Gender Mainstreaming Critiques: Signposts or Dead Ends?

An enduring legacy of the Beijing conference, gender mainstreaming has been widely implemented and widely critiqued since the 1990s. But the basis of these critiques has changed over time: this article charts a typology of critique approaches. It shows how the central problem is diagnosed variously as the loss of the political dimensions of gender in the course of mainstreaming; or technical shortcomings; or the gendered nature of organisations as the causes of technical failure. For others, the problem has been the failure to scrutinise the connection between gender mainstreaming and changes in gender relations in women's real lives. More recently, another group asserts that the trajectory of gender mainstreaming is simply part of the much broader logic of neoliberal governance. Understanding the technologies of power that shape a feminist practice suitable for the governance institutions into which it is inserted can help guide future feminist engagement

Psychiatry and Politics in Pelotas, Brazil: The Equivocal Quality of Conduct Disorder and Related Diagnoses

The world-wide emergence of categories for diagnosing mental health problems in children and youth such as conduct disorder is often attributed to the globalization of a highly biomedical form of psychiatry. In Brazil, a small group of therapists are resisting biomedicalization by keeping psychodynamic traditions alive and aiming to transform psychotherapy into a resource for politicized youth empowerment. Nevertheless, clinical practices demonstrate an increased use of biomedical diagnoses and therapeutic routines. On the basis of fieldwork with therapists and teachers, and a nine-year-long ethnography of young people, this article explores the localized effects of these potentially contradictory developments. Results show that the growth of biomedical practices alongside politicized therapeutic approaches is not indicative of underlying ambiguities but has, rather, emerged from the purposefully equivocal nature of Brazilian social, medical, and professional life. The article uses this Brazilian case study to critically debate theories of medicalization in the anthropology of psychiatry

“Benefit Tourism” and Migration Policy in the U.K.: The Construction of Policy Narratives

Introduction: In 2004, ten new member states, eight from Central and Eastern Europe (the socalled “A8” countries), joined the European Union. European Union citizens have the right to freely move throughout and reside in (subject to conditions) all member states. At the time, though thirteen out of fifteen existing E.U. member states put temporary restrictions on migrants from these new member states, the U.K. decided to give these migrants immediate full access to the labor market. While in France, for example, fears about the “Polish plumber” taking French jobs became a hot topic of debate and caused the French to implement temporary controls, in the U.K. Tony Blair highlighted “the opportunities of accession” to fill in gaps in the U.K. economy ( The Guardian, 27 April 2004). Blair’s Conservative opponents had also largely supported enlargement in the 1990s, noting the expansion of the E.U. would increase trade and “encourage stability and prosperity” (HC Deb 21 May 2003 vol 405 cc1021). The U.K. was hailed by members of the European Parliament as welcoming, and in spite of some fears of strain on social services and benefits, studies showed that the migrants had been a net benefit for the U.K. (BBC, 5 November 2014). In 2013, however, it was a different story, as temporary movement controls on migrants from Bulgaria and Romania, which had joined the E.U. in 2007, were set to expire on January 1, 2014. Concerns about “benefits tourism,” or the assumption that migrants were being drawn to the U.K. by a generous welfare state, seemingly abruptly arrived at the forefront of the political debate. The ConservativeLiberal Democrat coalition government led by David Cameron moved 2 to further restrict the benefits available to E.U. migrants by introducing domestic policy changes such as lengthening the wait period to three months before migrants could access jobseekers’ allowance benefits, reducing by 50% the amount of time for which E.U. migrants in Britain are eligible to receive certain benefits, introducing requirements such as a burden of proof on migrants to show they had a “genuine prospect of finding work,” and rendering E.U. migrants ineligible for housing benefits (Wintour 2013). In addition to these changes which were enacted in 2014, Home Secretary Theresa May proposed the extension of transitory controls for E.U. migrants and changes to E.U. free movement rules. In 2014, Cameron even threatened that the U.K. might exit the E.U. absent changes which would allow the U.K. to “cut E.U. migration” and further restrict welfare benefits for E.U. migrants (Hutton and O’Donnell 2014). In the space of ten years, Cameron’s party had gone from being proenlargement to threatening to leave the E.U., or at least demanding the renegotiation of a fundamental tenet of E.U. membership, over the issue of Bulgarian and Romanian migrants. What prompted this significant change? What made Bulgarian and Romanian migrants different from Polish, Hungarian, or Czech ones, who had all been granted immediate access to the labor market? Why did the “immigration” issue shift in political debate from nonE. U. migrants and asylumseekers to the free movement of E.U. citizens, even despite early indications that the number of new Bulgarian and Romanian arrivals would be relatively small, and the fact that E.U. migrants still account for a lower proportion of total migration than nonE. U. migrants? Why did the narrative of “benefit tourism” drive policy change, despite evidence that migrants claim benefits at a lower rate than U.K. nationals? 3 This chapter looks at the perception of potential Bulgarian and Romanian migration to the E.U. as a policy problem and argues that “benefits tourism” emerged as policy narrative connected to E.U. migrants as the 2004 enlargement of the E.U. approached. As a narrative, benefit tourism drew on the context of Euroskepticism and the stigmatization of both immigrants and welfare recipients as threats to British values, the latter which was heightened in the context of austerity. This chapter draws on recent work in Political Science on the construction of policy narratives (Boswell, Geddes, Scholten 2011). A “policy narrative” is a claim which sets out beliefs about policy problems and appropriate solutions (Boswell, Geddes, Scholten 2011: 1). With regard to migration policy, states’ anxieties about the perceived inability to control migration and uncertainties about the causes of this phenomenon have meant political actors have competed over policy narratives (Ibid.: 3). Which set of elements composes a narrative at which time depends on contingent political processes and the ability of political actors to utilize ideas to construct policy regimes to solve problems, to justify the maintenance of an existing policy regime, or to destabilize an existing policy regime. This paper explains the processes by which benefits tourism as a narrative emerged, became linked to E.U. migrants and justified policy changes such as the restriction of benefits and the imposition of temporary controls on freedom of movement, and has now been linked to questions of whether the U.K. should exit the E.U. or whether fundamental changes are needed to E.U. law and institutions to alter freedom of movement

Exploring macro and micro challenges in university policy and practice in Zimbabwe : a case of the academic staff appointments, grading and promotions system

Abstract: Zimbabwe’s post-independence education system was created to do away with the unequal system of education created by the colonial system. Following political independence, it was hoped that, among other things, academic staff appointments, grading and promotions would be managed democratically. However, as the thesis shows, the management of these processes within public universities has diminished any of such hopes. The study used an interpretive critical case study informed by micropolitical theory that was merged with Foucault’s analysis of power and discourse. The study employed a variety of methods such as documentary analysis of archival records, policies, media reports, interviews, and direct observation. Data were analysed through thematic analysis. Although the findings of this study relate to two research sites, that is two public universities in Zimbabwe; this study is of the view that these results can be applied to universities elsewhere within a similar context...Ph.D. (Education and Curriculum Studies

Emerging democracy in an urban elementary school: a Habermasian framework for examining school governance reculturing in response to systemic reform

textThe purpose of this study was to examine the micropolitical dynamics manifested in the re-culturing of campus governance in response to systemic reform imperatives? The study examined: 1) the recent intensification of standards and stakes associated with the Texas performance accountability system, 2) managerial responses to these pressures by the central administration of a large urban school district, and 3) the renegotiation of work and leadership in response performance pressures and the district policies by the faculty at a highpoverty, majority Hispanic elementary school. The study combined document analysis and various ethnographic methods to understand the interplay between reform pressures, district policies, and campus micropolitics. The analysis of the state performance accountability system used state reports, press releases, and print media related to the development and intensification of the system. The district level analysis combined press releases, print media, public comments by administrators and participant observation to study the administrative response to accountability pressures. The campus-level analysis employed formal and informal interviews of teachers with observations of faculty and committee planning meetings to understand decision-making dynamics and planning processes as carried out by the faculty of one campus. The major findings of the study are three-fold. First, the state-level analysis suggests that the Texas performance monitoring system, a response to a state legitimacy crisis, appears to be informed by a narrow technical logic and therefore seems likely to intensify an existing administrative emphasis on efficiency at the expense of other valued outcomes, most notably equity. Second, responses to accountability pressures in the district studied reflect an intensification of a traditional management discourse evidenced in a series of reforms that dramatically extend administrative control over staffing decisions, campus planning, curriculum development, and instructional delivery. Third, the current district policies contrast with recent reforms at the campus studied that engaged teachers and administrators in more deliberative governance activities focused on collective and strategic planning. Conflict between the communicative rationality of the campus-level reforms and the technical rationality informing the district’s management discourse are resulting in ongoing renegotiation of work and leadership norms at the campus.Educational Administratio

Spaces of Solidarity: Negotiations of Difference and Whiteness among Activists in the Arizona/Sonora Borderlands

Interpersonal conflict poses a serious threat to social justice activism. In the context of multi-racial solidarity activism in southern Arizona, conflicts are often born of the challenges accompanying differentials in social privilege due to differences in race and ethnicity relative to white supremacist settler colonialism. We can see these tensions topologically through the very different relationships white, Latin@, Chican@, and indigenous activists have to on-going processes of white supremacy. This dissertation explores the factors contributing to successes and failures of multi-racial activist ventures in the context of the Arizona/Sonora borderlands, particularly the challenges of negotiating social difference among communities of activists. Arizona occupies a contentious position with regard to securitization practices on the US/Mexico border. Social justice activists come to southern Arizona to involve themselves in humanitarian aid projects that address human rights issues emerging from border securitization processes. Over time, many of these activists connect with other social justice work in southern Arizona, leading to the existence of particularly rich and dedicated networks of activists in Tucson, southern Arizona’s largest city. Subsequently, we see the development of a diverse array of activist ventures deliberately orienting themselves around racial justice. This dissertation examines the paradox of becoming anti-racist for white activists, through which white activists work to address problematic aspects of their socialization as white subjects within the hierarchy of white supremacist society, a process that must co-exist with the knowledge that one cannot ‘unwhiten’ oneself. Tucson has a rich history of social justice activism that contributes to a particularly diverse activist landscape. Since the early 2000s, the primary concern of grassroots political activism in the city has been migrant justice and opposition to the militarization of the US/Mexico border. In the aftermath of Arizona’s notorious 2010 racial profiling legislation, SB 1070, The Protection Network Action Fund (ProNet) was founded as a collaboration between undocumented migrant activists and white allies, with the express goal of fundraising to support migrant led activism in Tucson. Much of ProNet’s success is rooted in the long-term relationship building between migrant activists and white allies, and intentional commitments to bridging gaps between the humanitarian aid and migrant justice communities. Members of ProNet challenge the spatial dynamics of activist networks Tucson, connecting Latin@ and Chican@ activist communities in and surrounding Spanish speaking South Tucson with activists in parts of the city where the effects of the militarized border are less present, and where residents are predominantly white

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe consequences of half a century of intensified processes of neoliberal globalization announce themselves in growing inequalities in affluent centers of global trade and in impoverished sites populated by exploited communities and resources. Political upheavals, social marginalizations, and economic insecurities introduced by these failures in both the Global South and the Global North constitute a tenuous common ground between diverse collectivities of struggle. This dissertation takes this potential common ground between disparate communities marginalized by neoliberalism as a terrain on which to explore possible solidarities between these ‘singularities of struggle.' It asks how local struggles waged by communities in the Global North and Global South contest and evade the conditions of neoliberalism, and what forms of political identity, collective identifications, and micropolitical power are invented in these struggles. To answer these questions, Deleuze and Guattari's "State-form" and "war-machine" are mobilized as critical tools for conceptualizing how neoliberalism universalist assumptions are manifested in singular situations. Particular attention is given to the universally-singular expressions of material poverty, differential inclusion, and subordination wrought by neoliberal globalization, and the challenges these conditions create for theorizing common topoi of oppositional discourse, including identity, collectivity, and power