scholarly journals We are the Process: Reflections on the Underestimation of Power in Students as Partners in Practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Kehler ◽  
Roselynn Verwood ◽  
Heather Smith
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Model Theory ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Pedagogical Theory ◽  
Embedded Power

The concept of Students as Partners (SaP) has much merit; however, further reflection on the power embedded in daily SaP processes and relationships is needed. In this article, we use the SaP model articulated by Healey, Flint, and Harrington (2014) to examine three reflections of SaP in practice from two different Canadian post-secondary contexts. Informed by critical pedagogical theory and feminist theory, we highlight sites of harmony and dissonance between the Healey, Flint, and Harrington (2014) model (theory) and our reflections (practice) and highlight embedded power relations in SaP processes and practices. We argue that there is often an underestimation of power in SaP. 

scholarly journals A critical reflexive politics of location, ‘feminist debt’ and thinking from the Global South

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 394-412
Author(s):  
Sumi Madhok
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Global South ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Conceptual Work ◽  
Politics Of Location

In this article, I raise a question and acknowledge a ‘feminist debt’. The ‘feminist debt’ is to the politics of location, and the question asks: what particular stipulations and enablements does a critical reflexive feminist politics of location put in place for knowledge production and for doing feminist theory? I suggest that there are at least three stipulations/enablements that a critical reflexive politics of location puts in place for knowledge production. Firstly, it demands/enables scholarly accounts to reveal their location within the prevailing entanglements of power relations and to highlight the politics of struggle that underpin these. Secondly, it demands/enables conceptual work from different geographical spaces – and in particular, it facilitates the production of conceptual work in non-standard background contexts and conditions. And finally, a critical reflexive politics of location demands/enables a methodological response to capture the different conceptual and analytical and empirical knowledges produced in different locations.

Emancipation without Utopia: Subjection, Modernity, and the Normative Claims of Feminist Critical Theory

Hypatia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Allen
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Diagnostic Analysis ◽  
Gendered Power ◽  
Depth And Complexity ◽  
Paradox Of Power

Feminist theory needs both explanatory‐diagnostic and anticipatory‐utopian moments in order to be truly critical and truly feminist. However, the explanatory‐diagnostic task of analyzing the workings of gendered power relations in all of their depth and complexity seems to undercut the very possibility of emancipation on which the anticipatory‐utopian task relies. In this paper, I take this looming paradox as an invitation to rethink our understanding of emancipation and its relation to the anticipatory‐utopian dimensions of critique, asking what conception of emancipation is compatible with a complex explanatory‐diagnostic analysis of contemporary gender domination as it is intertwined and entangled with race, class, sexuality, and empire. I explore this question through an analysis of two specific debates in which the paradoxical relationship between power and emancipation emerges in particularly salient and seemingly intractable forms: debates over subjection and modernity. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, I argue that a negativistic conception of emancipation offers the best way for feminist critical theory to transform the paradox of power and emancipation into a productive tension that can fuel critique.

scholarly journals The Double Entendre of Sex: Pornographies of Body and Society in Péter Esterházy’s Fiction

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 255-267
Author(s):  
Enikő Bollobás
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Rhetorical Criticism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Implied Author ◽  
Central European ◽  
Postmodern Fiction ◽  
Power Game ◽  
The One

Informed by feminist theory on the one hand and thematic and rhetorical criticism on the other, this article examines the components of discourse in two books by Péter Esterházy that share an emphatic attention to sexuality. The author interprets Esterházy’s discourse of sex as grounded in the figure of the double entendre, with a different function in each work. In Kis magyar pornográfia [‘A Little Hungarian Pornography’], vulgar corporeality and communist politics are shown as commensurate; both have a double meaning, with sex and politics referring both to themselves and to each other. In using one discourse as a cover for another, Esterházy continues the Central European Witz [‘joke’] tradition, giving a particular twist to it by making the transference of meaning two-directional, thereby assigning double meanings to sex and politics alike. In Egy nő [‘She Loves Me’], Esterházy attaches a double meaning to sex in a different manner; here sex is not a cover for something else but is shown to be reduced to itself, with a double meaning attached to its internal power relations. Sex is presented as a power game, in which man is repulsed by women yet is hopelessly attracted to them. Moreover, sex acts as the only tellable story taking the place of the untellable story of love. In this piece of postmodern fiction, the multiple perspectives bring about an interpretational uncertainty on the part of the reader as to whether sexist discourse is legitimized or subverted, and whether this legitimization and/or subversion is carried out by the narrator and/or by the implied author.

Development-Induced Dispossession, Displacement, and Embedded Power Relations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peer Ghulam Nabi Suhail
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Common Property ◽  
The Political ◽  
Land Grabbing ◽  
Common Property Resources ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Common ◽  
Embedded Power ◽  
Land Control

This chapter critically examines the class dynamics of land control and the influence of the elites and absentee landlords who take decisions on behalf of the subsistent peasantry. Yet another layer of control over land, the inter-dependence of the poor on the elites and vice-versa, has been analysed in detail. Simultaneously, the chapter also illustrates the peasant narrative about subordination, subalternity, and powerlessness. It mainly elucidates the peasant’s interpretations of loss caused by dispossession and displacement. It also discusses the viewpoints of the state, the corporate, and the political parties on the concept of the micro picture of who gets what and how. The chapter argues that HEP construction in Gurez has caused destruction of ecology and has adversely impacted the common property resources. Therefore, land-grabbing leads to a phenomenon where land is needed while labour is not.

scholarly journals Diffuse subjects and dispersed power: New materialist insights and cautionary lessons for international law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Jessie Hohmann
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Embedded Power ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article sets out the major tenets of new materialism and maps out its implications for international law. It considers what new materialism might offer for those of us working within international law in the way of new insights, resources, practices or politics. It first sets the contours of new materialism within the broader material turn. It then elaborates three main tenets of new materialism’s methodology, theory, and ontology: its attention to matter in its physicality; the embedded and entangled subject; and the vitality or agency of objects. The article focuses on how new materialist work might help us to understand, first, subjectivity and second, power and accountability in international law. It concludes that new materialist approaches offer important and compelling insights, working against entrenched categories and structures that continue to perpetuate or excuse violence and harm in international law’s doctrines and practices. These insights provide resources for rethinking power and subjectivity, and the role these play in international law. However, those of us working to consider how we can respond to pressing crises of justice and coexistence within international law may find new materialism most powerful when brought into relation, and deep conversation, with more structural methodologies. Notably ‘older’ (Marxist or historical) materialisms grasp embedded power relations and deep-rooted systemic harms in more concrete ways. This is, the article concludes, a conversation that international law scholars are well placed to contribute to, deepening both ‘old’ and ‘new’ materialist insights for international law.

Hybridised materialisms: The ‘twists and turns’ of materialities in feminist theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-281
Author(s):  
Najate Zouggari
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Materialisms ◽  
Materialist Feminism

This article examines the conceptualisation of materialities in feminist theory through two paradigmatic examples: (French) materialist feminism and new materialisms. What can be interpreted as an opposition between different paradigms can also be disrupted as long as we define what matters as a relation or a process rather than a substance or a lost paradise to which we should return. New materialisms indeed help to investigate aspects such as corporeality, human/non-human interaction and textures, but the role of feminist materialism is invaluable in highlighting the social structures of power relations; more than ever, it makes a decisive contribution to the understanding of domination, such as the social relations and hierarchies implied in femosecularism conceptualised in this article. Ultimately, the tool of hybridised materialisms aims to articulate the theoretical perspective of materialist feminism with that of the new materialisms – in order to avoid the binarism between materiality and culture.

scholarly journals Feminist Interpretations of the Holocaust

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Potter
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Feminist History ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Second Wave Feminism ◽  
Post Secondary Institution ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Post War ◽  
Experiences Of Women

The emergence of the study of the history of the Holocaust following the “silent years”, which occupied nearly two decades of the post-war era, coincided with the establishment of second wave feminism. Despite the creation of the discipline of Women’s and Gender Studies and the emerging variety of women’s history within post secondary institution, discussion of women in the Holocaust did not become a part of the discourse of history until the late seventies. In addition to the lag in addressing  the study of the history of women in the Holocaust, the application of feminist theory to Holocaust history was late to the academic conversation. Feminist history of the Holocaust was finally studied in the early eighties, in order to better understand not only women in the Holocaust but also the Holocaust more generally. However, the discourse failed to evolve and diversify as quickly as other forms of feminist history.   As a result of the perceived exceptionality of the Holocaust within the context of history and even within the more specified picture of the history of  genocide, the application of feminist theory as well as  the understanding of the experiences of women and  the implications of gender within the Holocaust remain relatively stunted within the context of Holocaust and feminist history.

scholarly journals Services and programming provided by post-secondary institutions for international students: experiences of select female students from Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mofiyinfoluwa Badmos
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
International Student ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Greater Toronto Area ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

The number of international students in Canada has been increasing over the years, as the Canadian government and educational institutions have begun to acknowledge their economic and cultural benefits (Alboim, 2011). This study explores the services currently provided by post-secondary institutions in the Greater Toronto Area to international students. More specifically, it is a gender-based analysis, exploring the specific needs (and if and how they are met) of female international students from Nigeria. Data were gathered from in-depth audio-recorded interviews with eight female international students from Nigeria and two international student advisors working in post-secondary institutions in the GTA. Analyzing the interviews showed that there are unique needs of international students from Nigeria and gender should be taken into account when considering their needs. The study utilizes post-colonial feminist theory and intersectionality as frameworks. It is hoped that this research will contribute to a greater understanding of the unique experiences and needs of some female international students from Nigeria. Key words: International Students, services, female, Canada, Nigeria

Storytelling/Narrative

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shari Stone-Mediatore
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Transnational Feminism ◽  
Standpoint Theory ◽  
Feminist Epistemology ◽  
Feminist Standpoint Theory ◽  
Feminist Standpoint ◽  
Politics Of Knowledge

This article traces debates within feminist theory since the 1980s over the critical and democratic potential of experience-based storytelling. Focusing on accounts of storytelling that have developed within feminist standpoint theory, transnational feminism, feminist democratic theory, and feminist epistemology, the article examines arguments that experience-based narratives are necessary for more rigorous and inclusive civic and scholarly discussions. The article also examines the challenges that have been posed to storytelling from within feminist theory, including analyses that highlight the power relations, exclusions, and cultural conventions that characterize storytelling itself. The article explores what we might learn about the politics of knowledge from such varied but persistent feminist engagements with storytelling.

Embodiment

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shatema Threadcraft
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The Body ◽  
Black Feminist Theory ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Western Philosophical Tradition

This chapter provides an overview of theories of embodiment drawn from the Western philosophical tradition and from white and black feminist theory. Challenging notions of a generic body, it traces how traditional accounts of embodiment substitute norms associated with a particular raced, classed, and gendered body for “the body.” Although white feminist theorists have demonstrated the androcentrism and the somatophobia of traditional accounts and offered important insights into the power relations of gendered embodiment, they have not fully addressed racialized embodiment and subjectivity. To overcome these lapses, the chapter turns to black feminist theory, poststructuralist analysis, and postcolonial theorization of necropower to demonstrate the importance of situating any analysis of embodiment in the context of concern with social justice.

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