Postfeminism as a critical tool for gender and language study

This article introduces the concept of postfeminism and highlights its value for research in language and gender studies. After discussing theoretical, historical and backlash perspectives, we advance an understanding of postfeminism as a sensibility - a patterned-yet-contradictory phenomenon intimately connected to neoliberalism. We consider elements widely theorised as constituting the postfeminist sensibility, alongside concerns shared by those who take postfeminism as their object of critical inquiry, in addition to an analytic category for cultural critique. The article then illustrates how the postfeminist sensibility may operate empirically, in the context of the doing and undoing of gender equality policies in workplaces. The article responds to calls for the field of language and gender to reinvigorate its political impetus, and to engage with feminist scholarship on postfeminism, particularly as recently developed in media and cultural studies

Information needs after stroke: What to include and how to structure it on a website. A qualitative study using focus groups and card sorting

Background: Use of the Internet to obtain health and other information is increasing. Previous studies have identified the specific information needs of people with stroke but not in relation to the Internet. People with aphasia (PwA) may face barriers in accessing the Internet: Navigating websites requires an ability to categorise information and this ability is often impaired in PwA. The website categorisation preferences of people with stroke and with aphasia have not yet been reported. Aims: This study aimed: (a) to determine what information people who have had a stroke would like to see on a website about living with stroke; (b) to determine the most effective means of structuring information on the website so that it is accessible to people with stroke; and c) to identify any differences between people with and without aphasia in terms of preferences for structuring information on the website. Methods & Procedures: Participants were recruited from a hospital's Stroke Database. Focus groups were used to elicit what information participants wanted on a website about living with stroke. The themes raised were depicted on 133 cards. To determine the most effective way of structuring information on the website, and whether there were any differences in preferences between PwA and PwoA, participants used a modified closed card-sorting technique to sort the cards under website categories. Outcomes & Results: A total of 48 people were invited, and 12 (25%) agreed to take part. We ran three focus groups: one with PwA (n = 5) and two with people without aphasia (PwoA) (n = 3, n = 4). Participants wanted more information about stroke causes and effects (particularly emotional issues), roles of local agencies, and returning to previous activities (driving, going out). All participants completed the card-sorting exercise. Few cards (6%) were categorised identically by everyone. Cards relating to local agencies and groups were not consistently categorised together. Cards relating to emotions were segregated. The categorisation preferences for PwA were more fragmented than those for PwoA: 60% of PwA agreed on the categorisation of 51% of the cards, whereas 60% of PwoA agreed on the categorisation of 76% of the cards. Conclusions: Information needs covered all stages of the stroke journey. The card sorting was accessible to everyone, and provided evidence of structuring preferences and of some of the categorisation difficulties faced by PwA. More research is needed on what an accessible website looks like for PwA

Inducing labour in the United Kingdom: A feminist critical discourse analysis of policy and guidance

Induction of labour (IOL), the process of starting labour artificially, is one of the most commonly performed procedures in maternity care in the United Kingdom (UK), yet there is debate whether inducing labour at ‘term’, in the absence of specific medical indication, is beneficial and reduces risk of stillbirth. Moreover, rates of routine IOL are rapidly rising in the UK, despite uncertainty about the evidence base and parents reporting receiving a lack of balanced information about the process. As a contested area of maternity care, the language used to debate, describe and discuss IOL takes on added significance and requires in-depth examination and analysis. To address this, we conducted a feminist critical discourse analysis on policy and professional writing about IOL in the UK, focusing on how these both reflect and construct social practices of pregnancy and birth. Our analysis identified a double discourse about IOL, which we term ‘explicit-implicit discourse of care’, revealing the differences between what is expected to be said and what is really said. Though most texts displayed an explicit discourse of care, which espoused women-centred care and informed choice, they also conveyed an implicit discourse of care, primarily composed of three key dimensions: women as absent actors, disembodiment, and evidence as a primary actor. We argue that this explicit-implicit discourse functions to preserve healthcare professionals' control over maternity care and further alienate women from their own bodies while maintaining a discursive position of women-centred care and informed choice

Narratives of sex-segregated professional identities

This article highlights the significance of small story analysis for the identification of positioning acts which function as rhetorical warrants for career choices and trajectories. It analyses stories told by Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) investigating the tensions expressed in the negotiation and performance of their gendered professional identities. Identity work is achieved via accountability and orientation to: past and present self; interlocutors within the interaction; and “master narratives” about gendered work. Small stories act as a medium of professional identity construction, rapport-building and as a site of contestation, employed to (re)appraise the social order, particularly with respect to “women’s” and “men’s” work. Gendered discourses are shown to impact on the amount of men entering the SLT profession and the specialisms and progression routes that men and women pursue. The analysis points to the reproductive, pervasive and regulatory power of gendered discourses on individuals’ experience of their subjectivity and professional identity

Research methods in linguistics

Research Methods in Linguistics guides the reader through the key issues, principles and contributions of core methods in linguistic research It is an essential resource for researchers and research students looking for clear introductions to key concepts accessible discussions of theory and practice through lustrative examples, and crtical engagement with current debates Topics include developing research questions,combining methods quantitative research designs (including questionnalres, chi-square tests and t-tests) corpus analysis, qualitative research methods (discourse analytic approaches, linguistic ethnography interviews and focus groups, multimodal analysis and narrative analysis) With each chapter offering an overview of key issues, many examples from recent Inguistic research and suggestions for further reading, this book will be an Invaluable resource for anyone working with linguistic data Lla Litosseliti is Senior Lecturer in Lingustics at City University,London UK She ts the author of Using ocus Groups in Research (2003) and Cender and Language Theory and Practice (2006)xi, 227 p.: ill.; 24 c

Research methods in linguistics

Research Methods in Linguistics guides the reader through the key issues, principles and contributions of core methods in linguistic research It is an essential resource for researchers and research students looking for clear introductions to key concepts accessible discussions of theory and practice through lustrative examples, and crtical engagement with current debates Topics include developing research questions,combining methods quantitative research designs (including questionnalres, chi-square tests and t-tests) corpus analysis, qualitative research methods (discourse analytic approaches, linguistic ethnography interviews and focus groups, multimodal analysis and narrative analysis) With each chapter offering an overview of key issues, many examples from recent Inguistic research and suggestions for further reading, this book will be an Invaluable resource for anyone working with linguistic data Lla Litosseliti is Senior Lecturer in Lingustics at City University,London UK She ts the author of Using ocus Groups in Research (2003) and Cender and Language Theory and Practice (2006)xi, 227 p.: ill.; 24 c

Research methods in linguistics/ Edit.: Lia Litosseliti

xi, 227 p.; 23 cm

Research methods in linguistics/ Edit.: Lia Litosseliti

xi, 227 p.; 23 cm