Rachel Thwaites

Making a choice or taking a stand? Choice feminism, political engagement and the contemporary feminist movement:

Choice feminism is a popular form of contemporary feminism, encouraging women to embrace the opportunities they have in life and to see the choices they make as justified and always politically acceptable. Though this kind of feminism appears at first glance to be tolerant and inspiring, its narratives also bring about a political stagnation as discussion, debate and critical judgement of the actions of others are discouraged in the face of being deemed unsupportive and a ‘bad’ feminist. Choice feminism also encourages neoliberal values of individualism and consumerism, while downplaying the need for political and collective action against systematic inequalities. Yet in order to succeed in creating change for women, debate needs to occur, and not all decisions can be supported if they act to further inequality and a patriarchal status quo. In this article, I would like to argue for the continued need to engage politically with other feminists and with the status of the movement as a whole, by critiquing choice feminism and looking empirically at how discussion and dissent can be silenced by the choice narrative. The empirical data in this article will focus on online discussions of naming on marriage to illustrate the wider theoretical argument.

Narratives of originality in competitive composition opportunities for 'emerging composers'

This article investigates the tension between originality and success for ‘emerging composers’ involved in composition opportunities in the British contemporary classical music scene. It utilises survey responses from 47 new music composers to better understand their experiences of these very public signs of compositional success. Though the narrative of the original artist is still significant, conflicts arise between ‘uniqueness’ and the realities of the composition opportunity. Composers aspire to be original, but are aware that a number of other, more instrumental, factors play a crucial role in being chosen. Despite the continuing importance of opportunities to many composers’ development, there are areas that could be made more transparent to ensure they are benefitting an aesthetically diverse range of artists.

Interviewing older people about their experiences of emergency hospital admission: methodology in health services research

This essay makes the case for increased use of patient-centred methodologies, which involve patients and the public, in the area of emergency admissions research in the United Kingdom. Emergency admission research has rarely made use of the patient voice when attempting to find a rate of ‘inappropriate’ admission for older people, instead focusing on professional viewpoints and more abstract tools. We argue for the important insights that patients and their families bring to emergency admissions research and for the need to listen to and use these voices to find more holistic responses to the issue of unplanned admissions to hospital for those aged over 65. This area of health services research is highly complex, but without involving the patient viewpoint we risk not understanding the full story of events leading up to admission and what preventative measures might have helped, and therefore we also risk developing less effective, simplistic solutions. In the face of increasing challenges to the National Health Service’s ability to provide safe, effective and affordable care for older people, researchers need to listen to those with direct and longitudinal experience of their ill health and admission.

Introduction: Being an Early Career Feminist Academic in a Changing Academy

This book comes at a time of dramatic change in higher education (HE) around the globe; some of the fundamental principles underpinning HE are being questioned, forcing academics and the wider public to begin to ask what higher education is for and what the purpose of research is in society at large (for example, Collini 2012; Small 2013), as well as where work such as teaching or ‘citizenship’ duties fit within the wider scheme of an academic career and the methods by which this career should be judged and, increasingly, measured (Collini 2012: 37; Small 2013: 10). Within academia the pressures to perform exceptionally across all levels of teaching, research, and administration grow, yet, with research remaining the most prestigious part of the three main areas of an academic role, syphoning off teaching and administrative duties to academics who are earlier in their careers and often on short-term or hourly paid contracts is becoming more common, with highly negative results for the wellbeing and career progression of early career academics as well as the quality of teaching provided to students in HE.

(Re)Examining the Feminist Interview: Rapport, Gender “Matching,” and Emotional Labour

Rapport is usually considered key to any interview situation: building the right kind of rapport can be the difference between success and failure in obtaining the required data. In feminist research rapport is intended to be of a particular kind: created through mutual sharing, minimal power hierarchies, and a feeling of genuine trust between interviewer and interviewee (Oakley, 1981). There is a tension here of which feminist researchers and scholars should remain critical, as the idea of good feminist rapport can clash with the necessity of ‘getting the data’. Building rapport can entail minimising strongly held viewpoints, working hard on one’s emotions to ensure they do not reveal true thoughts, or suggesting an attitude of trust and mutual understanding that may feel disingenuous. If rapport is often a performance by the researcher, then this can clash with the intended open and honest feminist approach. In some cases, then, building rapport may pose a challenge to genuinely following a feminist approach to the research interview. In this paper I wish to explore this tension in more detail in the context of the one-off interview and to what extent it can be resolved.