This book highlights the relationship between feminist theory and political practice and examines the diversity of feminist visions and voices by race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and global location. It interweaves the history of feminist thought with the history of the U.S. women's movement to ground feminist perspectives in their socio-historical contexts.
Reading Feminist Theory: From Modernity to Postmodernity interweaves classical and contemporary writings from the social sciences and the humanities to represent feminist thought from the late eighteenth century to the present. Editors Susan Archer Mann and Ashly Suzanne Patterson pay close attention to the multiplicity and diversity of feminist voices, visions, and vantage points by race, class, gender, sexuality, and global location. Along with more conventional forms of theorizing, this anthology points to multiple sites of theory production--both inside and outside of the academy--and includes personal narratives, poems, short stories, zines, and even music lyrics. Offering a truly global perspective, the book devotes three chapters and more than thirty readings to the topics of colonialism, imperialism and globalization. It also provides extensive coverage of third-wave feminism, poststructuralism, queer theory, postcolonial theory, and transnational feminisms.
This volume presents accounts of research work undertaken by sociologists who have been influenced by feminism or the feminist critique of sociology, or both.
Feminists Doing Ethics is the debut title in the new Rowman & Littlefield series, Feminist Constructions. In this thoughtful collection, contributors refashion essays from the international conference on feminist ethics, Feminist Ethics Revisited (October 1999), with an aim to critique social practice and develop an ethics of universal justice. The essays in this exciting volume explore the intricacies and impact of reasoned moral action, the virtues of character, and the empowering responsibility that morality generates. Feminists Doing Ethics brings to light concepts and ideas that are intended to extend our understanding of morality and of ourselves.
In the length of time from Gloria Steinem to Courtney Love, young feminists have grown up with a plethora of cultural choices and images. In THIRD WAVE AGENDA, feminists born between the years 1964 and 1973 discuss the things that matter NOW, both in looking back at the accomplishments and failures of the past--and in planning for the challenges of the future. 10 halftones.
Contemporary theory is full of references to the modern and the postmodern. How useful are these terms? What exactly do they mean? And how is our sense of these terms changing under the pressure of feminist analysis? In Doing Time, Rita Felski argues that it makes little sense to think of the modern and postmodern as opposing or antithetical terms. Rather, we need a historical perspective that is attuned to cultural and political differences within the same time as well as the leaky boundaries between different times. Neither the modern nor the postmodern are unified, coherent, or self-evident realities. Drawing on cultural studies and critical theory, Felski examines a range of themes central to debates about postmodern culture, including changing meanings of class, the end of history, the status of art and aesthetics, postmodernism as "the end of sex," and the politics of popular culture. Placing women at the center of analysis, she suggests, has a profound impact on the way we thing about historical periods. As a result, feminist theory is helping to reshape our vision of both the modern and the postmodern.
Exploring the breadth of contemporary feminist research practices, this engaging text immerses the reader in cutting-edge theories, methods, and practical strategies. Chapters review theoretical work and describe approaches to conducting quantitative, qualitative, and community-based research with participants; doing content or media analysis; and evaluating programs or interventions. Ethical issues are addressed and innovative uses of digital media highlighted. The focus is studying gender inequities as they are experienced by individuals and groups from diverse cultural, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and with diverse gender identities. Delving into the process of writing and publishing feminist research, the text covers timely topics such as public scholarship, activism, and arts-based practices. The companion website features interviews with prominent feminist researchers. Pedagogical Features *Case examples of feminist research. *Running glossary of key terms. *Boxes highlighting hot topics and key points for practice. *End-of-chapter discussion questions and activities. *End-of-chapter annotated suggested reading (books, articles, and online resources). *Sample letters to research participants. *Appendix of feminist scholars organized by discipline.
Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology addresses the theoretical issues raised by doing feminist research from an interdisciplinary perspective. Bringing together the work of leading scholars and emerging new critics, the editors have selected the best, most representative and recent work in feminist scholarship. The collection is organized around key issues in feminist theory and empirical research as impacted by post-structuralist dialogue. Several essays address the tensions between disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge building, exposing male biases embedded in disciplinary paradigms. Other essays deal with dramatic changes in two foundational concepts in feminist theory--identity and experience--which are presented not as innate and unproblematic, but as constituted by discourse, representation, and the effects of power. Additional essays examine the complex terrain in which differences within and between women are used as tools of oppression and of resistance both inside and outside feminist praxis. These essays uncover a subtext of racial anxiety, offering critical insights for academic and social change. The gender dynamics of power and resistance are taken up by several critics whose research encourages the development of a feminist scholarly methodology that focuses on women's subjective experiences, the ways in which they mediate relations of power, and their capacity for implementing personal and collective activism. These essays deal with the importance in feminist scholarship of resisting the inclination to view women as passive and powerless victims. Another major focus of the volume brings together visual and discursive representations of the female body in which heterosexuality and reproduction are imposed as the norm. The volume concludes with a set of essays which presents students with some methodological and political dilemmas feminists encounter as they expose the underlying ideological distortions in existing social policies. Distinct for its interdisciplinary scope as well as its global orientation, Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology is an ideal text for courses in a wide range of social science and humanities disciplines including research methods and women's studies.
Guiding students step-by-step through the research process while simultaneously introducing a range of debates, challenges and tools that feminist scholars use, the second edition of this popular textbook provides a vital resource to those students and researchers approaching their studies from a feminist perspective. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the book covers everything from research design, analysis and presentation, to formulating research questions, data collection and publishing research. Offering the most comprehensive and practical guide to the subject available, the text is now also fully updated to take account of recent developments in the field, including participatory action research, new technologies and methods for working with big data and social media. Doing Feminist Research is required reading for undergraduate and postgraduate courses taking a feminist approach to social science methodology, research design and methods. It is the ideal guide for all students and scholars carrying out feminist research, whether in the fields of international relations, political science, interdisciplinary international and global studies, development studies or gender and women's studies. New to this Edition: - New discussions of contemporary research methods, including participatory action research, survey research and technology, and methods for big data and social media. - Updated to reflect recent developments in feminist and gender theory, with references to the latest research examples and new boxes considering recent shifts in the social and political sciences. - Brand new boxed examples throughout covering topics including collaborations, femicide, negotiating changing research environments and the pros and cons of feminist participatory action research. - The text is now written in the first (authors) and second (readers) person making the text clearer, more consistent and inclusive from the reader point of view.
By now it must be clear to even the most traditional of male scholars that in doing sociological research we can no longer follow Evans-Pritchard's advice to behave like a gentleman, keep off the women, take quinine daily and play it by ear. This volume presents accounts of research work undertaken by sociologists who have been influenced by feminism or the feminist critique of sociology, or both. It proceeds from the basis that problems raised in personal accounts of research are themselves of sociological importance and that such accounts can offer the student a lively insight into research of a kind that is often denied by conventional methods textbooks. That there are sexual as well as social divisions in society cannot be ignored by sociologists, but much of the work that has appeared up to now has been concerned with making women visible within sociology. There has been little basic theoretical work, and still less work on the ways in which either taking a feminist perspective, or even merely taking account of women in research, affects the research process. This volume presents discussion on practical, methodological. theoretical and ethical issues raised where the sociologist adopts, or is aware of, a feminist perspective. 'There are very few methods books like this one that sociologists would pick up and read from cover to cover - and cause a queue of colleagues to form eagerly awaiting to get their hands on it. Compelling reading'. Colin Bell New Society
