bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Vocational Training and British Economic Performance: A Further Instalment of the `British Labour Problem'?
Authors: Cutler Tony
Published: June 2007

This paper compares two influential `explanations' of Britain's economic problems - one, the British Labour Problem, points to the attitudes of British workers and their unions as the cause of poor productivity, the other, the British Training Problem, points to the low level and poor quality of vocational training in the UK as the source of economic ills. The paper argues that, despite apparent differences, the two discourses are very similar, so much so that it is valid to see arguments about the relation of vocational training and economic performance as a new instalment of the British Labour Problem. Just as the labour problem was a bogus characterization of the causes of Britain's problems in the 1980s and led to unhelpful policies, so the current preoccupation with training promises to play an analogous role in the 1990s. The comparative research of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, which has been important in spreading the notion of the British Training Problem, is critically scrutinized in a way which complements Nichols earlier examination of the endemic faults in the social scientific material which underpinned the British Labour Problem `explanation'. The paper ends by suggesting why urging an increase in vocational training has become such a popular policy in the 1990s
Domestic Labour and Income Inequality
Authors: Baxter Janeen
Published: June 2007

In most industrial countries women earn less in employment than men. This paper investigates the reasons for this fact. Specifically it considers in detail the relationship between domestic labour and gender inequalities in income. Using evidence from Australia the paper explores the impact on earnings of both responsibility for domestic labour and time spent on domestic labour. Earlier research suggested that responsibility for domestic labour is a greater constraint on women's position in paid labour than the actual time spent on it. The paper also seeks to discover whether the relationship between the housework and paid labour is qualitatively and quantitatively different for men and women. Using regression analysis the paper provides empirical evidence about these relations and argues that gender inequities in wages are based, at least in part, on the structure of the household system. Policies aimed at reducing the male-female wage gap will need to take account of this.
The Introduction of Information and Office Technologies: The Great Divide?'
Authors: Fearfull Anne
Published: June 2007

Using four case studies, the paper considers the effect of office technologies on clerical skill. This familiar theme is widened by asking to what extent resultant employment practices, e.g., staff rationalization, demise of the `office junior' system, etc., have contributed to the appearance that less skill, experience and training are now required in clerical work; and by questioning the accuracy of that impression. The issues of reducing job opportunities, changing work values and attempts at `corrective' measures through training initiatives are addressed. It is argued that these inter-related developments have created a `divide', between clerks experienced in pre-or partially-computerized systems and those with only post-computerization experience. The role played by clerical sector research in perpetuating the image of clerical work as low-status, low-skill, is considered. The current and potential implications for the effectiveness of the clerical function and, as a consequence, for employing organizations are discussed.
Coping with Racism: Asian Employers in the Inner-City
Authors: Ram Monder
Published: June 2007

The growth of minority enterprise in recent years has attracted much interest. However, the concern with ethnic minority business formation has led to a neglect of issues beyond the initial business entry decision, most importantly, survival in the context of racism and intense competition. This paper explores the issue of business survival by examining the market and managerial settings of 50 Asian employers in the typical inner-city area of Wolverhampton, England.

Despite operating in the `open' market, many employers still faced severe racial constraints which thwarted the development of their businesses. In managing these constraints, the family was an important though not uncomplicated resource. It could also act as a brake upon management and `rational' modes of operation. Furthermore, the `family' label masked the differential nature of gender relations within Asian firms and obscured the critical de facto managerial roles played by women at work. Business survival in such cases therefore is a complex social process that needs to be set against a context of racism and gender relations.
The Analysis of Occupational Gender Segregation Over Time and Place: Considerations of Measurement and Some New Evidence
Authors: Blackburn Robert M. , Jarman Jennifer , Siltanen Janet
Published: June 2007

Despite the importance of occupational segregation as an area of investigation concerned with understanding women's employment status, pay levels, and promotional prospects during the last 20 years, there has been relatively little attention paid to the problems of trying to measure segregation levels in quantitative data. This paper argues that there are serious measurement problems which it illustrates by showing that two of the principal indices, the widely-used Index of Dissimilarity and the OECD's WE Index are highly flawed and produce unreliable results. It demonstrates the importance of these deficiencies using cross-national data from 9 countries for the period 1970-1982. The paper introduces a new way of analysing the form of these indices in the Basic Segregation Table, which is a 2 x 2 table of gendered occupations by sex. The paper suggests a new approach to measuring occupational segregation which provides more consistent and valid results. This is called Marginal Matching. The paper ends with an analysis of occupational gender segregation in England and Wales from 1951 to 1981. It concludes that, in contrast to research claims to date, the trend in segregation over this period is one of overall stability.
Of Monoliths and Magicians: Economic Transition and Industrial Relations in Hungary
Authors: Hughes Stephen
Published: June 2007

This paper addresses the relationship between economic transition and industrial relations in the Central European country of Hungary and is one result of research undertaken in Hungary, the UK and New Zealand between 1990-1992. It examines the development of economic reforms in Hungary up to the present day and the role of trade unions in the reform process. It argues that current approaches to economic reform are taking insufficient account of industrial relations and the strength of the former official unions by failing to address the historical nature of these relations and their continuing influence on the management of the reform process. The paper is critical of assumptions regarding the universality of capitalist rationality taken by some western management consultants and business schools currently active in Central Europe.
Trends in Parental Employment
Authors: Harrop Anne , Moss Peter
Published: June 2007

Using data from the Labour Force Survey to model trends from 1981 to 1989, the paper examines developments in employment among women and men with children and compares them to employment trends among women and men without children. Employment increased faster among women with children than among women without, and grew faster among certain groups of mothers, in particular mothers with fewer and younger children, among white mothers and mothers living with employed partners, and among mothers with higher levels of qualification. Employment grew more slowly, or fell, among mothers with three or more children; mothers with no qualifications; black mothers; mothers with non-employed partners; and lone mothers. The paper also looks at parental employment within families and, in particular, the marked growth of dual earner families in the 1980s. The reasons and consequences for some of these trends are also considered.
Experiencing Inequality: Ethnic Minorities and the Employment Training Scheme
Authors: Ogbonna Emmanuel , Noon Mike
Published: June 2007

This article presents the results of an investigation into the participation and outcome rates of ethnic minorities on Employment Training (ET). It demonstrates that ethnic minorities are joining schemes in representative proportions, yet are not enjoying the positive outcomes experienced by their white counterparts. It presents qualitative data which uncovers the experiences of ethnic minority trainees and confirms that, whilst government training is perceived as worthwhile, discrimination and prejudice distort the process to such an extent that inequality of opportunity occurs.
Management and the Control of Technical Labour
Authors: Causer Gordon , Jones Carol
Published: June 2007

This paper addresses the issues involved in the management of professional employees through an examination of the management of professional engineers in a sample of electronics companies. It is argued that a measure of evaluation and control is secured through the development of organisational positions which combine elements of both technical and managerial work and through the operation of personalised systems of reward. The potentially demotivating effects of hierarchical structures of control are moderated by forms of work organisation which blur the distinction between employees and management, and by the development of managerial philosophies which stress a commonality of identity uniting those at different levels of the organisational hierarchy. The development of such philosophies is related to the nature of professional organisation within engineering and to the male-dominated nature of the work environment. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the applicability of this analysis to the study of the management of professional employees more generally.
Transformed by Technology? The Changing Nature of Women's `Traditional' and `Non-Traditional' White-Collar Work
Authors: Hughes Karen D.
Published: June 2007

This article contributes to debates on gender and technology by examining how women's white-collar work is being reshaped in the financial and business service sectors in Canada. These sectors are of distinct interest given their growing use of `second wave' technologies which aim at `re-engineering' traditional work flows. The article examines the gendered dimensions of such change, focusing particularly on the potential of new technologies to reshape task divisions, and job content, which have long been structured along specific gender and occupational lines. Case studies are used to examine how women's work is being transformed in `traditional' areas, such as secretarial work, as well as `nontraditional' areas in para-legal work and insurance sales. The findings show that there has been a blurring of task divisions between clerical/non-clerical and female/male work, with women experiencing diverse consequences depending on their occupational location. The article illustrates the complexity of current processes of technological change and the importance of tracing out interconnections between different forms of white-collar labour.
Subjectivity and the Labour Process: A Case Study in the Restaurant Industry
Authors: Sosteric Mike
Published: June 2007

This study focuses on the work experiences of employees, and on the changing relationships between employees and managers, in a mid-sized popular dance nightclub in a small western Canadian city. This nightclub had, in many ways, a unique organisational environment. Normative expectations about the quality of work in the food and beverage industry (de-skilled, highly standardised) did not initially hold. Employees developed an articulate and sophisticated culture that placed much of the training and decision-making responsibility squarely on their hands. However, internal and external pressures on management prompted the shift from a form of organising the workplace that could have been characterised as responsible autonomy to a more direct and autocratic form of control. This shift had the effect of destroying the organizational culture and stripping the employees of much of their responsibility for employee socialisation and customer service. The impact of these management initiatives on the employees, clientele and `bottom line' of the nightclub is the major concern of this paper.
Classroom Struggle? Market Oriented Education Reforms and their Impact on the Teacher Labour Process
Authors: Sinclair Jackie , Ironside Mike , Seifert Roger
Published: June 2007

The reforms introduced through the Education Reform Act 1988 have brought about a radical redistribution of authority in the school system. The reform process includes the introduction of competitive markets, the erosion of the democratic structures that previously underpinned the state school sector, and the centralization of power over both funding and educational issues. This article examines the impact of these changes on the teacher labour process, drawing from recent research in schools in England and from earlier research on schools in the USA. Teacher labour is being transformed in several ways; reduced autonomy, deskilling, work intensification, and increased labour flexibility are identified. Some consideration is given to teacher responses, noting the importance of trade union responses for this traditionally highly organised group of employees.
Paternalism and its Discontents: A Case Study
Authors: Wray David
Published: June 2007

This paper, presented in the form of a case study, argues that paternalism, as a form of worker control can, and does, exist as a contemporary tool of management. It provides a typology of paternalism and outlines the benefits for management that can be achieved through its use in the form of compliant and quiescent workers. It goes on to identify the problems that are experienced in maintaining the paternalist relationship and explores possible solutions to the problems of a workforce discontented with an employment relationship mediated by paternalism
Occupational Advantage in the Eighties: An Analysis of the Lifetime Earnings of Men
Authors: Johnson Daniel H. , Makepeace Gerald H.
Published: June 2007

Changes in lifetime earnings potential for men by occupation and socio-economic group are reported for data from the New Earnings Survey. Previous work on the distribution of earnings is augmented, most notably by examining earnings in the 'long run' rather than current earnings and by considering the impact of unemployment on earnings streams.

The mean of lifetime earnings across occupations grew by 2.6 per cent although the pattern of growth was uneven and the dispersion of lifetime earnings increased substantially. The analysis for socio-economic groups show that the main beneficiaries are the 'managers', 'professional' and 'intermediate non-manuals'. When the effects of unemployment are taken into account, every group except 'foremen and supervisors' improved their position relative to the 'unskilled', but the extent of the improvement increased with the value of lifetime earnings.
Uncertain Futures: Young People in and Out of Employment Since 1940
Authors: Pollock Gary
Published: June 2007

In Britain, the period between the end of World War II and the mid 1970s witnessed an employment market which was relatively stable. Young people seeking entry into employment managed to do so with relative ease. There was a demand for labour which exceeded the supply. This stability allowed young people to be able to predict, to some extent, what sort of employment they were likely to attain. At one level it meant that the majority of young men could predict that they would become employed on a full-time basis. At another level, young people were even socialised into expecting particular types of work, for example young working class boys expected to get jobs typically done by members of the working class. Since the 1970s, however, the labour market has changed significantly. The extent to which young people can predict their future employment status has declined as the demand for full-time employment has, in many instances, been overtaken by the supply of those looking for it. Many young people today are thus in a more uncertain position. This uncertainty relates to how these young people will fare in the labour market: for young men, that of not becoming an established member of the full-time employed labour force; for young women, the uncertainty relates to changes in forms of labour market participation, but also to a decline, or at least the deferring of leaving the labour market to raise a family.
What Works, Who Works? The Employment and Earnings Effects of Active Labour Market Programmes among Young People in Ireland
Authors: O'Connell Philip J. , McGinnity Frances
Published: June 2007

The international literature on active labour market programmes has generated inconsistent and confusing, but generally pessimistic, conclusions regarding their impact on the employment prospects of participants. This paper argues that much of this confusion is due to a general lack of attention to qualitative differences between programmes. The paper develops a typology of active labour market programmes, differentiating between training and employment measures on the basis of their orientation to the labour market and argues that programmes with a strong orientation to the market are more likely to improve the job prospects of participants than those characterised by weak market linkages. That hypothesis is tested using the results of a survey of young participants in labour market programmes in Ireland. The analysis shows that programmes with strong linkages to the labour market both enhance the employment prospects of their participants and increase their earnings, even when we take account of relevant individual characteristics such as education and previous labour market experience.
The Family Enterprise and Business Strategies
Authors: Mulholland Kate
Published: June 2007

The focus of this article is the character of the entrepreneurial, managerial and preservation strategies characterising successful family businesses. It includes majority white and minority ethnic business in a variety of enterprises across the different sectors and argues that the notion of a shared business culture embedded in a shared class background best describes their approach to enterprise. This particular business culture which embodies a set of values, beliefs and strategies is derived from the practice of creating, managing and sustaining the institution of family capitalism, but is essentially an expression of the middle class social attributes of the business families as opposed to a reflection of specific ethnicities.
Teamworking and Labour Regulation in the Autocomponents Industry
Authors: Danford Andy
Published: June 2007

This paper examines how particular structural pressures external to the firm can combine with the internal micro-dynamics of workplace relations and conflict to create a mode of labour regulation which corresponds to a `Japanese style' teamworking rather than alternative, more autonomous models. It draws on both quantitative and qualitative case study research data of the introduction of job reforms at a brownfield autocomponents factory in South Wales. The paper investigates three key facets of the reform process. First, how the external factors of industrial restructuring and the forging of new customer-supplier relations between firms shape managerial priorities and organisational outcomes. Second, how the microdynamics of workplace relations, in particular, the different interests and actions of managerial, white collar and shopfloor employees, have a direct bearing on the final composition of teamworking. Third, in response to the lack of attention given to the views of those who are most affected by job reforms, the paper provides a systematic analysis of the disempowering impact of teamworking on shopfloor workers' labour processes.
The Business of Contingent Work: Growth and Restructuring in Chicago's Temporary Employment Industry
Authors: Peck Jamie , Theodore Nikolas
Published: June 2007

The `temp' industry is one of the fastest-growing employment sectors in the United States, though relatively little is known about the operations of its key institutional agents - the temp agencies themselves. In the paper, the restructuring of the temp industry and the role of temporary help agencies as `labour market intermediaries' is critically examined. It is argued that not only is the industry growing at a rapid rate, it is also polarising, as some agencies `restructure down' into the lowest-paid and most exploitative niches of the labour market - where employment instability is a daily phenomenon, while others `restructure up' into increasingly long-term relationships - including `on-site' management deals and `insourcing' agreements - with major corporate clients. Likewise, `temping' is not only becoming more commonplace, but the labour-market and workplace experiences of temporary workers are becoming increasingly heterogeneous. It is apparently in the nature of the industry that both these developments are scarcely `visible', as restructuring down is often associated with `backstreet operators', undocumented workers and unregulated work, while restructuring up draws agencies into increasingly seamless, reflexive and internalised relationships with corporations. The paper traces some of the labour market and organisational implications of these restructuring practices through an examination of the long-established but newly-vibrant temp industry in Chicago.
How Types of Goods and Property Rights Jointly Affect Collective Action
Authors: Ostrom Elinor
Published: June 2007

The study of collective action has matured dramatically since Mancur Olson challenged scholars by positing a general theory in his pathbreaking book on The Logic of Collective Action (1965). Olson's theoretical predictions related to the incapacity of individuals, except under limited conditions, to solve on their own what are now known as `collective action problems'. Olson argued that one characteristic of goods - that of exclusion - defined all public goods. In contemporary analysis, the problem of achieving exclusion of noncontributors has come instead to characterize all types of collective action problems. Multiple subtypes of collective action problems have been identified. One major class of collective action problems are referred to in contemporary literature as public goods. Another class are referred to as common-pool resources. Common-pool resources are characterized by difficulty of exclusion and subtractability of resource units and are threatened by overuse leading to congestion or even destruction of the resource. Such threats do not apply to public goods. Diverse production and allocation functions generate further important differences in behavior and outcomes. Scholars have also begun to recognize multiple types of property right bundles that distinguish among authorized entrants, users and claimants, proprietors and full owners. Empirical studies show that groups of individuals who possess at least the rights of proprietorship are able to govern and manage their systems more effectively than presumed in the earlier theoretical literature. The article ends with an analysis of the factors that may be conducive to the organization of a common-property regime as contrasted to a private-property regime.
Representative Government and Special Interest Politics
Authors: Lohmann Susanne
Published: June 2007

In any society characterized by diversity and specialization, each citizen - the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker - is a special interest on some dimensions of public policy and a member of the general public on many other dimensions. Each citizen enjoys being at the receiving end of special interest handouts even at the expense of inefficiencies imposed on general public. But relative to the status quo involving inefficient redistribution on most dimensions of public policy, including many dimensions on which the citizen is a member of the general public, the vast majority of citizens would surely be better off if the government did not cater to special interests at all. With this common interest in place, why do democratic societies have such a hard time ridding themselves of special interest politics?

This article argues that the driving force underlying special interest politics is an information asymmetry: each citizen has a precise idea about the special interest handouts she is receiving and a vague idea about the price she is paying, as a member of the general public, for inefficient redistribution. I explain why special interest politics are ultimately impervious to reform (though we can tame them at the margin); I examine the trade-offs inherent in reform efforts (what it costs to tame them); and I spell out why special interest politics can be a Good Thing (why we should not tame them all the way even if we could).
The Political Economy of Institutions and Corruption in American States
Authors: Alt James E. , Lassen David Dreyer
Published: June 2007

Theoretically, this article draws on political agency theory to formulate hypotheses. Empirically, it shows that political institutions have a role in explaining the prevalence of political corruption in American states. In the states, a set of democracies where the rule of law is relatively well established and the confounding effects of differing electoral systems and regimes are absent, institutional variables relating to the openness of the political system inhibit corruption. That is, other things equal, the extent to which aspiring politicians can enter and gain financial backing, and to which voters can focus their votes on policies and thereby hold incumbent politicians accountable for policy outcomes and find substitutes for them if dissatisfied with those outcomes, reduce corruption as a general problem of agency. These institutional effects are estimated in the presence of controls for variables representing other approaches.
Similarity of Options and the Measurement of Diversity
Authors: Bossert Walter , Pattanaik Prasanta K. , Xu Yongsheng
Published: June 2007

This article analyzes the measurement of the diversity of sets based on the dissimilarity of the objects contained in the set. We discuss axiomatic approaches to diversity measurement and examine the considerations underlying the application of specific measures. Our focus is on descriptive issues: rather than assuming a specific ethical position or restricting attention to properties that are appealing in specific applications, we address the foundations of the measurement issue as such in the context of diversity.
Philo’s Therapeutai: Philosopher’s Dream or Utopian Construction?
Authors: Beavis Mary Ann
Published: June 2007

This article takes issue, on rhetorical and geographical grounds, with Engberg-Pedersen’s (1999) argument that Philo’s De Vita Contemplativa is a ‘philosopher’s dream’. Further, it is argued that while Philo’s description of the Therapeutai/Therapeutrides is shaped by Hellenistic utopian conventions, particularly Iambulus’ account of the Islands of the Sun (Diodorus Siculus 2.55-60), Philo’s account is sober and realistic enough to suggest that he was describing a real community of Jewish contemplatives of which he had direct knowledge.
Public Theology and Changing Social Values
Authors: Medhurst Kenneth , Sweeney James
Published: June 2007

On the basis of interviews conducted in Bradford, Glasgow and Rotterdam, this article seeks to explore the issue of changing social values as they are affected by or affect the capacity (or incapacity) to participate in community and/or political life. The issue explored is in the context of globalisation and its impact on the communities in question. The aim is to offer some empirical basis for a theological reflection upon the nature and scope of value change and the opportunities and challenges thus posed for publicly engaged Christians.
Limits of the Story: Tragedy in Recent Virtue Ethics
Authors: Hall Pamela M.
Published: June 2007

I examine the role of tragedy within the ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre and Iris Murdoch. MacIntyre argues for a narrative conception of the self, stressing the need for coherence and intelligibility and for the virtues which promote them. Tragic dilemma presents a successful self with severe frustration but not with destruction of its overall project. Murdoch, on the other hand, holds little hope for the self's coherence, and in fact champions tragic art's capacity for disturbing and even disrupting the self's fantasies of control and coherence. Her virtues correspondingly help the agent to confront the tragic realities of life. I suggest one way to bring these two accounts, of tragedy and the virtues, together: by considering tragic experience in the context of moral pedagogy.
Governance for water and sanitation services in low-income settlements: experiences with partnership-based management in Moreno, Buenos Aires
Authors: Hardoy Ana , Hardoy Jorgelina , Pandiella Gustavo , Urquiza Gastón
Published: June 2007

Over the last 10–15 years, there has been a heated debate about the ability of private companies to provide adequate water and sanitation services to low-income households and their neighbourhoods. There have been a few successful examples of private provision to low-income areas but it has generally not proved possible to replicate these. This paper considers how sparsely populated, low-income and largely unserved urban settlements might obtain full coverage of formal water and sanitation networks under a private concession contract, drawing on the case study of Moreno municipality in Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area. The paper describes an initiative implemented by IIED–América Latina that seeks to address deficiencies in water and sanitation provision through partnership-based management, a participatory process whereby different types of actors collaborate with each other, bringing their own particular strengths. Through awareness-raising and a participatory assessment of water and sanitation provision in the municipality, a local partnership-based management unit was formed. It is hoped that this will be institutionalized into a local water authority. Given that extending conventional water and sewerage services to the many unserved settlements is unrealistic in the short term, the paper suggests that providing both water and sanitation services to the poorest areas like Moreno is likely to happen only if all the actors involved – the public sector, private company, regulator, NGOs and communities – are committed to working together towards a solution.
Innovative financing for low-income housing improvement: lessons from programmes in Central America
Authors: Stein Alfredo , Castillo Luis
Published: June 2007

This paper discusses what has been learnt from housing and local development programmes in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua supported and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) during the last 15 years. It identifies common financial mechanisms that have proven to be effective and affordable by the urban poor in their search for better housing. It also discusses the different policies and interventions by national and sub-national governments and the “non-market incentives” that were required to make low-income housing programmes feasible and affordable, and what these imply for the financial and institutional sustainability of such programmes. It ends with recommendations for other international donors and national institutions that are seeking to design new financial services for housing for low-income groups.
The Stigma of Women's Weight: Social and Economic Realities
Authors: Rothblum Esther D.
Published: June 2007

This article reviews the literature on weight and social stigma. It argues that obese women are both held accountable for their weight and rejected on account of their weight. Secondly, it presents evidence that obese women become downwardly socially mobile because of their weight. Finally, it points to some directions that are necessary for western society to cease its obsession with body weight and consequently improve the life satisfaction and mental health of millions of women.
Same Door, Different Closet: A Heterosexual Sissy's Coming-Out Party
Authors: Hunter Allan
Published: June 2007

One way to problematize heterosexuality is to acknowledge the tacitly assumed connection between heterosexual preference in males and their `masculinity', i.e. their dissimilarity to women in personality and behaviour. The political implications of the `masculinity' construct are central to what makes heterosexual participation by women a volatile subject for feminists. By analyzing and disentangling the ideological equivocation between men who are not sexually attracted to women and men who are considered to resemble women in personality and behaviour, it is possible to theorize a feminist heterosexuality that would involve women with males but which need not involve them with `men'.
Sexual Violence and Compulsory Heterosexuality
Authors: Kitzinger Jenny
Published: June 2007

This study examines psychological theorizing about the impact of childhood sexual abuse on women's sexuality. I argue that the psychological definitions of, and treatments for, `sexual dysfunction' are instruments of oppression designed to enforce heterosexuality and obscure feminist questions about the links between sexual violence and `normal' sexual relationships. We urgently need to reclaim a radical feminist way of understanding experience that rejects compulsory heterosexuality and demands social revolution, instead of simply promoting individual adaptation.
Heterosexual Instrumentalism: Past and Future Directions
Authors: Schacht S.P. , Atchison Patricia H.
Published: June 2007

Two distinct strands of feminist thought have emerged in the past 20 years in explaining the behaviors of rape, sexual harassment, incest, prostitution and the presentation of these found in pomography. One group of theorists construes these behaviors and pornography as violent and terroristic outcomes of male dominance, while a second group views them simply as forms of heterosexuality. Utilizing, primarily, the theoretical insights of the latter group, this article offers a conceptual definition of heterosexuality-as an eroticized, hegemonic ideology of male dominance. The literature on the above behaviors and pornography is reviewed to determine if there is support for such a conceptualization. Finding support, suggestions are made for future research and the need for a unified feminist theory of sexuality.
Sexual Dysfunction or Heterosexual Dysfunction?
Authors: Boyle Mary
Published: June 2007

The psychological literature on sexual dysfunction has been mainly concerned with the sexual problems of people in heterosexual relationships. This article takes as its starting point recent attempts to extend this literature to the sexual problems of homosexual women and men. It is argued that such attempts may not have taken sufficient account of the extent to which existing classification systems, nomenclature and theory of sexual problems are based on heterosexist and sexist assumptions about the nature of male and female sexuality, about sexual activity and about what is seen as sexually problematic.
The Challenge of Self-Advocacy
Authors: Plumb Anne
Published: June 2007

Survivors Speak Out (SSO) is a self-advocacy network composed primarily of psychiatric system survivors and our allies. This paper describes very briefly the emergence of SSO and, in greater depth, reflects on the meaning of Survivors Speak Out and its significance and implications for all those working in (and writing about) the area of `mental health' or what I shall refer to as emotional and mental distress and dissent, including those experiences of hearing voices, overwhelming despair, deep-seated and unremitting fear-all of which get labelled `illness'. It is also written for other people who have experienced, or are experiencing, distress to consider as part of our collective effort to understand our experiences.
Female Survivors of Dating Violence and their Social Networks
Authors: Mahlstedt Deborah , Keeny Linda
Published: June 2007

This study embeds dating violence in context. It examines how 130 young adult female survivors of dating violence involved members of their social network in the experience of abuse, how network members responded to them, survivors' satisfaction with these responses and the reasons some network members were not informed. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a questionnaire. Results indicate that the responses of network members serve a supportive and a supervisory function; and these responses are interpreted within a feminist gender analysis framework Implications for prevention and education programs are discussed.
Resisting Racism and Sexism in Academic Psychology: A Personal/Political View
Authors: Henwood Karen L.
Published: June 2007

The article discusses resistance to racism and sexism within academic psychology. Its contents are linked together by the chronology of my own experiences, presenting a personal/political view. Focusing upon Social Identity Theory in particular, I point out that even critical perspectives in the social psychology of prejudice and discrimination tend to neglect black people's experiences of racism and represent an impoverished approach to the social construction of `race'. I pay special attention to the culturally pervasive problem of new racism, and to psychology's commitment to a purportedly apolitical professional identity and value-free science. Both are implicated in academic psychology's lack of a clear commitment to anti-racism, as illustrated in my account of the British Psychological Society's handling of the call for an academic boycott of apartheid South Africa. I touch on various ways of moving forward to an anti-racist psychology in respect of theory, research and the institution of psychology. One possibility is to work within a version offeminist standpoint epistemology which seeks to re-vision knowledge by starting from the multiplicity and diversity of women's experiences and conditions of our lives.
Empowering Women? The Oprah Winfrey Show
Authors: Squire Corinne
Published: June 2007

The Oprah Winfrey Show, the most-watched US daytime talk show, aims to empower women. This article examines the show's representations of gender and how images of `race', sexuality and class cross-cut them. It considers the show's status as television psychology. It explores the show's translation of aspects of black feminism to television, and discusses the social implications of its `super-real' representations.
monious `Heimat' and Disturbing `Auslander'
Authors: Rathzel Nora
Published: June 2007

This article aims to set an agenda for further research into the following issues: which concepts of `homeland' ('Heimat') lead to anxieties about those defined as foreigners' ('Ausldnder') and which ones are able to include the `newcomers'? How do these concepts relate to people's ability to intervene into contradictory social structures? In order to do this, it presents some results from a study which explores concepts of `Heimat' and `Ausldnder' held by the ethnic majority. Statements made by the sample of middle-class women and men in Switzerland and Germany suggest that the holding of harmonious images of Heimat tends to be associated with perceiving `Auslander' as the source of social conflicts. However, the inability to appropriate even an imaginary space seems to be related to an inability to open up to new experiences as neighbourhoods change.
Di(s)-Secting and Dis(s)-Closing `Whiteness': Two Tales about Psychology
Authors: Wong L. Mun
Published: June 2007

`Whiteness' is di(s)-sected and dis(s)-closed to reveal its privileged position within psychological texts. This allows me to discuss the three ways in which `whiteness' has surfaced. First, `whiteness' is absent. Second, `whiteness' is displaced by synonyms that shift its anxieties on the `other'. And third, `whiteness' is discussed as the predominant epistemological backdrop of psychological texts that e-race, make invisible and token the presence of racial minorities. I will use two instances of psychological practice-e-racing theory and the porno-raced method-to discuss how `whiteness' has manipulated racial minorities to inform, test and construct its own meanings.
Women, Ethnicity and Empowerment
Authors: Yuval-Davis Nira
Published: June 2007

This article critically examines the ideology of empowerment and its links to debates about solidarity and difference among women, especially those from oppressed and minority collectivities. The notions of community, identity, culture and ethnicity are examined together with issues of women's citizenship and coalition politics. The article argues against simplistic notions of empowerment based on identity politics which homogenize and naturalize social categories and groupings and which deny shifting boundaries as well as internal power differences and conflicts of interest. As an alternative, the article suggests the idea of `transversal politics' based on situational dialogues.
Heterosexual Courtship Violence and Sexual Harassment: The Private and Public Control of Young Women
Authors: Larkin June , Popaleni Katherine
Published: June 2007

In this article we explore, through the voices of young women, how two forms of male violence-sexual harassment and heterosexual courtship violence-affect the lives of adolescent girls. We demonstrate the connections between the two forms of male abuse as a way of illustrating how young men's use of violence and harassment is played out in the private and in the public sphere of young women's lives-through a three-part system of male control that includes acts of diminishment, intimidation and force. We discuss the impact of this behaviour on young women's psychological development
`I Just Needed a Rest': Women's Experiences of Psychiatric Hospitalization
Authors: Miedema Baukje , Stoppard Janet M.
Published: June 2007

This research explored the experiences of 27 women who had been hospitalized in psychiatric units in southern New Brunswick Canada. The women's accounts of their experiences of hospital admission, treatment and discharge are described. Hospitalization provided the women with a respite from burdensome family responsibilities and unsatisfactory relationships in a safe, protected environment. However, this asylum aspect of hospitalization was contrasted with the powerlessness experienced by the women because of their lack of control over decisions made about their admission, treatment and discharge. In conclusion, it is argued that strategies for the improvement of mental health care for women should be grounded in an understanding of women's experiences.
Themes in the Relationships of Mothers and their Incestuously Abused Daughters: A Feminist Analysis
Authors: Sen Chandra , Daniluk Judith
Published: June 2007

In most of the literature on the sequelae or treatment of adult women who were incestuously abused by their fathers, little attention is paid to the impact of the abuse on the daughter's relationship with her mother, other than to hold the mother accountable for the abuse. Phenomenological analysis of extensive interviews with five adult survivors of paternal incestuous abuse resulted in the identification of several common themes in the daughters' relationships with their mothers. A feminist analysis informs this discussion of developmental and contextual factors related to these themes, and forms the basis for highlighting the clinical implications of mother-daughter issues when working with adult survivors of paternal incestuous abuse.
Engendering Infidelity: Essentialist and Social Constructionist Readings of a Story Completion Task
Authors: Kitzinger Celia , Powell Deborah
Published: June 2007

This study has two main aims: (a) to explore young men's and women's representations of `unfaithful' heterosexual relationships; and (b) in so doing to explore the theoretical and methodological implications of story completion as a research tool. One hundred and sixteen student subjects (seventy-two females and forty-four males) were given a story completion exercise, featuring a presumably unfaithful heterosexual partner-approximately half with a same-sex and half with an other-sex protagonist. Content analysis indicated that male subjects tended to sexualize and female subjects to romanticize the cue relationship. Males described the relationship as casual and sexually-focused, and minimized the emotional impact of infidelity, especially on the same-sex protagonist, who was most often described as reacting with indifference. Female subjects described the cue relationship as mutually loving and trusting and emphasized the emotionally devastating impact of infidelity for both same- and other-sex protagonists. Physically violent actions were more common in stories written by men. The findings are discussed in relation to feminist research on sex differences and sexuality and the implications of using story completion within essentialist and social constructionist perspectives are explored.
Mind-Mending and Theory Building: Lesbian Feminism and the Psychology Question
Authors: Burack Cynthia
Published: June 2007

The debate over psychology is one that divides the lesbian feminist community. In spite-or perhaps because-of widespread lesbian participation in therapies and recovery programs of all varieties, many prominent lesbian feminists reject the practice of psychotherapy for lesbians and criticize potential uses of psychological and psychoanalytic theory by lesbians. But the lesbian feminist critique of psychology is theoretically questionable because it does not differentiate between therapeutic practice and theoretical production. This article addresses the need to disentangle critiques of therapy from critiques of psychoanalytic theory. It is argued that psychoanalytic theory can be useful to lesbian feminist ethical and political theory.
The Dangerous Classes: Retelling the Psychiatric Story
Authors: Blackman Lisa M.
Published: June 2007

This article examines the complex links between gender, class and the `psy' disciplines. It argues that there is a connection between those understandings of `class' embedded within contemporary `psy' discourse and the concepts utilized to render class intelligible when the working classes became a target and object of psychiatry in the l9th century. By adopting a form of historical-discursive inquiry informed by poststructuralist ideas (Foucault, 1971, 1972) the role that the `psy' disciplines play(ed) in problematizing aspects of social existence and rendering them in relation to sets of normalizing judgements is examined. The article highlights that from psychiatry's inception in the 19th century it has been bound up with governing and regulating a specific conception of personhood, arguing that `class' is one such mechanism through which this conception of sociality is governed, managed and administer-ed.
Gender Relations, the Gendered Division of Labour and Health: The Case of the Women Factory Workers of Rio Tinto, Northeast Brazil, 1924-91
Authors: de Macêdo Maria Bernardete Ferreira
Published: June 2007

This article deals with the constitution of the subjectivity of women workers in Rio Tinto, Brazil. The problematic, based on their own words, was that women workers' bodies are simultaneously `beasts' and `machines', both animals and having `too little nature'. In documenting the way in which exploitative and oppressive work practices constitute the feminine body and mind, the article seeks to place the workers' double representation of themselves as the result of a psychological process, socially situated at the intersection of the relations of production and the social relations between the sexes. Pain and suffering are central features of this process.