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In its founding generations, sociology was greatly concerned with gender, as part of its theorizing of the world of colonialism and empire. Sociology then focused on the global metropole, so its analysis of gender in the decades since the Women's Liberation movement has been developed in a Northern container. This can now change, if the extraversion of sociology around the global South can be overcome. The thematics of gender analyses in the periphery highlight historical processes of the formation and disruption of gender orders, dealing with issues of violence and land. The work of a number of gender theorists and researchers from the South is discussed. The material conditions of knowledge formation in developing countries have to be recognized, as well as the differing ways intellectuals in the South handle influences from the metropole. New issues have emerged in the sociology of gender as a neoliberal world order has taken shape, producing new patterns of masculinized power as well as pathways of change for women.

Sociology may be heading for a marginal place in a market-dominated world. If it is to do more, it must address major questions about the social world now coming into existence. One of these is the relationship of gender dynamics to neoliberalism. Neoliberalism has to be understood on a world scale, not just as an export of globalNorth preoccupations. Older models of the relationship between capitalism and gender, built on systems models of both, need to be replaced in the light of the coloniality of gender. Researchers across the global South are opening up new perspectives on gender and power; new dynamics of change are visible in transnational arenas created by empire and neoliberal globalization.

Recent work in social science challenges managerial assumptions about homogenous knowledge domains, and traces the effects of a world economy of knowledge structured by the history of colonialism and current north-south global inequalities. The differentiation of knowledge rests on the very different histories and situations of metropolitan, creole, colonized and post-colonial intelligentsias. Different knowledge projects have been constructed in global space, which feed back on our understanding of knowledge itself. Less recognized, but increasingly important, are uses of southern and postcolonial perspectives in applied social science, in areas ranging from education to urban planning. Some implications of these applications are discussed: southern theory is not a fixed set of propositions but a challenge to develop new knowledge projects and new ways of learning with globally expanded resources.

A pesquisa sobre masculinidade atualmente é mundial, oferecendo-nos ricas bases para o entendimento desse tema em arenas globais. O tema da globalização tem, cada vez mais, entrado em foco nos estudos de gênero, e especificamente na pesquisa sobre masculinidade. Este trabalho mostra a utilidade de uma aproximação de história de vida para se entender gênero, baseada essencialmente na psicanálise, embora modificada para utilização em trabalho de campo sócio-científico. Apresenta-se um estudo de caso que representa a contribuição australiana para um estudo realizado em vários países, compreendendo a masculinidade corporativa. Diz respeito a um administrador de meia idade na indústria de construção, que revela uma forma conservadora de masculinidade hegemônica. Isso foi gerado em sua família de origem, em sua educação e na indústria de construção que é pesadamente masculinizada. Seu processo de trabalho administrativo é uma espécie de bricolagem de negociações e relacionamentos que são mais locais e concretos do que abstratos e globalizados. Esse padrão de masculinidade se articula com a economia global, mas não reproduz exatamente a masculinidade hegemônica das corporações transnacionais, que são, por contraste, caracterizadas por altos níveis de escolaridade e envolvimento tecnológico. Dois locais de contradição estão presentes na vida desse administrador: sua corporalidade e suas relações familiares, o que pode causar problemas para uma condução sem percalços de sua vida. Na entrevista há também um curioso momento de utopia, que coloca em questão seu projeto de gênero.

The development of research on masculinity since the 1980s hasproduced rich evidence of the diversity of masculinities. This is now anestablished research field and has had many practical applications. Ithas not yet fully absorbed the wealth of ideas and debates aboutmasculinities and social change that come from the colonized and postcolonial world. Power has always been an important issue in understanding masculinities, and we now need to think about powerstructures on a world scale. Research on neoliberal globalization, onHIV/AIDS, and on elite masculinities, are significant sites for this work.The concept of hegemonic masculinity is still useful, but it should notbe equated with violence. We need to pay attention to incoherences in gender relations, and the politics of gendered institutions, in thinkingabout inequality and change.

The development of research on masculinity since the 1980s hasproduced rich evidence of the diversity of masculinities. This is now anestablished research field and has had many practical applications. Ithas not yet fully absorbed the wealth of ideas and debates aboutmasculinities and social change that come from the colonized and postcolonialworld. Power has always been an important issue inunderstanding masculinities, and we now need to think about powerstructures on a world scale. Research on neoliberal globalization, onHIV/AIDS, and on elite masculinities, are significant sites for this work.The concept of hegemonic masculinity is still useful, but it should notbe equated with violence. We need to pay attention to incoherences ingender relations, and the politics of gendered institutions, in thinkingabout inequality and change. ; The development of research on masculinity since the 1980s hasproduced rich evidence of the diversity of masculinities. This is now anestablished research field and has had many practical applications. Ithas not yet fully absorbed the wealth of ideas and debates aboutmasculinities and social change that come from the colonized and postcolonial world. Power has always been an important issue in understanding masculinities, and we now need to think about powerstructures on a world scale. Research on neoliberal globalization, onHIV/AIDS, and on elite masculinities, are significant sites for this work.The concept of hegemonic masculinity is still useful, but it should notbe equated with violence. We need to pay attention to incoherences in gender relations, and the politics of gendered institutions, in thinkingabout inequality and change.