Kath Woodward and Sophie Woodward
This article aims to develop the methodological and intellectual approach taken in the authors' co‐authored book to explore the synergies and disconnections in the experience of…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to develop the methodological and intellectual approach taken in the authors' co‐authored book to explore the synergies and disconnections in the experience of being in the academy at different historical moments using the inter‐relationship between different feminisms in the context of the authors' lived experiences as a mother and daughter whose experience of the academy has crossed second‐wave feminism into third wave. There have been significant demographic, cultural and legislative shifts, but the authors' conversations demonstrate the endurance of imbalances of power and the continuing need for a feminist politics of difference which can engage with contemporary life in the academy.
Design/methodology/approach
This is primarily a theoretical paper that adopts feminist approaches to reflection and dialogue. The article is designed to bring together lived experience across generations, feminist theories and methodologies and the implications for activism. The paper uses the device of “I‐Kath I‐Sophie” as part of an autoethnographic approach to the cross‐generational conversation.
Findings
Far from being redundant, the authors argue that feminist critiques of inequalities that are often manifest in women's invisibility and silence even in the academy in the twenty‐first century – there is still the need to support a politics of difference and to explore ways of giving women a voice. The persistence of inequalities means that feminist battles have not been entirely won. The authors argue for dialogue between the feminisms of mothers and daughters.
Research limitations/implications
Feminist concepts and arguments from what has been called the “second wave” are still useful, especially in relation to maintaining the category woman as a speaking subject who can engage in collective action.
Practical implications
The authors' arguments support the continuation of spaces for women to share experience within the academy, for example in feminist reading groups and through women's networks.
Social implications
Feminist theories and activism remain important political forces for women in the academy today and post feminism is a questionable conceptualisation and phenomenon. In times when feminist battles may seem to have been won there remain issues to explore in relation to a new problem with no name.
Originality/value
The article is original in its authorship, methodological approach to a conversation that crosses experience and theoretical frameworks across generations and in its support for a twenty‐first century politics of difference.
Details
Keywords
Helen Goworek, Tom Fisher, Tim Cooper, Sophie Woodward and Alex Hiller
This paper aims to investigate consumers' perspectives on sustainable clothing consumption and to examine ways in which this information could influence retailers' policies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate consumers' perspectives on sustainable clothing consumption and to examine ways in which this information could influence retailers' policies.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative research was conducted using focus groups, home tasks and workshops with 99 participants. The sample represented different groups of consumers in relation to their sustainability behaviour.
Findings
Focus group participants had a limited awareness of the sustainability impacts of clothing. Where participants displayed pro‐environmental behaviour, this was not necessarily intentional, but was largely a response to other influences. The respondents' maintenance and disposal of clothes were found to be influenced mainly by existing habits and routines, which usually take precedence over awareness of sustainable practice. The research indicated that consumers could be persuaded to change their behaviour in relation to sustainability by being encouraged and enabled to reflect more on their behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
This study uses qualitative research and is limited to UK consumers. Future research in this field could incorporate quantitative methods or in‐depth interviews. Academics could conduct further research and generate theories which apply to the sustainable consumption of clothing.
Social implications
The findings have implications for retailers, academics and society. Retailers can develop and implement more sustainable policies and practices in relation to clothing production and consumption. There are wider implications for society and the environment in that retailers' practices can impact greatly on the sustainability of the planet's resources.
Originality/value
This paper's originality lies in its assessment of the implications for retailers of consumers' views on the sustainable consumption of clothing.
Details
Keywords
Hélène Lee-Gosselin, Sophie Briere and Hawo Ann
For decades, numerous mechanisms have been adopted to accelerate the progression of women in decision-making levels, and many organizations have developed programs to promote…
Abstract
Purpose
For decades, numerous mechanisms have been adopted to accelerate the progression of women in decision-making levels, and many organizations have developed programs to promote gender mainstreaming. In practice however, literature has shown that experience in gender mainstreaming faces many important challenges and under-representation persists at higher organizational levels. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This research brings together the results of two case studies on gender equality in the higher echelons of public and private sector organisations in Canada (Québec) and Morocco. Based on the analytical framework used as a theoretical basis for the analysis of change and resistance to gender mainstreaming, the data were revisited to explore common trends and patterns, despite the differences in context.
Findings
The analysis shows that common factors support and limit women's progress in organizations. Equity initiatives are limited to the technical agenda and scant effort goes to managing political and cultural dimensions. The study shows that those dimensions play a central role in the production of gender inequality and that actions and measures targeting political and cultural dimensions must be prioritized.
Originality/value
An improved conceptual framework is proposed for practical interventions and theory building. The new matrix feeds into the reflection for a new learning approach for organizations who want to achieve gender mainstreaming, to better identify the dimensions that should be addressed or to assess the measures taken and their impact and also offers a basis for new studies and research to test the matrix, its usefulness for theory building for intervention.
Details
Keywords
Katherine J.C. Sang, Simy Joy, Josephine Kinge and Susan Sayce
This chapter analyses the presence of Russian feminists and female LGBTIQ+ activists within US-American mainstream media. In the course of a multimedia discourse analysis, it…
Abstract
This chapter analyses the presence of Russian feminists and female LGBTIQ+ activists within US-American mainstream media. In the course of a multimedia discourse analysis, it briefly raises questions of who becomes featured and how, to argue that current debates marginalise Russian queer female, trans*gender and intersex voices, compared to those of male queers. One exception to this trend is the case of the journalist and activist Masha Gessen. Together with Nadya Tolokonnikova of the protest group Pussy Riot, Gessen seems to represent Russian queers and feminists within US media. Although marginal, compared to the presence of US feminisms, especially popular culture figures such as Beyoncé Knowles-Carter or Lady Gaga, the two women become frequently featured within US news media and beyond. Frequently, those articles, interviews and discussions of their work open up a debate, or rather comparisons, between US values and Russian values, questions of modernity, progress and civilisation. Equally often, the female Russian dissidents are pictured as ‘Putin’s victims’ – the female versions of David fighting against Goliath – by focussing especially on their physical vulnerability and their female bodies. In this vein, feminism is constructed as inherently ‘Western’, while the bodies that carry out such feminisms and most of all their country of origin is entirely ‘othered’. Comparing the (self-)representations to other voices of female Russian dissent within US media, the author critically discuss the Western gaze of US mainstream media, its victimising strategies and homonationalistic construction of US identity and US nation in rejection of a ‘backward’ homophobic Russia.
Details
Keywords
The corporate veil or veil of incorporation is a legal concept that separates the legal and juristic personality of a company from its members, directors and other stakeholders…
Abstract
Purpose
The corporate veil or veil of incorporation is a legal concept that separates the legal and juristic personality of a company from its members, directors and other stakeholders. Indeed, common law has provided for numerous circumstances in which the corporate veil of a company may be lifted, and courts rely on these case law precedents to determine the grounds for lifting the corporate veil. However, there is limited case law regarding environmental torts as a ground for lifting the veil of incorporation and there is no legal provision in Mauritius which recognises environmental crimes as an exception to corporate veil. Consequently, this paper aims to discuss the liability of decision-makers of a company in the case of corporate environmental wrongdoings and thereafter, to present a case for amending Mauritius laws to give recognition to environmental torts as a ground of lifting the corporate veil.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper has adopted the black-letter approach and the comparative research methodology. The laws of Mauritius on corporate veil will be compared to the related laws of the USA and Canada with the view of seeking recommendations for Mauritius, as these countries are known to have an extensive legal framework on environmental crimes as a ground to lift the corporate veil.
Findings
It is concluded that it is high time for Mauritius to adopt a separate manslaughter law that would incorporate crimes committed to the environment by corporate bodies as a ground for lifting the corporate veil and thereby attacking individual stakeholders concerned.
Originality/value
This study is among the first researches conducted in the field of environmental torts as a ground for lifting the corporate veil in Mauritius.