a politics deeply embedded in the current debates over the causes and consequences of terrorism and war.     

西方女性主义文论与中国的女性文学发展

西方女性主义文论的背景(女权主义运动)及其理论成果对中国女性意识的崛起和女性文学的发展有着或深或浅的影响作用。通过梳理西方女性主义文论的兴起和中国女性文学的发展，指出这种影响作用是相互的，它不仅对促进中国文学创作的发展、审美价值观念的更新和批评话语的重建，乃至中国的妇女解放，都有着十分重要的现实意义，而且对世界范围内的女性主义文论的成熟和进一步发展，也能起到一定的促进和参照作用。     

女性主义与基础教育课程建设——一个本土化的理论思考

女性主义思想最早进入教育领域是在美国的课程概念重建运动中,如何将西方的女性主义课程理论引入我国基础教育是作者思考的问题.本文主要结合理论梳理和现状分析,从课程设置和课程实施两个方面探索变革当下基础教育课程的思路,以期推进我国基础教育课程的建设.     

林语堂的女性观探源

林语堂的小说把女性的地位提到了一个相当的高度.其创作模式受到多方面的影响首先,受到西方女权主义运动和西方主流文化的影响;其次,西式的教育和所处的位置使林语堂美化着古老中国的一切,包括一些糟粕;最后,作为一个男性作家,林语堂难以摆脱男权文化的影响,在创作中不自觉地歧视女性.可以说林语堂的女性观是一种不正确的女性观,他笔下的女性是被男人欲望化的女性.     

美国女性主义文化研究述评

女权主义在欧美作为一种思想活动和一种政治策略已经有了一段很长的历史。虽然女性主义一开始就不是传统意义上的独立学科,因为它既在现存学科之中,又在现存学科之外,曾一度被称为是只有观点,没有理论和方法的非学术政治。如今,在文化研究和文化社会学的领域,人们对大众文化中的女性形象表现出与日俱增的兴趣,使之成为广泛复苏的女权主义和女权主义理论的组成部分。美国女性主义文化研究在这方面提供了有力证明。     

西方思想的传入与中国女性主义的崛起--新文化运动时期女性主义的思想来源

新文化运动时期的女性主义的产生,受到了西方思想的启迪和影响:西方女性主义开辟的话语系统,提出的讨论范畴,如婚姻自主、人格独立、参政权、教育权、产儿制限等,被直接用于新文化运动前期女性主义的建构中;马克思主义女性观随着马克思主义在中国的广泛传播也进入中国,并以其阶级的视角而成为新文化运动后期女性主义的指导思想。     

"Her" Marriage after the Revolutions

Recent social changes have made husbands' emotional investments and wives' perceptions of equity in the division of housework crucial for women's marital happiness. But wives are also happiest in their marriages when they share a strong normative commitment to lifelong marriage with their husbands and when their husbands take the lead in breadwinning. Thus our research suggests that elements of the new and the old promote marital happiness among contemporary wives.