Sylvia Walby

Complexity Theory, Systems Theory, and Multiple Intersecting Social Inequalities

This article contributes to the revision of the concept of system in social theory using complexity theory. The old concept of social system is widely discredited; a new concept of social system can more adequately constitute an explanatory framework. Complexity theory offers the toolkit needed for this paradigm shift in social theory. The route taken is not via Luhmann, but rather the insights of complexity theorists in the sciences are applied to the tradition of social theory inspired by Marx, Weber, and Simmel. The article contributes to the theorization of intersectionality in social theory as well as to the philosophy of social science. It addresses the challenge of theorizing the intersection of multiple complex social inequalities, exploring the various alternative approaches, before rethinking the concept of social system. It investigates and applies, for the first time, the implications of complexity theory for the analysis of multiple intersecting social inequalities.

Intersectionality: Multiple Inequalities in Social Theory

The concept of intersectionality is reviewed and further developed for more effective use. Six dilemmas in the debates on the concept are disentangled, addressed and resolved: the distinction between structural and political intersectionality; the tension between ‘categories’ and ‘inequalities’; the significance of class; the balance between a fluidity and stability; the varyingly competitive, cooperative, hierarchical and hegemonic relations between inequalities and between projects; and the conundrum of ‘visibility’ in the tension between the ‘mutual shaping’ and the ‘mutual constitution’ of inequalities. The analysis draws on critical realism and on complexity theory in order to find answers to the dilemmas in intersectionality theory.

Is citizenship gendered

The absence of gender from writings on citizenship, such as those of Marshall, Mann and Turner, causes problems for the understanding of citizenship. Debates as to how gender can be integrated into citizenship highlight major divergences in feminist theory over the relationship between the public and the private. The paper argues that citizenship cannot be understood without a dynamic theory of gender relations, and that political citizenship for women destabilises private patriarchy and the family. Citizenship is about a transition from private to public patriarchy, not only the civilising of capitalism.

Medicine and Nursing: Professions in a Changing Health Service

Introduction Professional Boundaries Interprofessional Relations in Theory and History Fragmented and Functioning Teams Managing Professionals Post-Fordism and the Health Professions

Sex crime in the news

The newspaper studies seeking out the sex fiend sex crime in court sex offenders after conviction informing the public? changing legal practice?.

Woman and Nation

LITERATURE ON NATIONS and nationalism rarely addresses the question of gender, despite a general interest in the differential participation of various social groups in nationalist projects. A key issue in the analysis of nation has been the conditions under which an ethnic group can claim and possibly achieve the status of nation and then of nation-state (see Smith, 1971, 1986). Nationalist movements necessarily draw upon their relevant constituency in uneven ways, and there has been much analysis of the differing class compositions of such movements, their levels of education, and a variety of socio-economic and cultural variables. However, this body of literature has engaged but little with the differential integration of women and men into the national project. Most texts on nationalism do not take gender as a significant issue (see Gellner, 1983; Kedourie, 1966; Smith, 1971, 1986). Rare and thus important exceptions to this absence are Enloe (1989), Jayawardena (1986) and Yuval-Davis and Anthias (1989). There has been a revival of interest in the related concept of citizenship, which historically has formed a link between ’nation’ and ’state’. ’Citizenship’ has been introduced in the context of macro-societal comparisons in order to facilitate discussions of the social conditions under which different forms of

Introduction: Comparative gender mainstreaming in a global era.

Abstract This article analyses gender mainstreaming as a new and essentially contested form of feminist politics and policy. The article addresses the different forms that gender mainstreaming takes, in different countries and different policy domains, in order to push forward the theoretical debates. Gender mainstreaming often draws on transnational processes, involving transnational networks and agencies and transformations of the discourse of universal human rights, challenging the traditional focus on national processes. These developments are facilitated by the rise of global processes and institutions, such as the UN. Tensions can arise as a result of actors seeking to mainstream quite different models of gender equality: based on equality through sameness; through equal valuation of difference; and through transformation. The intersection of gender with other complex forms of inequality has challenging implications for a primary focus on gender within gender mainstreaming. Nevertheless, certain forms of gender mainstreaming have, despite their evident weaknesses, provided a new basis for feminist solidarity and action at a global level. Gender mainstreaming is a leading-edge example of the potential implications of globalisation for gender politics.

Restructuring : place, class and gender

The authors of this volume discuss the ways in which places have been transformed by the changes happening within them - shifts in the nature and quantity of paid and unpaid work, in social and political mobilization, in cultural and aesthetic experience and in the built environment.

Gendering the Knowledge Economy: Comparative Perspectives

List of figures List of tables Preface Notes on Editors PART ONE: RE-CONCEPTUALIZING THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY, GENDER AND REGULATION Introduction: Theorizing the Gendering of the New Economy: Comparative Approaches S.Walby Gender and the Conceptualization of the Knowledge Economy in Comparison K.Shire PART TWO: COMPARATIVE REGULATION Comparative Livelihood Security Systems from a Gender Perspective, with a Focus on Japan M.Osawa Varieties of Gender Regimes and Regulating Gender Equality at Work in the Global Context I.Lenz Similar Outcomes, Different Paths: The Cross-National Transfer of Gendered Regulations of Employment G.S.Roberts PART THREE: GENDERING NEW EMPLOYMENT FORMS Self-Employment in Comparative Perspective: General Trends and the Case of New Media K.Gottschall & D.Kroos Living and Working in the New Economy: New Opportunities and Old Social Divisions in the Cases of the New Media and Carework D.Perrons Are Care Workers Knowledge Workers? M.Nishikawa & K.Tanaka Who Gets to be a Knowledge Worker? The Case of UK Call Centres S.Durbin Restructuring Gendered Flexibility in Organizations: A Comparative Analysis of Call Centres in Germany U.Holtgrewe Appendix I Bibliography

Feminism in a global era

Feminism is being re-shaped by its articulation through a global discourse of human rights and an increased focus on state interventions. This is partly a result of the transition in the gender regime changing the economic and political resources and opportunities open to women and partly due to globalization. Globalization has not only created difficulties for democratic governance, but it has also facilitated the development of new spaces, institutions and rhetoric where universal human rights is a powerful justificatory principle.