Exploring masculinities, sexual health and wellbeing across areas of high deprivation in Scotland: the depth of the challenge to improve understandings and practices

Within and across areas of high deprivation, we explored constructions of masculinity in relation to sexual health and wellbeing, in what we believe to be the first UK study to take this approach. Our sample of 116 heterosexual men and women age 18–40 years took part in individual semi-structured interviews (n = 35) and focus group discussions (n = 18), across areas in Scotland. Drawing on a socio-ecological framework, findings revealed experience in places matter, with gender practices rooted in a domestically violent milieu, where localised, socio-cultural influences offered limited opportunities for more egalitarian performances of masculinity. We discuss the depths of the challenge in transforming masculinities in relation to sexual health and wellbeing in such communities

An uphill struggle? Reflections on research career paths and uneven playing fields

NoFP

Gender Equality in Higher Education: Segregation, Structures and Stereotypes

NoFP

Migration, power and identity Life-path formation among Irish rural youth

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DX201646 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Context matters: Problematizing the policy-practice interface in the enactment of gender equality action plans in universities

This study argues for recognition of the constitutive role of context in shaping the dynamics of the policy-practice interface in the field of gender equality in universities. Using a comparative and reflective case-study approach, we draw on our experiences, as action-researchers, of developing and implementing Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in four universities in four different European countries and we explore the role of national and local context in the mediation and translation of the GEAP model. Drawing on the concepts of gendered organizations, dialogic organizational change, and policy mobilities, we argue for the need to be critical of approaches to gender equality in higher education (HE) that presume policy measures and good practice models transfer unproblematically to different HE organizations in different international contexts; instead, we draw attention to the contingent ways in which uneven gender relations articulate and manifest in different contexts, shaping possibilities for, and obstacles to, gender equality intervention. Thus, we argue that context plays a crucial constitutive role in the interpretation, enactment, and impact of gender equality policy in HE

Guided reflection as an organisational learning and data collection tool in a gender equality change management programme

NoThis paper presents a guided reflection (GR) framework compiled and used specifically in a gender equality change management programme. The programme involves seven partners (one being an evaluation partner) from across Europe, each partner implementing a change management programme in their university setting. A guided reflection framework, including verbal reflective discussions and written reflections, was devised and deployed to enable and facilitate the collection of narratives and stories on the experience of gender transformation within the university institutions. The resulting outcome so far has been a successful application of the GR framework, with emerging findings suggesting that participants found the opportunity to share and reflect useful. Both written and verbal reflection tools were effective within this programme, with lessons emerging around increasing and improving the journaling aspect of written reflections. The process findings illustrate how people in our organisations are very constrained for time for reflection within their busy work schedules, and therefore the applicability and usefulness of the GR framework has been in enabling a space for such reflection and thought, which in turn contributes to organizational learning and potential for change

Practising What We Preach? Academic Consultancy in a Multi-Disciplinary Environment

Academics have long been accustomed to playing multiple roles (teacher, researcher, expert and critic). But as university management needs increasingly to demonstrate its relevance and value to the economy and society, so consultancy has assumed greater significance. This article explores the emerging fractures in the landscape of academic consulting, focusing on how consultancy activity impacts on research standards, and the ability of academics to maintain their critical roles as independent figures capable of holding government and other public organizations to account, so that their contribution to improving public policy can be maximized