Positioning gender in discourse:a feminist methodology

This book introduces a newly emerging approach to the analysis of talk. FPDA offers a means of analysing the ways in which speakers construct their gender identities within a complex web of power relations. The FPDA approach challenges the traditional feminist view that females are often disempowered within mixed sex settings. This approach shows that both male and female speakers constantly shift between positions of powerfulness and powerlessness - even within the same conversation. The methodology is demonstrated through a study of teenagers' conversations in class and a study of senior managers' discussions in business meetings, concluding with suggestions that while female speakers are often 'silenced' by dominant social discourses, they are far from uniformly powerless.

El medievalismo f��rtil de Paloma D��az-Mas

The author of this article is concerned with trying to understand why Paloma D��az-Mas, the writer of such an excellent novel as La tierra f��rtil (1999), has not received much critical attention. He underlines three main reasons. First, she does not live in Madrid or Barcelona and so she is far away from the main centres of cultural power. Second, she teaches Spanish literature in the Basque Country, a political and linguistic community which significantly differs from that of many other writers. Third, she writes historical novels, which does not appear to be very fashionable in Spain these days. Moreover, D��az-Mas is a woman writer who does not make use of the most commonly available feminine patterns, and she does not seem to offer a model easy to include in a given feminist methodology either. However, M��rida-Jim��nez argues that Paloma provides an intelligent deconstruction of ���male authority��� through subtle rhetorical means, as well as a representation of the weakness of his ���domination��� in very innovative ways, such as those derived from the dialectics between history and fiction, centrality and marginality, heterosexuality and homosexuality, individual and society, dream and reason or tradition and modernity.

��itiys kulttuurisina odotuksina

Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat ��itiydelle tuotetut kulttuuriset odotukset, joita tarkastellaan kahdella yhteiskunnallisella keskustelufoorumilla. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan yht����lt�� lastensuojelun perhety��ss�� toimivien ammattilaisten ja toisaalta median puhetta ��itiydest��. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tehd�� n��kyv��ksi vaihtoehtoisia tapoja konstruoida ��itiytt�� hyv��n�� tai riitt��m��tt��m��n�� sek�� haastaa pohtimaan erilaisten tulkintojen perusteita ja seurauksia lastensuojeluty��ss��. Kulttuuriset, ��itiytt�� koskevat odotukset vaikuttavat my��s siihen, miten ��itiys henkil��kohtaisella tasolla koetaan. ��itiyden kulttuurista m����rittely�� analysoidaan kahdesta tekstiaineistosta. Yhten�� aineistona ovat Stakesissa vuonna 1999 toteutetun Perhety��projektin yhteydess�� ker��tyt, lastensuojelussa toimivien perhety��ammattilaisten ryhm��keskustelut. Toisena aineistona on projektin ajankohtana ilmestyneist�� suomalaisista naisten- ja perhelehdist�� (Kotiliesi, Anna, Kaksplus) ker��tyt ��itien haastattelut. Tutkimuksessa kysyt����n 1) Mihin ammattilaisten ��itej�� koskeva huolipuhe kiinnittyy ja millaisia kulttuurisia ��itiyden odotuksia se konstruoi? 2) Millaisia ��itiyden odotuksia median ��itihaastattelut konstruoivat? 3) Millaisen ��itiyden odotushorisontin n��m�� puhek��yt��nn��t yhdess�� tuottavat? Analyysin teoreettis-metodologisina kulmakivin�� ovat sosiaalinen konstruktionismi ja feministinen tietok��sitys. Analyysimenetelm��n�� on laadullinen, aineistojen ehdoilla etenev��, feministisesti ja kriittisesti s��vyttynyt lukutapa, joka hy��dynt���� teemoittelun, diskurssianalyysin ja feministisen metodologian ideoita ja k��sitteit��. Analysoitavana olevissa keskusteluissa ��itiytt�� konstruoidaan lapsen tarpeiden (ammattilaiset) ja naisen tarpeiden (media) n��k��kulmista. Ammattilaiset puhuvat tilanteista, joissa ��itien toiminta rikkoo kulttuurista hyv��n ��idin kuvaa, vaarantaa lapsen hyvinvointia ja ��itiyteen joudutaan puuttumaan ammatillisesti. Ammattilaisten tulkinnat kuvaavat taitavaa lapsen edun n��k��kulmasta tehty�� arviointia, jonka kiintopisteen�� ovat ��idit yksil��llisine ominaisuuksineen ja piirteineen. Ammatillisen huolipuheen keski��ss�� ovat ��idin vuorovaikutussuhteet sek�� ��idin tunteet, k��ytt��ytyminen ja asenteet. Riitt��v���� ��itiytt�� konstruoi kodin luominen, kiintymyssuhteen rakentaminen ja lapsen ensisijaiseksi asettaminen. Sen sijaan vaikuttaa silt��, ettei ��itiyden arviointia juurikaan tehd�� suhteessa ��idin muihin identiteetteihin tai ��itiyden toteuttamisen kontekstiin. Paikoin ammattilaisten tulkinnat heijastavat my��s stereotyyppisi�� ja idealistisia odotuksia, joita vasten ��itiytt�� arvioidaan. T��llaiset piirteet voivat kertoa siit��, ett�� ��itien avuntarpeet j����v��t lastensuojeluty��ss�� kohtaamatta ja ymm��rt��m��tt��. Mediapuhe ��itiydest�� k��yd����n naiseuden ja ��itiyden mallien antamisen kontekstissa. Puheen keski��ss�� ovat mediajulkisuuteen p����sseiden naisten ��idiksi tuloon ja ��itiyden toteuttamiseen liittyv��t valinnat ja k��ytt��ytyminen. Mediapuhe on puhetta kulttuuristen ja ammatillisten ��itiyden odotusten rikkomisesta, uudelleen tulkinnasta ja niiden muovaamisesta itselle sopiviksi. Mediapuheessa hyv���� ��itiytt�� konstruoi ��idin itsen��isyys ja oma aika, sosiaalisen el��m��n rikkaus, ammatillinen identiteetti ja persoonalliset valinnat. Aineistojen kautta rakentuu moninaisten ja ristiriitaisten, ��itej�� eri suuntaan vet��vien kulttuuristen odotusten kirjo. Odotukset j��sentyv��t nelj��lle ulottuvuudelle: 1) lapselle omistautuva ��� itse����n toteuttava, 2) emotionaalinen side ��� rationaalinen teht��v��, 3) odotuksia toteuttava ��� omaehtoinen, 4) itsen��inen - ��itiytt�� jakava. ��itiyden toteuttaminen kulttuurisesti ���oikein��� on n��iden odotusten v��liss�� tasapainoilua. Ulottuvuuksien kautta esille tulevat kaksoisviestit voivat heikent���� ��itien itsetuntoa, tuottaa riitt��m��tt��myyden tunteita tai yllytt���� suorittamaan ��itiytt��. My��s ��itiyden ammatillinen tukeminen edellytt���� tasapainoilua, jottei ��itej�� idealisoida tai syyllistet�� kulttuurisia odotuksia vasten.

Teachers Without Borders: Exploring Experiences, Transitions, and Identities of Refugee Women Teachers from Yugoslavia

Prior to September 11 2011, Canada was recognized as a leading advocate of international refugee protection and the third largest settlement country in the world. University educated refugees were admitted to the country in part on the basis of their education, but once in Canada their credentials were often ignored. The purpose of this study was to explore, through a transnational feminist lens, immigrant and settlement experiences of refugee female teachers from Yugoslavia who immigrated to Canada during and after the Yugoslav wars; to document the ways in which socially constructed categories such as gender, race, and refugee status have influenced their post-exile experiences and identities; and to identify the government's role in creating conditions where the women were either able or unable to continue in their profession. In this study, I employed both a transnational feminist methodology and narrative inquiry. The analysis process included an emphasis on the storying stories model, poetic transcription, and concentric storying. The women���s voices are represented in various forms throughout the document including individual and collective narratives. Each narrative contributed to a detailed picture of immigration and settlement processes as women spoke of continuing their education, knowing or learning the official language, and contributing to Canadian society and the economy. The findings challenge the image of a victimized and submissive refugee woman, and bring to the centre of discourse the image of the refugee woman as a skilled professional who often remains un- or underemployed in her new country. The dissertation makes an important contribution to an underdeveloped area in the research literature, and has the potential to inform immigration, settlement, and teacher education policies and practices in Canada and elsewhere.

Capturing the complexity of women's experiences: A mixed-method approach to studying incontinence in older women

Capturing the voices of women when the issue is of a sensitive nature has been a major concern of feminist researchers. It has often been argued that interpretive methods are the most appropriate way to collect such information, but there are other appropriate ways to approach the design of research. This article explores the use of a mixed-method approach to collect data on incontinence in older women and argues for the use of a variety of creative approaches to collect and analyze data.

Embodying feminist research: learning from action research, political practices, diffractions and collective knowledge.

In the past three decades, feminists and critical theorists have discussed and argued the importance of deconstructing and problematizing social science research methodology in order to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production of knowledge and the status of truth claims. Nevertheless, often, these ideas have basically remained theoretical propositions not embodied in research practices. In fact there is very little published discussion about the difficulties and limits of their practical application. In this paper we introduce some interconnected reflections starting from two different but related experiences of embodying 'feminist activist research'. Our aim is to emphasise the importance of attending to process, making mistakes and learning during fieldwork, as well as experimenting with personalized forms of analysis, such as the construction of narratives and the story-telling process.

Embodying feminist research: learning from action research, political practices, diffractions and collective knowledge.

In the past three decades, feminists and critical theorists have discussed and argued the importance of deconstructing and problematizing social science research methodology in order to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production of knowledge and the status of truth claims. Nevertheless, often, these ideas have basically remained theoretical propositions not embodied in research practices. In fact there is very little published discussion about the difficulties and limits of their practical application. In this paper we introduce some interconnected reflections starting from two different but related experiences of embodying 'feminist activist research'. Our aim is to emphasise the importance of attending to process, making mistakes and learning during fieldwork, as well as experimenting with personalized forms of analysis, such as the construction of narratives and the story-telling process.

United States certificate programs in technical communication : a feminist-sophistic investigation

Technical communication certificates are offered by many colleges and universities as an alternative to a full undergraduate or graduate degree in the field. Despite certificates��� increasing popularity in recent years, however, surprisingly little commentary exists about them within the scholarly literature. In this work, I describe a survey of certificate and baccalaureate programs that I performed in 2008 in order to develop basic, descriptive data on programs��� age, size, and graduation rates; departmental location; curricular requirements; online offerings; and instructor status and qualifications. In performing this research, I apply recent insights from neosophistic rhetorical theory and feminist critiques of science to both articulate, and model, a feminist-sophistic methodology. I also suggest in this work that technical communication certificates can be theorized as a particularly sophistic credential for a particularly sophistic field, and I discuss the implications of neosophistic theory for certificate program design and administration.

Striving for a common language: A white feminist parallel to Indigenous ways of knowing and researching

In Striving Towards a Common Language I outline an innovative methodology which consists of three strands encompassing an Indigenous-centred approach based on Indigenous Self-determination (participatory action research), relationship as central to socio-cultural dynamics, and feminist phenomenology. This methodology - which I call Living On the Ground was created in direct concert with 13 Indigenous women elders who were my hosts, teachers and walytja (family) as we worked together to create a dynamic cultural revitalisation project for their community, one of Australia's most remote Aboriginal settlements. I explain the processes I went through as a White Irish-Australian woman living with the women elders and their 11 dogs in a one room tin shed for two years, and tell of how the nexus of land, Ancestors, and the Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) combined with White cultural practices came to inspire a methodology which took the best from Indigenous and (White) feminist ways of knowing and of being. (c) 2005 Z. de Ishtar. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visualising In/Equalities through Contemporary Documentary Cinema. A Diffractive Reading of Feminist Practices in Spanish and Italian Non-Fiction Films

This thesis brings together feminist documentary film theory and feminist new materialism(s) to describe how feminist material-discursive practices in a sample of Spanish and Italian documentary cinema made between 2013-2018 (can) visualise gender in/equalities. The accomplished objectives have been: 1. Building a bridge between feminist documentary film theory and Karen Barad���s diffractive methodology by approaching non-fiction cinema that deals with social inequalities as a diffraction apparatus. 2. Developing a feminist toolbox for a response-able gaze by gathering different insights from feminist film theory. 3. Identifying feminist material-discursive practices in a sample of documentary films produced in Spain and Italy over the last six years (2013-2018). 4. Analysing the effects that these feminist material-discursive practices in documentary cinema have, particularly in terms of visualising gender in/equalities on both sides of the camera and on both sides of the screen. 5. Revealing patterns between the ten case studies by reading through one another (i.e. diffractively) insights raised in each one of them. In ten documentary films/case studies, I identify patterns of continuities and differences concerning feminist material-discursive practices at four levels: content, form, production and reception. In terms of contents, I detect two patterns in which feminist material-discursive practices may operate: enacting the right to appear or enacting the right to look back and/or against the grain. As for the forms, I exemplify how feminism politicises Bill Nichols���s six modes of representation. My analysis of production practices is elaborated along the filmmakers��� self-positions/situatedness, tensions/obstructions, and effects/affects/emotions regarding four key concepts: documentary cinema, equality, gender and feminism(s). And in the case of reception practices, I identify patterns of affective identification and/or intellectual reflections.

Electrochemical Oxidation Of Landfill Leachate In A Flow Reactor: Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology.

Response surface methodology based on Box-Behnken (BBD) design was successfully applied to the optimization in the operating conditions of the electrochemical oxidation of sanitary landfill leachate aimed for making this method feasible for scale up. Landfill leachate was treated in continuous batch-recirculation system, where a dimensional stable anode (DSA(��)) coated with Ti/TiO2 and RuO2 film oxide were used. The effects of three variables, current density (milliampere per square centimeter), time of treatment (minutes), and supporting electrolyte dosage (moles per liter) upon the total organic carbon removal were evaluated. Optimized conditions were obtained for the highest desirability at 244.11��mA/cm(2), 41.78��min, and 0.07��mol/L of NaCl and 242.84��mA/cm(2), 37.07��min, and 0.07��mol/L of Na2SO4. Under the optimal conditions, 54.99��% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 71.07 ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) removal was achieved with NaCl and 45.50 of COD and 62.13 NH3-N with Na2SO4. A new kinetic model predicted obtained from the relation between BBD and the kinetic model was suggested.

Didanosine-loaded Chitosan Microspheres Optimized By Surface-response Methodology: A Modified Maximum Likelihood Classification" Approach Formulation For Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors."

Didanosine-loaded chitosan microspheres were developed applying a surface-response methodology and using a modified Maximum Likelihood Classification. The operational conditions were optimized with the aim of maintaining the active form of didanosine (ddI), which is sensitive to acid pH, and to develop a modified and mucoadhesive formulation. The loading of the drug within the chitosan microspheres was carried out by ionotropic gelation technique with sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as cross-linking agent and magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) to assure the stability of ddI. The optimization conditions were set using a surface-response methodology and applying the Maximum Likelihood Classification, where the initial chitosan concentration, TPP and ddI concentration were set as the independent variables. The maximum ddI-loaded in microspheres (i.e. 1433mg of ddI/g chitosan), was obtained with 2% (w/v) chitosan and 10% TPP. The microspheres depicted an average diameter of 11.42��m and ddI was gradually released during 2h in simulated enteric fluid.

Methodology of a nationwide cross-sectional survey of prevalence and epidemiological patterns of hepatitis A, B and C infection in Brazil

Um inqu��rito de base populacional foi conduzido na popula����o urbana de todas as capitais e do Distrito Federal no Brasil para fornecer informa����es sobre a preval��ncia de hepatites virais e fatores de risco, entre 2005 e 2009. Este artigo descreve o delineamento e a metodologia do estudo que envolveu a popula����o com idade entre 5 e 19 anos para hepatite A e 10 a 69 anos para hepatite B e C. As entrevistas e amostras de sangue foram obtidas atrav��s de visitas domiciliares e a amostra selecionada a partir de uma amostragem estratificada em m��ltiplos est��gios (por conglomerado) com igual probabilidade para cada dom��nio de estudo (regi��o e faixa et��ria). Nacionalmente, 19.280 resid��ncias e ~31.000 indiv��duos foram selecionados. O tamanho da amostra foi suficiente para detectar uma preval��ncia em torno de 0,1% e para avaliar os fatores de risco por regi��o. A metodologia apresentou-se vi��vel para distinguir entre diferentes padr��es epidemiol��gicos da hepatite A, B e C. Estes dados ser��o de valia para a avalia����o das pol��ticas de vacina����o e para o desenho de estrat��gias de controle.