Lia Bryant

The Detraditionalization of Occupational Identities in Farming in South Australia

This paper uses grounded theory to uncover the occupational identities of men and women who farm, and to build an empirically constructed typology of occupational identities in farming. The narratives of 22 men and 22 women from diverse farm types and two regions of South Australia are used to explore subjective meanings associated with work, the farm and self. The typology shows a shift in meanings associated with work, ‘the farm’ and gender characteristics across time and the typology. Globalizing influences are identified which have detraditionalized identities in farming and these are: changing relations between men and women and changing expectations about how producers should engage and orientate themselves toward the general market. A reflexivity about gender and a reflexivity about farming practice were identified as the two most important recurring features in the formation of identities that were non-traditional. The paper therefore investigates why some individuals are more likely than others to be reflexive about gender and gender relations and/or farming practice. It explores the inter-relationship between ‘self-reflexivity’ and the structural environment in which the construction and reconstruction of identity occurs.

The fallen hero: masculinity, shame and farmer suicide in Australia

The drought-stricken Australian rural landscape, cultures of farming masculinity and an economy of value, moral worth and pride form a complex matrix of discourses that shape subjective dynamics that render suicide a possibility for distressed farmers. However, the centrality of a ‘mental health’ perspective and reified notions of ‘stoicism’ within this discursive field operate to exclude consideration of the ways in which cultural identity is linked to emotions. To illuminate and explore complex connections between subjectivity, moral worth and affect in relation to understanding farmer suicide, this article draws on theory and literature on agrarian discourses of masculine subjectivity and shame to analyze empirical data from interviews with farmers during times of environmental, social and economic crisis. The idealized notion of the farming man as ‘Aussie battler’ emerges from romantic agrarian mythology in which pride and self-worth are vested in traditional values of hard work, struggle and self-sacrifice. However, the structural context of agriculture, as it is shaped by the political economy of neoliberalism, threatens farm economic viability and is eroding the pride, self-worth and masculine identity of farmers. The article suggests that the notion of the ‘fallen hero’ captures a discursive shift of a masculinity ‘undone’, a regress from the powerful position of masculine subjectivity imbued with pride to one of shame that is of central importance to understanding how suicide emerges as a possibility for farmers.

Gender, embodiment and place: The gendering of skills shortages in the Australian mining and food and beverage processing industries

This article examines skills shortages in the context of the Australian mining and food and beverage processing industries. Drawing on Acker’s concept of inequality regimes, we examine gendered and classed bodies in relation to place. We argue that organizations are situated in place, and here, Australian rural places. We also argue that while specific industries are important to the rural economies, these economies are influenced by the gendered politics of place that occur at the site where the enterprise is located. Guided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ quantitative analyses of workforce profiles, and predominantly drawing on qualitative interviews with Human Resource (HR) personnel, we analyse the gendering of work, place and organizations across three themes: a) women, work and reproducing bodies; b) male embodiment, organization and place; and c) absent bodies: women and apprenticeships. The purpose is to show that assumptions about gender, embodiment and place influence how organizations understand and respond to skills shortages in the given industries.

Exploring the Gendering of Space by Using Memory Work as a Reflexive Research Method

How can memory work be used as a pathway to reflect on the situatedness of the researcher and field of inquiry? The key aim of this article is to contribute to knowledge about the gendering of space developed by feminist geographers by using memory work as a reflexive research method. The authors present a brief review of feminist literature that covers the local and global symbolic meanings of spaces and the power relations within which space is experienced. From the literature they interpret themes of the interconnections between space, place, and time; sexualization of public space; and the bodily praxis of using space. Memories of gendered bodies and landscapes, movement and restricted space, and the disrupting of space allow the exploration of conceptualizations within the literature as active, situated, fragmented, and contextualized.

How Can the Intersections between Gender, Class, and Sexuality Be Translated to an Empirical Agenda?

The social categories of gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity, and their relation to subjectivities have received theoretical attention, but their empirical interrelationships remain underexplored. In this article, the authors consider how class, gender, and sexuality interrelate in practice by drawing and reflecting on (a) an empirical study of women in the wine industry that they have undertaken and (b) a selection of contemporary works that links multiple social categories. In conclusion, they argue that to investigate power and tension within and across multiple social categories meaningfully, a useful approach is to combine life histories with theories of embodiment.

Australian-Chinese families caring for elderly relatives

ABSTRACT Caring for elderly relatives has predominately been explored from the standpoint of the needs and experiences of the hegemonic culture in multicultural countries like Australia, Canada and the United States of America. Australia, in particular, has paid scant attention to cultural and linguistically diverse groups in relation to caring for the aged. In this paper we focus on Chinese-Australian families caring for elderly relatives. We explore the traditional value of filial piety which is said to underpin social norms and beliefs about caring for aged parents in Chinese cultures. Specifically we draw on four in-depth interviews with Chinese-Australian care-givers of elderly relatives to identify meanings of filial piety and practices of filial piety. Findings indicate that while filial piety is still an important value in caring for the aged, meanings about how to practise filial piety are changing and vary across families.

‘Nappy bags instead of handbags’: Young motherhood and self-identity

This article presents the findings of an Australian study that aimed to explore how young women construct their self-identity while negotiating motherhood and the associated transition to adulthood. Teenage motherhood, within contemporary discourse, often attracts negative assumptions about young women’s worth and ability to parent. This study used a combination of semi-structured interviews and memory work to draw out women’s stories and give voice to their experiences of becoming mothers. Three key themes were induced from the findings: pride and self, autonomy and change, and resilience. This article explores these themes that are, in many ways, a resistance and challenge to dominant public discourse, and relates them to how young women ascribe positive meaning to their experiences of becoming mothers. The findings demonstrate women’s autonomy in shaping their lives in the way they forge relationships and raise their children. The article concludes by examining the implications of meaning-making in relation to self-identity for young mothers to inform service provision.

Location and Unlocation: Examining Gender and Telephony through Autoethnographic Textual and Visual Methods

Studies on gender and telephony tend to be quantitative and depict the purposes for which women and men use mobile telephones and landlines. Qualitative studies on the topic predominantly rely on face-to-face interviews to examine how telephone use genders space. We suggest these traditional methods of data collection leave unexamined the emotional and social relationships that emerge and are enabled by telephone use, which at times reconfigure and gender social spaces. In this article we present a collaborative autoethnographic inquiry based on our own telephone lives. We introduce a reflexive visual and textual methodological design, specifically diary notes, memory work, and photography, developed from our lives as researcher and researched. We examine an important theme in our findings, the physical placement of the telephone and the phone holders awareness of the physicality of the telephone, which illustrates the importance of our methodological choices. We show how the placement of the phone by the users both genders space and creates emotional spaces.

Tele-social work and mental health in rural and remote communities in Australia:

Rural and remote communities often have complex and diverse mental health needs and inadequate mental health services and infrastructure. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide an array of potentially innovative and cost-effective means for connecting rural and remote communities to specialist mental health practitioners, services, and supports, irrespective of physical location. However, despite this potential, a review of Australian and international literature reveals that ICT has not attained widespread uptake into social work practice or implementation in rural communities. This article reviews the social work literature on ICT, draws on research on tele-psychology and tele-education, and provides suggestions on how to enhance engagement with ICT by social workers to implement and provide mental health services and supports tailored to community values, needs, and preferences that are commensurate with the values of the social work profession.

Young men, public space and the production of fear in downtown Adelaide

This article considers the interconnection between certain spaces and ‘fear-inducing’ masculine gender performances. Particularly, it looks at the night-time use of downtown spaces by young men, reconsidering existing theory and developing new methodology to examine how and why young men use specific areas to engage in aggressive, hyper-masculine gender performances. By considering issues of space and gender alongside use of new media, this article suggests a method of investigating the production of fear by reviewing the cultural and spatial literacies of those who reputedly produce it.