scholarly journals The ethics of nobody I know: gender and the politics of description

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Laurie
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Ethical Practices ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Identification ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
Human Liberty ◽  
Social Encounters

Purpose – This paper aims to bring together feminist philosophy, phenomenology, and masculinity studies to consider the gendered formation of ethical practices, focusing on the construction of “male” and “female” identities in quotidian social encounters. While scholarship on masculinity has frequently focused on hegemonic modes of behaviour or normative gender relations, less attention has been paid to the “ethics of people I know” as informal political resources, ones that shapes not only conversations about how one should act (“people I know don’t do that”), but also about the diversity of situations that friends, acquaintances or strangers could plausibly have encountered (“that hasn’t happened to anyone I know”). Design/methodology/approach – The paper rethinks mundane social securities drawing on Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, and Sara Ahmed to consider anecdotal case studies around gender recognition and political practice, and in doing so also develops the notion of interpellation in relation to everyday ethical problems. Findings – The paper suggests that inquiry into diverse modes of quotidian complicities – or what de Beauvoir calls the “snares” of a deeply human liberty – can be useful for describing the mixtures of sympathy, empathy, and disavowal in the performance of pro-feminist and queer-friendly masculinities or masculinist identities. It also suggests that the adoption of an “anti-normative” politics is insufficient for negotiating the problems of description and recognition involved in the articulation of gendered social experiences. Originality/value – This paper approaches questions around political identification commonly considered in queer theory from the viewpoint of descriptive practices themselves, and thus reorients problems of recognition and interpellation towards the expression of ethical statements, rather than focusing solely on the objects of such statements.

The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Rich Diversity ◽  
Trans Studies ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
The Rich

This exciting new Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the contemporary state of the field. The editors’ introduction and forty-five essays cover feminist critical engagements with philosophy and adjacent scholarly fields, as well as feminist approaches to current debates and crises across the world. Authors cover topics ranging from the ways in which feminist philosophy attends to other systems of oppression, and the gendered, racialized, and classed assumptions embedded in philosophical concepts, to feminist perspectives on prominent subfields of philosophy. The first section contains chapters that explore feminist philosophical engagement with mainstream and marginalized histories and traditions, while the second section parses feminist philosophy’s contributions to with numerous philosophical subfields, for example metaphysics and bioethics. A third section explores what feminist philosophy can illuminate about crucial moral and political issues of identity, gender, the body, autonomy, prisons, among numerous others. The Handbook concludes with the field’s engagement with other theories and movements, including trans studies, queer theory, critical race, theory, postcolonial theory, and decolonial theory. The volume provides a rigorous but accessible resource for students and scholars who are interested in feminist philosophy, and how feminist philosophers situate their work in relation to the philosophical mainstream and other disciplines. Above all it aims to showcase the rich diversity of subject matter, approach, and method among feminist philosophers.

Queering critical literacies: disidentifications and queer futurity in an afterschool storytelling and roleplaying game

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Storm ◽  
Karis Jones
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
School Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Societal Norms ◽  
Critical Literacies ◽  
One Year ◽  
Theory Framework

Purpose This paper aims to describe the critical literacies of high school students engaged in a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project focused on a roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons, in a queer-led afterschool space. The paper illustrates how youth critique and resist unjust societal norms while simultaneously envisioning queer utopian futures. Using a queer theory framework, the authors consider how youth performed disidentifications and queer futurity. Design/methodology/approach This study is a discourse analysis of approximately 85 hours of audio collected over one year. Findings Youth engaged in deconstructive critique, disidentifications and queer futurity in powerful enactments of critical literacies that involved simultaneous resistance, subversion, imagination and hope as youth envisioned queer utopian world-building through their fantasy storytelling. Youth acknowledged the injustice of the present while radically envisioning a utopian future. Originality/value This study offers an empirical grounding for critical literacies centered in queer theory and explores how youth engage with critical literacies in collaboratively co-authored texts. The authors argue that queering critical literacies potentially moves beyond deconstructive critique while simultaneously opening spaces for resistance, imagination and utopian world-making through linguistic and narrative-based tools.

Queer Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gayle Salamon
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Lesbian And Gay ◽  
Gay Studies ◽  
Lesbian And Gay Studies ◽  
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

This chapter offers an account of central issues and themes in queer theory, with particular attention to the challenges it has posed to the concepts of normativity, identity, and the category of “woman.” It explores queer theory’s emergence from lesbian and gay studies, and considers its relation to feminist philosophy and trans theory. The chapter outlines the founding contributions of Judith Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, along with several other influential queer theorists, and traces the concept of heteronormativity from its central place in queer theory’s earliest works to more recent reconsiderations.

Feminist philosophy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elinor Mason
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Mary Wollstonecraft ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
False Consciousness ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Way

Feminist philosophy is philosophy that is aimed at understanding and challenging the oppression of women. Feminist philosophy examines issues that are traditionally found in practical ethics and political philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of language. In fact, feminist concerns can appear in almost all areas of traditional philosophy. Feminist philosophy is thus not a kind of philosophy; rather, it is unified by its focus on issues of concern to feminists. Feminist philosophers question the structures and institutions that regulate our lives. When Mary Wollstonecraft was writing in 1792, the institutions excluded and subordinated women explicitly. Wollstonecraft, as the title of her book (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) makes clear, was extending the enlightenment idea that men have basic human rights, to women. Wollstonecraft argued that women should not be seen as importantly different from men: there may be differences due to different upbringing, but, Wollstonecraft argues, there is no reason to think men and women differ in important ways, and women should be given the same education and opportunities as men. What seemed radical in 1792 may not seem radical now. Yet gender inequality persists. Thus philosophers must look beyond the formal rules and laws to the underlying structures that cause and perpetuate oppression. The feminist philosopher is always asking, ‘is there some element of this practice that depends on gender in some way?’ Feminist philosophers examine and critique the way we structure our families and reproduction, the cultural practices we engage in, such as prostitution and pornography, the way we think, and speak and value each other as knowers and thinkers. In order to examine these issues the feminist philosopher may need an improved conceptual toolbox: we need to understand such complex concepts as intersectionality, false consciousness, and of course, gender itself. Is gender biologically determined – is it something natural and immutable, or is it socially constructed? As Simone de Beauvoir puts it, ‘one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’. Feminist philosophers tend to argue that gender is all (or mostly) socially constructed, that it is something we invent rather than discover. Gender is nonetheless an important part of our world, and feminist philosophy aims to understand how it works.

How Indian home-grown businesses outsmart the MNCs

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 849-869
Author(s):  
Swati Singh ◽  
Ralf Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
Ethical Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regulatory Processes

Purpose This paper aims to focus on how home-grown Indian companies explored the potential of Indian middle class and realized an opportunity to seize the market gap not catered by MNCs in India. Across three distinct business contexts, the authors describe the companies’ procedures of developing segment-specific offerings. Doing so, the authors outline novel strategies implemented by these companies to cater to specific needs of the segments. Design/methodology/approach Seizing Bandura’s (1986) framework that stresses on the role of cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective and self-regulatory processes, the authors develop a four-layered model of the Indian middle class consumers. Building upon this model, they took multiple case (three caselets) approach for illustrating the strategies of home-grown companies. The authors identify their potential to explore the unknown terrains of various market segments and rework with unique local solutions. Findings The study highlights the power of home-grown companies over MNCs in terms of better market understanding and realistic offerings best suited to their needs. Across the divergent business contexts the companies’ strategies have four features in common: customer targeting and developing; localization of business models, particularly services; relating the products to the Indian society; and ethnocentrism and pride. Research limitations/implications This study gives priority to a “thick” description of the proceedings without claiming causality. The authors limit this qualitative investigation to pinpointing congruence and contradictions to previous established results. Practical implications A key implication of this paper is the relevance of linking firm’s strategy to social-psychological development of customers in emerging economies component. This study provides critical insights for both managers and policymakers on the economic and social upswing as socially responsible and ethical practices are likely to gain public awareness. Originality/value The study’s originality springs from understanding the domestic company’s strategies when facing the pressure of (mainly Western) MNCs entering the emerging economies markets. While the latter takes advantage of economies of scale, country of origin effects and the powerful brands, the home-grown businesses are forced to develop divergent advantages and capabilities. Notably, earlier literature focused on changed demand pattern brought by MNCs in emerging economies and not on later part whereby, home-grown companies carve a space for themselves with specially designed improved products and innovative strategies.

Foreigners, fakes and flycatchers: stereotypes, social encounters and the problem of discomfort on the street in Arusha, Tanzania

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-416
Author(s):  
Martin Loeng
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Urban Tourism ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Connect Space

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to research on the interrelations between urban tourism, travelling and landscapes. It shows how young visitors to the tourism-reliant city of Arusha, northern Tanzania, experience and interpret discomfiting encounters with street sellers by drawing on stereotypes circulating in guidebooks, online forums and in the tourism industry. In turn, such re-interpreted encounters are increasingly seen as problematic for the city’s development of urban tourism. Design/methodology/approach The author draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with tourist-product street sellers in Arusha and Moshi, Tanzania in 2015–2017. With detail-oriented focus on social interaction and communication, the author has used participant observation and interviews to understand the perspectives and actions involved. Complementing this, the author draws on interviews with tour companies and local authorities to connect everyday occurrences with broader political, economic and urban transformations. Findings This paper explores the interrelation between changing urban landscapes, gentrification and burgeoning urban tourism by highlighting not only how streets are created and sought to be re-created but how also re-interpreted stories and stereotypes fundamentally influence how it is understood by local authorities. As the consumption of place, shopping and foreigners’ experiences take centre stage in Arusha’s urban development project, practices and people that are re-interpreted as causes of discomfort, become objects of ordering and discipline. Originality/value This paper emphasizes that the social encounters beyond dichotomies of host–guest relationships are a fruitful and important means of investigating how “encounters” connect space to power, the street to urban planning and mundane on-the-street interactions to processes of transformation and gentrification. This paper presents a reading of “landscapes” not as a text, but as a series of encounters that catch our attention when and where they break our norms, or the norms of others.

Consumer ethics: insights from business professionals

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 664-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence W.T. Lo ◽  
Haksin Chan ◽  
Felix Tang ◽  
Kwan-Yu Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Consumer Ethics ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Consumer Education ◽  
Ethical Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Executives ◽  
Unethical Consumer Behavior ◽  
Categorical Structure ◽  
Business Practitioners

PurposeThis research aims to generate new insights into consumer ethics by tapping into business executives' first-hand experience. The overarching goal of this novel, discovery-oriented approach is to illuminate the interactive relationships between business and consumer ethics, and to offer contextualized insights into consumers' (un)ethical behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThree focus group interviews were conducted with senior business executives representing nine different industry sectors. Thematic analysis was performed to identify key themes for an integrative model.FindingsFour key themes emerged, highlighting: (1) the mutual influence between business and consumer ethics, (2) the nature and intensity of consumer ethics, (3) the dual influence of digital communication, and (4) the partial influence of consumer education. The themes gave rise to an integrative conceptual model.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was limited somewhat by the small and judgmental sample.Practical implicationsConsumers' growing demands for business ethics underscore the need for companies to elevate ethical considerations. The amplified consumer voice on social media is dreaded by business practitioners and is regarded as unethical consumer behavior to be actively managed.Social implicationsBusiness and consumer ethics can mutually influence each other in a benign or vicious circle. Consumer education is effective in some but not all domains.Originality/valueBusiness practitioners' insights reveal (1) the interactivity of business and consumer ethics and (2) the diversity of (un)ethical consumer behaviors. They point to the need for an enriched definition of consumer ethics and an expansion on the categorical structure of consumers' (un)ethical practices.

scholarly journals Gender research in hospitality and tourism management: time to change the guard

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1861-1879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelagh K. Mooney
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Gender Studies ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gender Research ◽  
Tourism Management ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Hospitality And Tourism Management ◽  
Hospitality And Tourism

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain the problem with how gender is positioned in hospitality and tourism management studies. It recommends critical theories to investigate how gender is researched in the sector’s academic and institutional systems. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual study explains contemporary gender theories and gives examples of relevant hospitality and tourism management studies. A four point critical agenda for researching gender is proposed and justified. Findings The study highlights how the focus on “female leadership” as different from the male norm and the use of traditional theoretical framings reinforce stereotypes about the primacy of women’s domestic commitments to their detriment. Research limitations/implications A limitation of this academy focussed study is that it has not recommended specific initiatives to combat specific issues of gender discrimination in hospitality and tourism employment. A further limitation is that the primary focus was on critical management theory to explain heteronormative based gender discrimination. It did not discuss queer theory. Practical implications In addition, a new research agenda, steps are proposed to change the masculine culture. Hospitality and tourism universities and research institutions should review men’s/women’s/gender diverse representation at leadership levels. Critical gender research approaches may also be fostered by sectorial conference streams and journal special issues and university graduate research students should be taught to design such studies. Social implications The use of contemporary approaches in gender studies will enable researchers to propose more targeted equality and diversity management actions for industry. They will also assist educators to better design curricula that protect and promote the interests of women studying a hospitality, tourism or events degree and those who identify as gender diverse. Originality/value The paper challenges the masculine status quo in hospitality and tourism management gender studies, arguing that adherence to traditional orthodoxies has stifled the development of critical paradigms and methodologies. Its key contribution is to reveal the advantages that critical gender theorising can bring to further the aim of gender equality by showing practical applications.

The current behavioural patterns witnessed of the customers/clients/players in the personal real estate market in Sri Lanka

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-228
Author(s):  
Vidanage Pemananda Karunaratne
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Real Estate Market ◽  
Observational Research ◽  
Ethical Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
State Sector ◽  
Behavioural Patterns

Purpose Although the personal real estate market business seems to be an upcoming flourishing economic venture in Sri Lanka, the intellectual investigator could invariably visualize a magnitude of flaws and unethical practices in operation in its current behavioural patterns, on the one hand, displayed by the not-so-honest buyers who resort to various deceptions in duping the sellers and, on the other, by the unprofessional activities of the agents/brokers who act as middlemen or intermediaries in bringing the buyer and the seller together. Nevertheless, it is found through observational research and empirical evidence that such plethora of malpractices happening in this economic sphere could be obviated by inculcating the much-needed professionalism among the brokering community. In such a scenario, the brokers become capable of educating both the buyer and the seller in the ethical practices governing the personal real estate business. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Observational research and empirical evidence are gathered from the relevant venues and scenarios. Findings In order to achieve this end, it is recommended that both the state sector and private sector in Sri Lanka should initiate immediate action in providing valuable study courses in the area of real estate marketing culminating in certificates and diplomas awarded to the qualified agents/brokers. Research limitations/implications In this research paper, the author opts to limit his study only to the personal real estate market in Sri Lanka. Said differently, the study will, inter-alia, explore the behavioural patterns of the individuals who are desirous of purchasing a land or a house property for their own personal use. Originality/value This type of research paper has never been presented in relation to the personal real estate market in Sri Lanka. Thus, it explores the behavioural patterns of the various players who are engaged in the personal real estate business in Sri Lanka currently.

The Difference of Feminist Philosophy: The Case of Shame

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Bonnie Mann
Keyword(s):  
Female Subject ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Phenomenological Inquiry ◽  
Affective Bond ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Feminist Phenomenology ◽  
Field Of Inquiry

This essay is written in two parts. The first is a commentary on the affective politics of philosophy as a discipline. The theme here is philosophy’s reverence problem, an affective bond to the teacher and the text, which is threatened or even injured by feminist philosophy. Feminist philosophy emerges as disruptive irreverence in the midst of the discipline, and injured reverence becomes a powerful prereflective motivation for resistance to feminist thought. The second part of the essay is an exploration of the field of inquiry called feminist phenomenology. Is feminist phenomenology simply phenomenology from another point of view, that of the embodied female subject? Is it conducted, in other words, in a space beyond politics and power where the difference of this subject discloses values and meanings that have not yet been thematized in phenomenological inquiry, but which phenomenology is already competent to pursue? Or does feminist phenomenology disrupt or transform phenomenological practice as we traditionally understand it? In this paper, I claim that phenomenology must be critical in order to be feminist, that it must disrupt phenomenological practice rather than simply “applying” it to a new object, “woman.” In the work of Simone de Beauvoir we find a different phenomenological practice that feminists can count as a positive inheritance. The real difference of feminist phenomenology, however, only emerges in the practice itself. In order to capture something about this difference I take the phenomenon of shame as a case study, and compare three recent phenomenological accounts of shame.

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