Eastwards / westwards: which direction for gender studies in the 21st century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize current research into gender in Asian countries in general. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies elsewhere in the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of Local and Global – with their discoursive productions – have not functioned as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and researchers have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Contributors to this collection provided a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and development, language, historiography, education and culture. We have also given attention to the ideological and rhetorical processes through which gender identity is constructed, by comparing textual grids and patterns of expectation. Likewise, we have discussed the role of ethnography, anthropology, historiography, sociology, fiction, popular culture and colonial and post-colonial sources in (re)inventing old/new male/female identities, their conversion into concepts and circulation through time and space. This multicultural and trans-disciplinary selection of essays is totally written in English, fully edited and revised, therefore, it has a good potential for an immediate international circulation. This project may trace new paths and issues for discussion on what concerns the life, practices and narratives by and about women in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the present day global experience. Academic readership: Researchers, scholars, educators, graduate and post-graduate students, doctoral students and general non-fiction readers, with a special interest in Gender Studies, Asia, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Historiography, Politics, Race, Feminism, Language, Linguistics, Power, Political and Feminist Agendas, Popular Culture, Education, Women’s Writing, Religion, Multiculturalism, Globalisation, Migration. Chapter summary: 1. “Social Gender Stereotypes and their Implication in Hindi”, Anjali Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-­woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India. 2. “The Linguistic Dimension of Gender Equality”, Alissa Tolstokorova, Kiev Centre for Gender Information and Education, Ukraine. The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a “gender shift” in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights. 3. “The Rebirth of an Old Language: Issues of Gender Equality in Kazakhstan”, Maria Helena Guimarães, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful. 4. “Construction of Womanhood in the Bengali Language of Bangladesh”, Raasheed Mahmood; University of New South Wales, Sydney. The present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Bangladesh. Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination solely by referring to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one needs to consider the problem by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and reconstructed. Following such line of reasoning this essay will examine the nature of gender bias in the Bengali language of Bangladesh, holding the conviction that as a product of social reality language reflects the socio-cultural behaviour of the community who speaks it. This essay will also attempt to shed some light on the processes through which gender based language differences produce actual consequences for women, who become exposed to low self-esteem, depression and systematic exclusion from public discourse. 5. “Marriage in China as an expression of a changing society”, Elisabetta Rosado David, University of Porto, Portugal, and Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia, Italy. In 29 April 2001, the new Marriage Law was promulgated in China. The first law on marriage was proclaimed in 1950 with the objective of freeing women from the feudal matrimonial system. With the second law, in 1981, values and conditions that had been distorted by the Cultural Revolution were recovered. Twenty years later, a new reform was started, intending to update marriage in the view of the social and cultural changes that occurred with Deng Xiaoping’s “open policy”. But the legal reform is only the starting point for this case-study. The rituals that are followed in the wedding ceremony are often hard to understand and very difficult to standardize, especially because China is a vast country, densely populated and characterized by several ethnic minorities. Two key words emerge from this issue: syncretism and continuity. On this basis, we can understand tradition in a better way, and analyse whether or not marriage, as every social manifestation, has evolved in harmony with Chinese culture. 6. “The Other Woman in the Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Case of Portuguese India”, Maria de Deus Manso, University of Évora, Portugal. This essay researches the social, cultural and symbolic history of local women in the Portuguese Indian colonial enclaves. The normative Portuguese overseas history has not paid any attention to the “indigenous” female populations in colonial Portuguese territories, albeit the large social importance of these social segments largely used in matrimonial and even catholic missionary strategies. The first attempt to open fresh windows in the history of this new field was the publication of Charles Boxer’s referential study about Women in lberian Overseas Expansion, edited in Portugal only after the Revolution of 1975. After this research we can only quote some other fragmentary efforts. In fact, research about the social, cultural, religious, political and symbolic situation of women in the Portuguese colonial territories, from the XVI to the XX century, is still a minor historiographic field. In this essay we discuss this problem and we study colonial representations of women in the Portuguese Indian enclaves, mainly in the territory of Goa, using case studies methodologies. 7. “Heading East this Time: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia”, Clara Sarmento, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macro­level by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

The Fair Trade movement: an economic perspective

Fair Trade (FT) products such as coffee and textiles are becoming increasingly popular with altruistic consumers all over the world. This paper seeks to understand the economic effects of this grassroots movement which directly links ethically-minded consumers in industrialised countries with marginalised producers in developing economies. We extend the Ricardian trade model and introduce a FT sector in developing South that offers a fair wage – the FT premium. There are indeed positive welfare effects from FT but those come at the expense of rising inequalities within South which are in turn a rational by-product of FT. The degree of inequalities depends on the specifics of the cooperative structures in the FT sector. Given the rigidities and inequalities FT introduces and rests upon, this form of alternative trade appears to be only sustainable as niche movement.

Análisis de la movilización noviolenta de la organización femenina popular de Barrancabermeja en el periodo 2000-2009

Este estudio de caso analizará la movilización de la Organización Femenina Popular (OFP) de Barrancabermeja, Colombia, durante el periodo 2000-2009. Tal Organización cuenta estrategias enfocadas en la garantía del respeto de los derechos humanos y especialmente los derechos de la mujer. Con el transcurso de los años la OFP ha evolucionado y ha logrado implementar nuevas prácticas para alcanzar sus metas. La gran pregunta es si, efectivamente, actúan bajo los principios y estrategias de la acción política noviolenta y, además, si es que han logrado algún impacto importante con su movilización.

Liberation or limitation? Understanding Iyengar Yoga as a practice of the self

This article explores the Foucauldian notions of practices of the self and care of the self, read via Deleuze, in the context of Iyengar yoga (one of the most popular forms of yoga currently). Using ethnographic and interview research data the article outlines the Iyengar yoga techniques which enable a focus upon the self to be developed, and the resources offered by the practice for the creation of ways of knowing, experiencing and forming the self. In particular, the article asks whether Iyengar yoga offers possibilities for freedom and liberation, or whether it is just another practice of control and management. Assessing Iyengar yoga via a ‘critical function’, a function of ‘struggle’ and a ‘curative and therapeutic function’, the article analyses whether the practice might constitute a mode of care of the self, and what it might offer in the context of the contemporary need to live better, as well as longer.

A jovem guarda no ABC paulista: música popular, mídia e memória

Por muito tempo, a memória dominante acerca da relação entre cidade de São Paulo e região do Grande ABC (pertencente à região metropolitana paulista) produziu sentidos de que o subúrbio não era o lugar da criação artística ou cultural, em especial a midiática. Contrários a esse ponto de vista, questionamos: quais são as possibilidades efetivas de criação e recriação dos movimentos culturais apresentados pela indústria cultural nessa região? Como é possível dimensionar a movimentação da Jovem Guarda numa área considerada periferia da capital paulista? Partindo disso, pretende-se nesse artigo mapear o movimento da Jovem Guarda no ABC nos anos 1960, com base em entrevistas de história oral com músicos e compositores da localidade, com vistas a demonstrar sua dinâmica e suas características numa região específi ca.

Estratégias argumentativas na construção do discurso ideológico: um estudo da produção didático-pedagógica do meb

This research studies the argumentative process developed by the Basis Educational Movement (MEB), using as corpus the booklet Viver é lutar , and other lesson plans of the Educational Rural Radio from Natal. It has as objectives reveal the argumentative strategies in the discursive production of MEB, exploring the meaning effects suggested by its production conditions, and the ideological positions defended, in addition to this, verify how the booklet and the radio classes dialogued in the argumentation of their theses. So, the study is guided by the Discourse Analysis presuppositions, by the Argumentation Theory, by the conceptions of Popular Education, as well as the conception language dialogical language conception, recurring to Bakhtin (1995). The research adopts the documental characteristic of qualitative nature with an interpretative basis. The analysis of the data permitted us to confirm that the pedagogical didactic material discourse of MEB was produced in a social-historical-ideological context in what the education was seen as a social liberation instrument, being able to transform the Brazilian people and the Brazilian unequal structure. The results reveal that the booklet and the classes assume a position remarkably in favor of the popular classes, structured by the argumentative techniques that intended to convince, and to persuade the auditorium. Thus, the argument was based initially on the convincing of youths and of adults for, afterwards, to construct a persuasion to the learners, in terms of referring to act on the reality to transform it, according to their desires of social justice

Uma escola para homem rural: a cultura popular, os camponeses e o movimento de educação de base (1960-1964)

Nos idos dos anos 1960, a intervenção sobre a cultura popular tornou-se um suposto da ação política de agentes modernizadores da sociedade brasileira. Por meio da Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB), a Igreja Católica elaborou um projeto educacional de dimensão nacional, articulando suas emissoras de rádio no território brasileiro aos centros de educação radiofônica rural e criando, em 1961, o Movimento de Educação de Base (MEB). Os pressupostos teóricos e filosóficos do Movimento transcendiam as questões do aprendizado formal e pautavam-se por estratégias de ação da Igreja sobre os problemas de crescimento econômico e desenvolvimento social das regiões pobres brasileiras. O artigo em questãoversa sobre o camponês que participou do MEB e suas experiências escolares, avaliando os preceitos de educação rural, educação cívica e alfabetização de adultos propostos na ação dos agentes e das instituições modernizadoras do campo brasileiro. Analisamos os processos de assimilação e resistência do camponês aos princípios e projetos modernizantes externos à sua cultura. Novos ritmos de tempo, novas representações e novos significados foram introduzidos pela escola sobre práticas culturais seculares do campesinato brasileiro. No MEB, tal fenômeno resultou tanto na assimilação dos novos estímulos trazidos pela escola, quanto na insurreição de costumes e hábitos interligados às funções ritualísticas e costumeiras do indivíduo e/ou da comunidade rural.

Escola cidadã: questão acerca da educação escolar em tempos de crise estrutural do capital

Pós-graduação em Educação Escolar - FCLAR

Escolas municipais: a busca de respostas aos desafios contemporâneos na/da escola pública, popular e democrática

Pós-graduação em Educação - FCT

Da montanha ao quartel: atuação e influência do Exército Popular Sandinista na Nicarágua

Pós-graduação em História - FCHS

Tomemos la historia en nuestras manos: utopia revolucionária e música popular no Chile (1966-1973)

Pós-graduação em História - FCHS

Repensando a periferia no período popular da história: o uso do território pelo movimento Hip Hop

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A relação entre a cultura popular e a cultura erudita na obra Sagarana, de Guimarães Rosa

Pós-graduação em Letras - IBILCE

A valorização do profissional da educação e a carreira docente: a experiência do Governo de Frente Popular em Belém do Pará

O Estatuto do Magistério de Belém, que regulamenta a carreira e, portanto, a vida funcional dos profissionais da educação é o tema desta pesquisa, que tem como objetivo analisar as políticas implementadas para a carreira docente e suas implicações para o desenvolvimento do trabalho do docente, em Belém (estado do Pará), nos anos de 1997 a 2004. Esse período é considerado relevante, na pesquisa, porque a prefeitura de Belém esteve sob o comando de um governo que se autodenominou governo do povo, que, para as finalidades deste estudo, chamamos governo de frente popular. Este apresentou, entre outros, um programa que apontava para a valorização dos profissionais da educação, com ênfase nas garantias do Estatuto do Magistério, ao mesmo tempo em que sofreu pressões por parte desses profissionais pelo cumprimento de direitos contidos no referido Estatuto. Para analisar as políticas sobre a carreira docente emanadas desse tipo de governo, no período de referência, buscamos compreender, de um lado, o macro contexto de uma realidade de crise do sistema capitalista, a inserção do Brasil nessa realidade, e a realização de contra-reformas no Estado brasileiro orientadas para auxiliar na superação dessas crises. De outro, compreender a concepção e o papel de um governo de frente popular, as influências das citadas contra-reformas em suas políticas, a localização política e econômica de tal gestão, construindo, assim, o entendimento dos efeitos da dinâmica desses fatores sobre o trabalho docente, em Belém. Assim, os objetivos específicos que definimos para a investigação foram: 1) identificar as conseqüências da crise sistêmica do capital e do papel do Estado no processo de trabalho docente; 2) analisar as contra-reformas do Estado brasileiro, a partir de 1990, e os seus efeitos sobre o trabalho docente; 3) identificar algumas características do governo de Frente Popular, em Belém, e suas perspectivas programáticas para a valorização dos profissionais da educação; 4) avaliar as políticas emanadas por tal governo e os efeitos de sua implementação para a carreira docente, em Belém. Partimos da análise histórica do fenômeno estudado, fundamentando-nos nas elaborações de Antunes (1995; 1999; 2004), Brzezinski (2007), Chesnais (1996), Engels (1977),Enguita (1991), Lênin (1986; 1986a), Marx (1980), Maués (2003; 2005; 2006), Moreno (2003; 2003a), Oliveira (2003), entre outros. Valemo-nos, ainda, de documentos jurídicos e governamentais, bem como de publicações do movimento docente, como os da Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores da Educação (CNTE) e do Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Educação Pública do Pará (SINTEPP), que nos permitiram compreender as categorias de análise carreira, remuneração, formação e condições físicas do trabalho no espaço educacional. Coletamos dados e informações documentais e empíricos, buscando algumas respostas que permitissem identificar, mesmo nas relações contraditórias apresentadas, as políticas que envolveram a carreira docente, o governo de frente popular e o movimento docente. Por isso, os sujeitos das entrevistas semiestruturadas foram selecionados em função de sua localização funcional e política. Funcional, no caso dos sete profissionais da educação e de um representante do governo que exercia função de coordenação, na Secretaria Municipal de Educação; e pela atuação política e sindical no movimento docente organizado no SINTEPP, em entrevista com dois de seus dirigentes. A partir do referencial bibliográfico e dos procedimentos metodológicos indicados, pudemos concluir que o cumprimento de direitos contidos no Estatuto do Magistério de Belém possibilitaria o desenvolvimento e a valorização da carreira docente, sobretudo quanto a salário e condições físicas de trabalho, ressaltando que o período analisado foi de efervescência sindical e política sobre as demandas dos profissionais da educação que buscaram assegurar seus direitos na realidade de um governo considerado progressista.

Rádio e educação popular na Amazônia: o processo comunicacional do Projeto Rádio pela Educação

O processo comunicacional que se observa no Projeto Rádio pela Educação, da Rádio Rural de Santarém, no centro da Amazônia, é o objeto deste relatório de pesquisa. O objetivo foi investigar como acontece esse processo no movimento existente entre a produção de um programa de rádio, as orientações dadas aos professores por meio de um guia pedagógico e as ações realizadas na escola, analisando a relação da comunicação radiofônica com as práticas educativas desenvolvidas. O trabalho seguiu o paradigma culturológico, entendendo a presença do rádio como parte de um processo de interação, de troca simbólica. Os procedimentos metodológicos tiveram abordagem indutiva, formando um conjunto de procedimentos com os métodos histórico e etnográfico, além de aspectos da pesquisa de recepção. As principais técnicas utilizadas foram pesquisa documental e bibliográfica, pesquisa de campo e observação, tomando como referência o enfoque qualitativo na observação, na descrição e na análise dos fenômenos a partir de algumas categorias: os agentes envolvidos, a escuta do programa, as mediações no conjunto do processo, a participação dos professores como mediadores e a perspectiva dialógica na dinâmica observada. Verificou-se que o processo comunicacional analisado se desenvolve em movimento de constante mudança, segue um ritmo que o transforma ao longo do tempo, a partir dos olhares e das intervenções de seus agentes ou mesmo das próprias motivações provocadas por sua ação no ambiente educacional, apresentando a coexistência do instrumental e do dialógico, tendo o rádio como um mediador no processo de aprendizagem.