Challenging boundaries to expand frontiers in gender and policy studies

Gender and policy studies needs to face challenges and cross boundaries if the discipline is to develop. This article argues that gender and policy studies needs to explicitly foreground the centrality of politics – the analysis of power – in approaching policy. The discipline confronts boundaries in relation to inclusivity, diversity and relevance. Inclusive gender equality demands challenging the hegemonising and marginalising boundaries in the field, which contributes to its relevance by placing politics and power centre stage. Openness to the diversity of gender and policy approaches, a more systematic and thoughtful application of intersectionality, cooperation with LGBTQI+, critical race studies and normative political theory provide opportunities to challenge boundaries and advance knowledge. We argue that explicit reflexivity about power dynamics and knowledge production, employing a plurality of approaches, will better equip the discipline to navigate major challenges and crises, and offer more nuanced democratic and egalitarian societal contributions.

Entre universalisme et particularisme: la résistance du code alimentaire dans L’ingratitude de Ying Chen et Mon cœur à l’étroit de Marie NDiaye

Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist, die Funktionalisierung des alimentären Codes in Marie NDiayes Mon cœur à l’étroit und Ying Chens L’ingratitude in ihrer Vielschichtigkeit aufzuzeigen. Einer klassischen Definition des Realismus zufolge galt der alimentäre Code als einer jener Codes, die effektvoll im Sinne eines „effet de réel“ wirken, indem sie Alltagsleben und material culture evozieren (Auerbach 1982: 458). Gerade in transkulturellen Erzählungen der Gegenwart erweisen sich Speisen und Esssitten als effektvolle Identitäts-Marker, die das Partikulare einer spezifischen Kultur – in der Regel einer ‚fremden‘, ‚exotischen‘ Kultur vor dem Hintergrund eines Gastlandes des globalen Westens – zum Ausdruck bringen. Kulturelle Konflikte – zwischen einem ‚westlichen‘ und einem ‚östlichen‘ Lebensstil in L’ingratitude; zwischen weitaus weniger klar definierten, doch auf soziokulturelle und nationale Identitäten verweisenden Lebensstilen in Mon cœur à l’étroit – scheinen sich auch in den beiden vorliegenden Werken in Speisen und Mahlzeiten geradezu zu reifizieren. Bei näherer Betrachtung erweist sich die alimentäre Codierung jedoch als vielschichtig und widersprüchlich, greift sie doch einerseits auf partikulare Identitätsmarker, andererseits auf archetypische Symbolisierungen zurück. Im Fall von Ying Chens Roman scheint hier ein Konflikt zwischen einem Bestreben nach Vermittlung des ‚Anderen‘ und der stereotypisierenden Anpassung an okzidentale Erzählmuster auf. Im Fall Marie NDiayes verhindert die Überdeterminiertheit der Nahrungsmotive eine psychoanalytische oder postkoloniale Lesart nach herkömmlichen Deutungsmustern. Als fruchtbarer erweist sich eine intersektionale Lektüre. Dennoch widerstrebt NDiayes Erzähltechnik der Rückführung auf eine kohärente Lesart. Was von dieser enigmatischen Autorposture zu halten ist, ist in der NDiaye-Forschung höchst umstritten. Von radikalen Vertretern der Critical Race Studies wird der Autorin colour-blindness vorgeworfen. Ich möchte für eine differenzierte Lesart plädieren, die die Problematik des universalistischen Anspruchs anerkennt, zugleich aber auch den Viktimismus der minority studies und das Beharren auf Partikularität problematisiert.

The Sociology of Self-Tracking and Embodied Technologies

This chapter outlines how scholars have examined wearable technologies’ role in troubling boundaries of interest to sociologists: work/leisure, public/private, nature/culture, body/self. It offers an overview of the kinds of technologies scholars have studied, then highlights three groups of analyses: those that treat wearables as facilitators of body/self interactions; others that investigate them as data gathering devices that open the body to concerns about big data; and finally, those that argue that these devices’ design obscures highly gendered and raced functions and content. The sections treat these studies’ contribution to debates about the quantified self movement, issues in technology with privacy and surveillance, and feminist critiques of technology; and the chapter concludes with a discussion of critical race studies, arguing for the key role sociologists could play in engaging with wearables from this perspective moving forward.

Ghosts of white methods? The challenges of Big Data research in exploring racism in digital context

The paper explores the potential and limitations of big data for researching racism on social media. Informed by critical data studies and critical race studies, the paper discusses challenges of doing big data research and the problems of the so called ‘white method’. The paper introduces the following three types of approach, each with a different epistemological basis for researching racism in digital context: 1) using big data analytics to point out the dominant power relations and the dynamics of racist discourse, 2) complementing big data with qualitative research and 3) revealing new logics of racism in datafied context. The paper contributes to critical data and critical race studies by enhancing the understanding of the possibilities and limitations of big data research. This study also highlights the importance of contextualisation and mixed methods for achieving a more nuanced comprehension of racism and discrimination on social media and in large datasets.

Antidiscrimination Meets Integration Policies: Exploring New Diversity-Related Challenges in Europe

Contemporary European societies are increasingly diverse. Migration both within and to Europe has contributed over the past decades to the rise of new religious, racial, ethnic, social, cultural and economic inequality. Such transformations have raised questions about the (multi-level) governance of diversity in Europe, thus determining new challenges for both scholars and policy-makers. Whilst the debate around diversity stemming from migration has become a major topic in urban studies, political science and sociology in Europe, Critical Race Studies and Intersectionality have become central in US approaches to understanding inequality and social injustice. Among the fields where ‘managing diversity’ has become particularly pressing, methodological issues on how to best approach minorities that suffer from multiple discrimination represent some of the hottest subjects of concern. Stemming from the interest in putting into dialogue the existing American scholarship on CRT and anti-discrimination with the European focus on migrant integration, this paper explores the issue of integration in relation to intersectionality by merging the two frames. In doing so, it provides some observations about the complementarity of a racial justice approach for facing the new diversity-related challenges in European polity. In particular, it illustrates how Critical Race Studies can contribute to the analysis of inequality in Europe while drawing on the integration literature.