Introduction: Critique and the Deconstruction of Anthropological Authority

Global Challenges (FSW

Bodyspace at the pub: sexual orientations and organizational space

In this article we argue that sexuality is not only an undercurrent of service environments, but is integral to the way that these workspaces are experienced and negotiated. Through drawing on Sara Ahmed’s (2006a) ‘orientation’ thesis, we develop a concept of ‘bodyspace’ to suggest that individuals understand, shape and make meaning of work spaces through complex sexually-orientated negotiations. Presenting analysis from a study of UK pubs, we explore bodyspace in the lived experience of workplace sexuality through three elements of orientation: background; bodily dwelling; and lines of directionality. Our findings show how organizational spaces afford or mitigate possibilities for particular bodies, which simultaneously shape expectations and experiences of sexuality at work. Bodyspace therefore provides one way of exposing the connection between sexual ‘orientation’ and the lived experience of service sector work

Money talks: moral economies of earning a living in neoliberal East Africa

Neoliberal restructuring has targeted not just the economy, but also polity, society and culture, in the name of creating capitalist market societies. The societal repercussions of neoliberal policy and reform in terms of moral economy remain understudied. This article seeks to address this gap by analysing moral economy characteristics and dynamics in neoliberalised communities, as perceived by traders in Uganda and sex workers in Kenya. The interview data reveal perceived drivers that contributed to a significant moral dominance of money, self-interest, short-termism, opportunism and pragmatism. Equally notable are a perceived (i) close interaction between political–economic and moral–economic dynamics, and (ii) significant impact of the political–economic structure on moral agency. Respondents primarily referred to material factors usually closely linked to neoliberal reform, as key drivers of local moral economies. We thus speak of a neoliberalisation of moral economies, itself part of the wider process of embedding and locking-in market society structures in the two countries. An improved political economy of moral economy can help keep track of this phenomenon

Doing Machismo: Legitimating speech acts as a selection discourse

This article explores the relationship between machismo and implicit power processes at a conceptual and empirical level. Implicit power processes are the taken-for-granted ways in which organizational members reproduce sexual divisions in their organizations. The empirical data are derived from the Argentine auto components industry. This is a male-dominated industry and machismo was used to explain and justify selection decisions that favoured men. Machismo is intrinsically linked to masculinity and power and should be defined as a set of hegemonic masculinities. Machismo represents four images of the dominant ideal of manhood in the Argentine society. These images are the authoritarian image, the breadwinner image, the virility image and the chivalry image. Machismo can then be studied as a discourse on masculinity that, when translated into particular selection discourses, implicitly leads to the exclusion of women from this industry. Machismo and implicit power processes are thus intertwined; both sexes routinely reproduce the male standard. In order to show how discourses on masculinity implicitly shape selection processes, this article presents a typology. The typology consists of four types, the power of natural differences, the power of denial, pastoral or caring power, and the power of the male standard. The typology serves as an analytical tool to reveal the intertwining of machismo and implicit power processes at the shop floors of Argentine auto components firms. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005