Mean girls, homosociality and football: an education on social and power dynamics between girls and women

Relationships between girls and women have typically been explored through the lexicon of ‘friendship’ or, where there is a presence of sexual desire, ‘lesbian’. This article suggests the complexity and impact of female (same-sex) sociality, and its relationship to heteronormativity and power dynamics between girls and women runs deeper than the terms ‘friendship’ or ‘lesbian’ give rise to. Exploring social and power dynamics amongst girls and women, this article explores how gender is policed and negotiated within a framework of homosociality. Drawing on empirical research within a women's Australian Rules football team, I explore the complexity of female same-sex bonds, the negotiation of gender embodiment and performance within female homosocial spaces, and the emergence of women's own lexicons in making sense of their relationships with other women in this particular social sphere, further considering how this might be applied to other female homosocial spaces, including same-sex educational and sporting sites.

Networks, Organisations and Men: Concepts and Interrelations

Research on men’s networks and homosociality in and around organisations can produce knowledge on organisational power relations, and contribute to the efforts to promote equality in working life. The search for a conceptual framework to study these issues arises in this paper from my ongoing work on men's social networks and gendered power in and around organisations. Men give each other social support through networks in which formal and informal relationships intermingle, but networks are also contexts of competition and oppression, and of construction of masculinities that are in hierarchical relations with each other and with femininities. For studying the networks men have with each other in work organisations I suggest a broader starting point that contextualises these homosocial networks with men’s other personal relations, and integrates different perspectives deriving from social network analysis, critical studies on men and organisational studies.

'... the walls fell down but the blokes just coded ...' - Varieties of stability in software product development during organizational restructurings

Many Finnish IT companies have gone through numerous organizational changes over the past decades. This book draws attention to how stability may be central to software product development experts and IT workers more generally, who continuously have to cope with such change in their workplaces. It does so by analyzing and theorizing change and stability as intertwined and co-existent, thus throwing light on how it is possible that, for example, even if ‘the walls fall down the blokes just code’ and maintain a sense of stability in their daily work. Rather than reproducing the picture of software product development as exciting cutting edge activities and organizational change as dramatic episodes, the study takes the reader beyond the myths surrounding these phenomena to the mundane practices, routines and organizings in product development during organizational change. An analysis of these ordinary practices offers insights into how software product development experts actively engage in constructing stability during organizational change through a variety of practices, including solidarity, homosociality, close relations to products, instrumental or functional views on products, preoccupations with certain tasks and humble obedience. Consequently, the study shows that it may be more appropriate to talk about varieties of stability, characterized by a multitude of practices of stabilizing rather than states of stagnation. Looking at different practices of stability in depth shows the creation of software as an arena for micro-politics, power relations and increasing pressures for order and formalization. The thesis gives particular attention to power relations and processes of positioning following organizational change: how social actors come to understand themselves in the context of ongoing organizational change, how they comply with and/or contest dominant meanings, how they identify and dis-identify with formalization, and how power relations often are reproduced despite dis-identification. Related to processes of positioning, the reader is also given a glimpse into what being at work in a male-dominated and relatively homogeneous work environment looks like. It shows how the strong presence of men or “blokes” of a particular age and education seems to become invisible in workplace talk that appears ‘non-conscious’ of gender.

Improváveis relações: produção de sentidos sobre o masculino no contexto de amizade entre homens homo e heterossexuais

Esta tese é um estudo acerca da produção de sentidos sobre a masculinidade e suas relações com a homofobia. Parte-se da premissa de que tanto a masculinidade quanto a homofobia são fenômenos construídos socialmente. A adoção do regime de amizade entre homens de orientações sexuais distintas permite problematizar as dinâmicas de gênero presentes nessa relação específica de homossociabilidade e suas interrelações com as diferentes concepções sobre masculinidade, homossexualidade e homofobia. A homofobia é compreendida sob duas perspectivas: (1) como um preconceito que gera discriminações e violências contra pessoas não heterossexuais; e (2) como um dispositivo regulador da relação entre homens, constituindo-se como um dos pilares da construção da masculinidade heterossexual. O trabalho de campo incluiu entrevistas individuais com homens heterossexuais de camadas médias das cidades do Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo que mantém relações de amizade com homens homossexuais. O conjunto dos participantes é heterogêneo no tocante à faixa etária (entre 25 e 47 anos), exercício profissional e experiências diversas de convívio com pessoas homossexuais. São analisadas as tensões, dilemas e ressignificações que ajudam a produzir diferentes sentidos para a masculinidade. Os resultados apontam para a coexistência de sentidos convencionais e liberais acerca do gênero e da sexualidade masculinos.

Homosocialitetens kraft : hur unga män ”gör” maskulinitet i grupp och individuellt

The power of homosociality: how young men “do” masculinity in groups and individually Using young men’s narratives, about other men, friends, dates and girlfriends, this article discusses the following questions: Can the interpretation – the understanding of young men’s collective presentations of masculinity as a surface that hides a more complex masculinity – undermine how we interpret young men’s talk about and interaction with other men, as well as with women? Can this disassembling understanding have an impact on how young men interpret and relive the interactions with other men, as well as with women? Can this disassembling of the homosocially created masculinity from the more individually created masculinity shape secondary gains for the young men, such as e.g. a more flexible and stretchable arena of responsibility, as well as more flexible space of acting? Thomas Johansson, Professor of Social Work social work, states that if we only focus the homosocially created masculinity, this will reshape a less nuanced picture of young men’s way of doing masculinity (Johansson 2005). Thus, young men’s vulnerability and difficulties remain hidden. However, this disassembling of the homosocially created masculinity from the more individually based doings of masculinity could possibly also give secondary gains, such as e.g. a more flexible and stretchable field of responsibility, as well as more flexible space of acting. This article shows that using a fragmentised and situated masculinity, as a way of understanding the complexity and the ambivalence in young men’s project of doing masculinity, makes evident – on the one hand – the vulnerability in young men’s process of doing masculinity. On the other hand, however, this view also makes it possible for young men to avoid responsibility for their actions. Instead the situated context – e.g. if in a peer group or alone, and what kind of relations the young man has – will be significant for how the act will be interpreted. The empirical material consists of six individual interviews and one group interview with four men. The age span of the participants is 16 to 24 years old. The overall theme for the discussions is heterosexual practice and relations.