Masculinity Studies Between Contextual and Transnational

Analyses: Challenges for Theory, Methodology and Public Policies

Konferencija CESI: MUŠKARCI I RODNA RAVNOPRAVNOST: Za ravnopravnost je potrebno dvoje

Zagreb, 14. 10. 2011.Marina Blagojević

Marina Blagojevic

Structure:Firstly , I will argue about the necessity of contextual and

contextualized knowledges for the analyses of masculinities, and high relevance of concept of the semiperiphery for research on masculinities in Southeastern Europe, and ‘’postcommunist’ transitional countries.

Then I would like to discuss the issue of transnationality and what challenges it produces for masculinity studies.

Thirdly, I will briefly discuss the methodological challenges related to these theoretical considerations.

And, finally I will adress the questions of adequate policy responses to the movements within both theory and methodology.

What are the issues?To recognize that men are gendered as well,

that it is important to deesentialize men, de-naturalize men (Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities)

To recognize that men and masculinities are always contextualized and to search for the relevant contextual framework for the explanation and interpretation of masculinities. Often theory from the core simply does not refer to those contexts.

Gender is only one among a number of differences between the social groups and individuals, and not necessarily and always the most relevant one (intersectionality).

Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities explicitly examine how men are gendered.“ CSMM comprise historical, cultural,

relational, materialist, deconstructive, anti-essentialist studies on men”.

“There remains a strong tendency to see gender as primarily interpersonal rather than structural or societal, or even transsocietal” (Hearn, 2011).

Knowledges – ideal typesIn relation to context – three ideal types:contextual knowledge, contextualized knowledge and globalized knowledge. Their distinction is based on their relation to

the social contexts and openness to the lived experiences, on the one hand, and openness and influence of ‘Theory’ from the core, on the other hand.

contextual knowledgecontextual knowledge as foundation has

experiential knowledge, in combination with local tacit knowledge, tradition, collective consciousness, as well as concepts, ‘theories’ or generalizations (including stereotypes, prejudices...), paradigms, myths, discourses which are widely shared on a local/national level, or at least within the local epistemic communities.

contextualized knowledgecontextualized knowledge is more distant

from experience, it is more sophisticated, more distilled through ‘Theory’, more institutionalized and relying on more ‘scientific’ evidence. It is articulated as communication between widely spread and accepted dominant paradigms and canons (coming from the core), and local/national empirical evidence. Widely accepted theories are actually being contextualized. However, the validity of those paradigms and theories for the contexts outside the core is not really challenged.

globalized knowledgeProduced in the core. It consists of the body of canons and

references to the most cited authors, it is functioning on the most abstract level and is made of pure ‘Theory’ or very wide generalizations, usually articulated on the basis of research and data only or mainly from the core.

Although it claims to be ‘universal’, even when rejecting ‘universalism’, or ‘meta theories’, it is in fact still partial, self-referential and often distorted.

globalized public policiesThe UN and its agencies, as well as

complementary supranational institutions on the EU level, tend to provide, and even ‘own’ the space of comparative statistics, large surveys, quantitative overviews.

In the last several decades there is an almost exponential increase of different databases which compare different national indicators on the global or European level. Those databases are instrumental for the global neoliberal capitalist project because they supply with information both the potential investors as well as development experts and organizations.

Translating Theory into policiesEastern Europe is ‘covered’ more and more

by ‘data’ and ‘facts’ , and as such is subjected to transnational policy engineering, while at the same time it is less and less in control of those ‘data’ and ‘facts’ about itself.

‘Universalist’ knowledge originating from theories developed in the core get translated into the set of indicators which then get examined by large surveys and serve as the basis of public policies. This is how ‘Theory’ becomes effective beyond the academy.

Free flowFrom a normative perspective, however, it could

be assumed that an ideal situation in social sciences is the one in which the ‘objects’ of knowledge and policy intervention are producers of knowledge about themselves, as well.

That would mean that there is an unrestricted flow between contextual, contextualized and globalized knowledges, for the simple reason that they cover different layers of realities, that they have different levels of abstraction, different distance from experience, different proportions of inductive and deductive components and that, ideally, they should be complementary.

ComplementarityComplementarity ensures sensitivity to

diversity, to the multitude of different individual and social situations, as well as the full explanatory and policy capacity of dominant knowledge paradigms. In an era of neoliberal globalization, this flow also ensures a clear understanding of human costs and development regression.

Costs of limited complementarityif between those three types of knowledges

there is limited and restricted complementarity, or even a lack of it, this leads not only to epistemic ‘blindness’ but raises serious ethical and political questions related to invisibility of different marginalized groups and people, or even regions, marginalization of their experiences and perspectives, marginalization of knowledges and knowledge products based on those perspectives

Semiperiphery as a contextContextual analysis can be applied to

contexts of different levels of complexityone large-scale context, contains a set of

different societies which undergo intense transition towards democracy (as defined according to Western tradition) and market economy

the Semiperiphery has a set of structural characteristics which exist across different societies of Eastern Europe

semiperipherialityStructural conditions of semiperipheriality:‘Lagging behind’ and ‘ catching up’ with the core De-development - structural change which is in

economic terms related to depreciation of human, institutional and infrastructural capital (Miers and Ranasinghe, 2003),

In social terms semiperipheriality is related to increased poverty, increased social insecurity, decreased social protection and stability, institutional destruction, anomie, increased crime and violence, population crises, high inclination to migration, increased mortality and even ‘barbarization’ through the violent conflicts.

‘Surpulus of humans’

The overall framework of depreciation of human capital, together with prioritization of technological development, has led to the phenomena of ‘surplus of humans’, which affects large numbers of both women and men belonging to semiperiphery who find themselves on the side of the ‘losers’ of transition.

developmentsThere is a profound difference between

poverty and impoverishment, between absence of development (like in some remote areas of the world), slowed down development (like in some European countries faced with economic crises) and regressive trends of development (like in many post-communist countries).

Gender regimes at the semiperipheryGender regimes at the semiperiphery are

largely shaped by semiperipheriality itself. Because of the ’catching up’ they are shaped in a manner which enables use of women’s human resources on a massive scale, both in the private and public sphere. Women’s resources are engaged for the gap between the core and periphery to be bridged, while conservative patriarchal ideologies are used to ’keep women in place’.

Reality , theory and methodologyhybrid social structuresInstitutional vacuum, chaos, anomieExtreme proccessualitydiachronic social processes (pre-modern,

modern, postmodern elements existing paralelly).

The requisite analysis calls for different epistemic, theoretical and methodological approaches.

Contextualized Analysis on Masculinity: Serbianhood as ManhoodThe importance of contextual analysis, and

consequently the semiperipheral perspective, will be discussed using the example of misogyny and gender stereotypes in Serbian public discourse in the 90s.

Contextual analysis was applied on a series of paradigmatic texts and it refers to in-depth analysis of the meanings of stereotypes ascribed to Serbian men and women in a specific historical and social context.

Metaphysical oppositions in Western traditionFemale-male Nature-culturePrimitive-civilizedInstinct-rule/lawNature-contractUniversal-particularEternal-temporaryNatural law-human willNatural virtue-acquired sinDepth-surfaceNatural-artificialBody-mind

Senses-sense(Papic, 1997).

Serbian puzzleMale-femaleNature-cultureInstinct-wordsBalkan-EuropeNature-technologyAuthenticity-artificialitySuperiority-inferiorityEmotionality-rationalityUnchangeability-changeabilityRurality-urbanityWarship-help/following

 

In the public discourse in Serbia in the 90s culture and civilization as coming from the West were seen as a real threat to Serbianhood/manhood. Key opposition around which public discourse was concentrated on: Serbia – West, equalized with the opposition Serbianhood equals Manhood, and Womanhood equals West.

Contextual analysis of dominant Serbian public discourse related to gender differences in Serbia in the 90s disclosed circular re/production of Serbian ethnic identity and Serbian male identity: Serbianhood is re/producing Manhood, while Manhood is re/producing Serbianhood.

Semiperipheral context as explanationRelation to the core – to the ‘West’Real weakening of men’s position in the

family,‘self/sacrificing micromatriatrchy” (Blagojevic,

1995)- Decreasing ‘male privilege’ and increasing

‘male burden’ with conscription, wars, militarization

- Threatened ‘traditional’ male roles of breadwinner and protector

- Nationalism which was generally more pronounced in countries ‘in transition’ , or semiperipheral countries, than in the core

Epistemic benefitsContextualized analysis coming from the

semiperiphery offers certain epistemic benefits which cannot be acquired otherwise, if a difference of semiperiphery is not recognized, nor conceptualized

Puttining things under the ‘umbrella’ of the concept of semiperiphery and within the developmental perspective (in fact, de-developmental perspective!), encourages demystification of ‘transition’ and discloses the nature and the human costs of the neoliberal project of globalization.

Transnational perspectiveGender is produced and constructed on

different levels of social reality, including states/nations as well as transnational spaces (virtual and material).

Transnational perspective has increasing relevance in globalized world.

What are the characteristics of transpatriarchies?

What kind of globalization?“Increasingly analyses of men, masculinity

and nation need to be considered as part of gendered, sexualed, violenced, embodied transnational processes”.

(Hearn, 2011). - migration, ICTs, transnational corporations,

organizations, global finance, masculinization of business, sexualization of woemn in global mass media, internationalization of sex trade, gendered consequences of climate change…

male privileges without responsibilitiesProcesses of extensions of transnational

individual and collective non-responsibility of men, whereby social problems created are held to be the business of others, be they women, other men, governemnts, or those other parts of the world. This disconnection is part of a long history of patrirachal imperialism and colonialism (Hearn, 2011).

Methodological implicationsTo identify relevant contextual framework,

such as semiperiphery and to disclose connections and dependences between the core and the semiperiphery

To re-connect material and discoursive (virtual)

To go beyond ‘methodological nationalism’ (Hearn), but also beyond methodological individualism (i.e. family solidarity as survival strategy at the semiperiphery)

To give voice to men who do not enjoy ‘male privilege’ of patriarchy

Policy - challengesDiachronic cuts – pre-modern, modern and

postmodern segments ask for simultanious policies

Targeting individuals or/and groups?De-gendering of genders – problematising

both men and women

HVALA!

marinablago@gmail.com