Mobile subjectivities positioning the nonunirary self in critical feminist and postmodern research

Most scholarly work is written from the perspective of the author being a unitary subject occupying a sole, rational, and unified position. This article argues that scholarship may be enhanced by the author adopting multiple subject positions as a methodological framework. Such an adoption is advantageous in working against the romance of the notion of a single truth while also maintaining teleological values congruent with critical and feminist agendas. This article outlines the conceptual development of this methodological framework, the rationale for its development, an explication of the concept of multiple subjectivity, and an exemplar of its application within nursing research.

Mothers and sons : using memory-work to explore the subjectivities and practices of profeminist men

In this chapter I will outline the application of memory-work to understanding the subjectivities and practices of profeminist men. Profeminism for men involves a sense of responsibility to our own and other men's sexism, and a commitment to work with women to end men's violence (Douglas, 1993). It acknowledges that men benefit from the oppression of women, drawing men's attention to the privileges we receive as men and the harmful effects these privileges have on women (Thome-Finch, 1992). The research was undertaken as my PhD thesis and it began with questions that have been a personal challenge in my search· to understand my place as a white, heterosexual man who is committed to a profeminist position 1. What does it mean to be a profeminist man? What is the experience of endeavoring to live out a profeminist commitment? What do these experiences tell us about reforming men's subjectivities and practices towards gender equality? I believe that men's subjectivity is crucial to the maintenance and reproduction of gender domination and hence to its change. The purpose of the research was thus to theorize men's subjectivities and practices to inform a profeminist men's practice and to enact strategies that will, in themselves, promote the process of change. So the research was driven by practical concerns as well as by the imperatives of intellectual inquiry.

Older women crafting ethical subjectivities in rural places

Over the last two years my colleagues and I conducted research conversations with older women living in rural Victoria about the meaning of craft in their lives. These conversations are the basis for our speculations on how women constitute ethical subjectivities through specific craft activities and through their engagement with Country Women Association (CWA) craft groups. The CWA is recognised as a ‘community of practice’ with local, regional, state, national and global networks, aiming to improve the lives of rural people. The focus of this paper, however, is on how ethical subjectivities by rural women are fashioned through specific involvements in craft activities and craft groups. I aim to elaborate on how Foucault’s later work on the ‘Care of the Self’ may open possibilities, even if limited, for understanding the complex ways women take up subject positions in interaction with historical, political, economic and social arrangements, and through engagement with specific institutions. For Foucault, ‘care of the self’ is an inherently social practice. Currently, modern power relations incite us to relate to our selves through self confessional and self-disciplining technologies. Could a differently constituted mode of self-care be drawn from the Ancient Greeks to offer us ideas for enacting personal and social transformations today?

Changing green subjectivities in outdoor and environmental education : a qualitative study

This article draws on a longitudinal qualitative study of Australian tertiary students studying Outdoor and Environmental Education. It draws on the work of Foucault and Darier to consider how ‘environmental governmentality’ shapes the conduct, desires and attitudes of these students over time. Attention is drawn to normalising and disciplinary effects of mainstream environmental discourse alongside an exploration of some of the inconsistencies and ruptures in how participants interact with discourses of environmentalism.

Recognition, resistance and reconstruction : an introduction to subjectivities and social justice

The aim of this book is to examine new forms of resistance to social injustices in contemporary Western societies. Resistance requires agency, and agency is grounded in notions of the subject and subjectivity. It is a premise of this book that new and/or reconstructed forms of subjectivity are required to challenge social relations of subordination and domination.
Subjectivity is primarily based on lived experience. While subjectivity is sometimes used to explore individualistic strategies for personal meaning, we argue that subjectivity is central to political struggles against regimes of power. Thus, understanding how subjects are constituted is important in fostering the capacity of critical reflection and social transformation.
Our aim  is to understand the relationship between subjectivity and the wider social order. The relationship between the psyche and society is one of the most challenging issues facing social theory. While there is a variety of theoretical approaches to subjectivity, those that explore the links between the subject and society are the most promising in developing strategies for resistance. In this introductory chapter, we review and interrogate what we believe are the most important theoretical approaches to subjectivity, drawing upon Marxism, critical theory, feminism, postcolonialism and post-structuralism. Our aim in this book is not to develop a new theory of subjectivities. Rather, we are more concerned with investigating how diverse subjectivities are constructed and reconstructed.

The politics of recognition and social justice : transforming subjectivities and new forms of resistance

Via a wide range of case studies, this book examines new forms of resistance to social injustices in contemporary Western societies. Resistance requires agency, and agency is grounded in notions of the subject and subjectivity. How do people make sense of their subjectivity as they are constructed and reconstructed within relations of power? What kinds of subjectivities are needed to struggle against forms of dominance and claim recognition? The participants in the case studies are challenging forms of dominance and subordination grounded in class, race, culture, nationality, sexuality, religion, age, disability and other forms of social division. It is a premise of this book that new and/or reconstructed forms of subjectivity are required to challenge social relations of subordination and domination. Thus, the transformation of subjectivity as well as the restructuring of oppressive power relations is necessary to achieve social justice. By examining the construction of subjectivity of particular groups through an intersectional lens, the book aims to contribute to theoretical accounts of how subjects are constituted and how they can develop a critical distance from their positioning.

Crossing borders as Mestizas and Coyotes: recognising older Somali women's shifting subjectivities in Australia

Indigenous subjectivities. How young women prisoners subvert domination representations to maintain their sense of intrinsic worth

This chapter describes how young women prisoners draw on NZ Maori spiritual values to resist limiting and limited identity constructions in language use within the prison.

The subjectivities of ‘included’ students with disabilities in schools

The contextual precept of this paper is to re-theorise inclusive education beyond technical rational solutions to the ‘problem’ of disability. Drawing on Foucauldian and critical disability theories, I make the case for the analysis of inclusive schooling through the lens of students’ ‘included’ subjectivities – notwithstanding the presence of diagnosed special educational needs. I contend that there is a theoretical mismatch between humanist inclusive schooling and the posthumanist position of disability: an epistemic fissure that impedes inclusive development. Through analysis of the voices of students with disabilities from two different schooling contexts in Australia and Spain, I demonstrate how fragmented virtues of normalcy suffused their subjectivities. I conclude the paper with a discussion of the roles that DisHuman disability studies might play in recasting inclusive schooling by troubling normative discourse.