scholarly journals Grand Challenges, Feminist Answers

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 263178772110203
Author(s):  
Yvonne Benschop
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Situated Knowledge ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Feminist Organization

Feminist organization theories develop knowledge about how organizations and processes of organizing shape and are shaped by gender, in intersection with race, class and other forms of social inequality. The politics of knowledge within management and organization studies tend to marginalize and silence feminist theorizing on organizations, and so the field misses out on the interdisciplinary, sophisticated conceptualizations and reflexive modes of situated knowledge production provided by feminist work. To highlight the contributions of feminist organization theories, I discuss the feminist answers to three of the grand challenges that contemporary organizations face: inequality, technology and climate change. These answers entail a systematic critique of dominant capitalist and patriarchal forms of organizing that perpetuate complex intersectional inequalities. Importantly, feminist theorizing goes beyond mere critique, offering alternative value systems and unorthodox approaches to organizational change, and providing the radically different ways of knowing that are necessary to tackle the grand challenges. The paper develops an aspirational ideal by sketching the contours of how we can organize for intersectional equality, develop emancipatory technologies and enact a feminist ethics of care for the human and the natural world.

KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND DECOLONISATION — NOT ONLY AFRICAN CHALLENGES

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning Melber
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Correct Answer ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
A Value ◽  
Social Interests ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
Normative Standard ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

The following arguments are in support of a “renegotiation of the terms of knowledge production” (Horáková 2016: 47). By doing so, this essay sides with demands by others (for example, Keim et al 2014) that “the need to move towards non-hegemonic forms of cooperation between academic realms and forms of knowledge is a practical-material as well as an intellectual task”, while “no success can be achieved without relentless criticisms on inhered spurious certainties” (Lagos 2015). Last but not least, this reasoning is influenced by the conviction that ‘neutral’ knowledge in a value-free vacuum detached from social interests does not exist: “ways of knowing and resulting bodies of knowledge are always historical and they are deeply political” (Bliesemann and Kostic 2017: 6). By pointing to the relevance of hierarchical structures and power, this essay concurswith Halvorsen (2016: 303) that, “the academic profession must rid itself once and for all of the notion that knowledge is invariably ‘positive’, that every question has one correct answer (the truth), and that this is to be obtained through one correct method”. After all —… knowledge of Africa has been produced within what we might define as a Western episteme. The theoretical, conceptual and methodological resources through which Africa is to this day rendered visible and intelligible speak from a place, about that place and in accordance with criteria of plausibility that use that particular place as the normative standard for truth (Macamo 2016: 326).I concur with Smith (1999) that true decolonisation is supposed to be concerned with having a “(m)ore critical understanding of the underlying assumptions, motivations and values that inform research practices” (Wilson 2001: 214). This is a necessary reminder that we should always include critical reflections when interStrategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 40, No 1 Henning Melber rogating our own internalised value systems, which we often tend to understandand apply unchallenged as the dominant (if not only) norm.

scholarly journals ‘Placing’ Pedagogy and Curriculum Within an Ecological Worldview

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodi MacQuarrie ◽  
Gillian Diane Smith
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Human World ◽  
Pedagogy And Curriculum ◽  
Ecological Worldview ◽  
Ways Of Being

Surveying the last two centuries, one might easily deduce the purpose of education has been to induct, or rather indoctrinate, students into a culture’s dominant ontology and epistemology. In modern Western culture’s prevailing education systems, this usually means atomistic, dualistic, and competitive ways of being and disembodied, decontextualized and dispassionate ways of knowing that focus on passively acquiring abstracted and fragmented knowledge. Given our current predicament of human alienation and ecological crisis, we suggest a new worldview is needed to reconceptualize human ways of living and being in, indeed valuing, our place within the ecosphere. In contrast to the modernist, mechanistic world view, which deems the natural world detached, valueless, and available for human exploitation, an ecological worldview advocates a human sense of self as interconnected and unified with the natural world. Moved by the work of philosophers, eco-theorists and eco-educators, this paper explores the role of the more-than-human world in pedagogical and curricular processes and practices that align more closely with an ecological worldview. Our proposed praxis of ecological education was introduced and put into action with a group of educators at the Education With/Out Borders (EWOB) symposium at Sasamat, British Columbia, in October, 2008. An overview of the exercise and highlights from the group’s concluding discussion of the experience are also presented.

Walking the complexities between two worlds: A personal story of epistemological tensions in knowledge production

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 628-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karun Kishor Karki
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Many Worlds ◽  
The West ◽  
Personal Story ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Indigenous Ways Of Knowing

In this article, I tell the autoethnographic stories of epistemological tensions emerging from my entanglement with Indigenous and Western ways of knowing in my journey towards my doctoral research in social work. I link these tensions to broader socio-political and historical tensions that tie together the West and the Global South. I highlight the sharp contrasts and contradictions as well as the nuanced contestations in the production of knowledge. I follow a chronological order to organize my narratives into four parts. In the first part, I describe my experiences of walking in two worlds. In the second part, I explore how I knew what I knew, depicting my indigenous ways of knowing. In the third part, I examine Western ways of knowing, depicting the subjugation of my indigenous ways of knowing. In the final part, I address the hybrid ways of knowing that I embody by walking in many worlds.

“You need to do your research”: Vaccines, contestable science, and maternal epistemology

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa L. Carrion
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Maternal Experience ◽  
Vaccine Refusal ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
Childhood Vaccines ◽  
The Ideal

Individuals who refuse vaccines are often painted as anti-science or ill-informed. However, drawing from interviews with 50 mothers who refused one or more vaccines ( n = 50), results from this study suggest that such depictions lack nuance and may detract from the ability of communication efforts to effectively address concerns. In particular, participants’ explanations for vaccine refusal relied on paradoxical arguments about science and expertise. On one hand, participants defended the ideal of science but criticized existing research for failing to meet requisite standards. On the other hand, they suggested that maternal experience could supplant the ways of knowing that give rise to such claims. Collectively, these explanations reflected critical, postmodern, and feminist perspectives on science and knowledge production and can help explain the persistence of the controversy surrounding childhood vaccines in the United States.

Exploring the place of spirituality in Canadian health promotion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Gerhardt-Strachan
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Sampling Frame ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Commission Report ◽  
Social Environmental

Abstract The field of health promotion advocates a socioecological approach to health that addresses a variety of physical, social, environmental, political and cultural factors. Encouraging a holistic approach, health promotion examines many aspects of health and wellbeing, including physical, mental, sexual, community, social and ecological health. Despite this holism, there is a noticeable absence of discussion surrounding spirituality and spiritual health. This research study explored how leading scholars in Canadian health promotion understand the place of spirituality in health promotion. Using the fourth edition of Health Promotion in Canada (Rootman et al., 2017) as the sampling frame of recognized leaders in the field, 13 semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with authors from the book. This study is situated within a critical health promotion approach that utilizes methodologies aiming for social justice, equity and ecological sustainability. I argue that by avoiding spirituality within health promotion frameworks and education, the secularism of health promotion and its underlying values of Eurocentric knowledge production and science remain invisible and rarely critiqued. This study intends to open up possibilities for centering spiritual and non-Western epistemologies and ways of knowing that have been marginalized, such as Indigenous understandings of health and wellbeing. Restoring right relations with Indigenous peoples in Canada has taken on new urgency with the calls to action of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission report (NCTR, 2015). This is one important way that health promotion can fulfill its promise of being inclusive, relevant and effective for human and planetary wellbeing.

scholarly journals Considering Indigenous Research Methodologies: Critical Reflections by an Indigenous Knower

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Gone
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Studies ◽  
Indigenous Research ◽  
Research Methodologies ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Epistemologies ◽  
Indigenous Research Methodologies ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
University Settings

Within the domain of academic inquiry by Indigenous scholars, it is increasingly common to encounter enthusiasm surrounding Indigenous Research Methodologies (IRMs). IRMs are designated approaches and procedures for conducting research that are said to reflect long-subjugated Indigenous epistemologies (or ways of knowing). A common claim within this nascent movement is that IRMs express logics that are unique and distinctive from academic knowledge production in “Western” university settings, and that IRMs can result in innovative contributions to knowledge if and when they are appreciated in their own right and on their own terms. The purpose of this article is to stimulate exchange and dialogue about the present and future prospects of IRMs relative to university-based academic knowledge production. To that end, I enter a critical voice to an ongoing conversation about these matters that is still taking shape within Indigenous studies circles.

scholarly journals Through the Looking Glass Space to New Ways of Knowing: A Personal Research Narrative

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Brand
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Health Professional ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Looking Glass ◽  
Personal Research

This article describes how writing personal research narratives during my doctoral research journey challenged my role as a health professional and my personal beliefs and values in fundamental ways. In qualitative narrative inquiry, the reflexive account of the research experience is a key element in conducting ethical, rigorous, and meaningful forms of qualitative research. However, as a novice researcher, I was unprepared for the unlearning journey I experienced during the research process. This uncomfortable experience cut to the core of my identity by dismantling unexamined belief and value systems that lay dormant and hidden from my everyday consciousness as a health professional. In the spirit of transparency, reflexivity and “good” qualitative research, this article presents an explicit account of my exquisite and sometimes excruciating reflexive research journey that profoundly changed how I relate and work with people. I believe health care professionals should adopt a narrative view of experience that creates the “looking glass space” to locate their own stories within the broader socio-cultural and historical context of their lives, especially in relation to their health professional identity. Exchanging diminishing dialogue with deeper dialogue honours both the complexities of young peoples’ lives and social worlds and encompasses socially-conscious methodologies of promise and hope.

Stretching Situated Knowledge

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-105
Author(s):  
Milja Kurki
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Situated Knowledge ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Standpoint Epistemology ◽  
Critical Social

This chapter, first of three to develop relational cosmology in conversation with critical social theory and IR theory, argues that at the heart of relational cosmology lies a commitment to situated knowledge. This perspective on knowledge production is similar in some regards to standpoint epistemology but also diverges from it in key respects. The chapter argues that IR scholarship can benefit from close engagement with relational cosmology suggestions as to how our knowledge is limited and how we might need to ‘deal with it’, especially in the social sciences, where there is a tendency to glorify the role of the human in knowing the human.

Gendering Sustainability in Management Education: Research and Pedagogy as Space for Critical Engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 852-886
Author(s):  
Jorge A. Arevalo
Keyword(s):  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Working Environments ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
Feminist Organization ◽  
Integration Strategies ◽  
Management Students ◽  
Business Curricula

Gender issues have been well conceptualized in feminist organization studies. However, gender research has had limited practical effects, in part because it has not been well conceptualized in the sustainability in management education (SiME) scholarship; nor has it been adequately prioritized in management and business curricula. I argue that given the persistence of discrimination, segregation, sexual oppression, inequality, and lack of empowerment of women (to name a few . . . ), mandatory gender education is needed to equip management students as they enter diverse and equal opportunity working environments. Integrating SiME and Feminist Organization literatures, I develop a multidimensional framework for conceptualizing gender studies in the classroom. This theoretical framework offers faculty and students an evolving pathway to analyze gender and SiME with perspectives in feminist organization studies. I conclude by reflecting on integration strategies for creating space in research and pedagogy for the critical engagement of gender debates in our programs.

UN Women’s feminist engagement with governance by indicators in the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-366
Author(s):  
Sara Rose Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Development Goals

The rise of evidence-based policy has brought with it an increase in the use of indicators and data-driven global projects. The United Nations System has used the indicator-based Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) projects to govern policy from above. Of particular interest in this article is how indicators are used to govern gender equality initiatives within the Goals. By using ‘governance by indicators’ as a framework for understanding global policy processes, we can better understand how the power of indicators can help or hinder progress towards gender equality depending on the extent to which it renders gendered concerns visible. Studying indicators in this forum also illuminates spaces of contestation, where policy actors can debate indicators and reshape meaning. Based on this framework, this article explores UN Women’s feminist critique of measurement and knowledge production in the MDGs and SDGs. Looking through their feminist lens applied to this form of knowledge production can yield a better understanding of the use of indicators in shaping evidence-based policy from the global level. In recognizing the value of quantification and data-driven evidence in policy, this article speaks to the tension between feminist critique of quantitative knowledge production and the feminist approach’s welcoming of multiple ways of knowing.

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