Suchergebnisse

This volume provides a systematic introduction to gender studies from a cultural and literary studies perspective. Topics include gender history since 1800, theoretical approaches (Écriture féminine, Foucault, Butler), feminist debates through to the present day (#MeToo), and neighboring fields (queer studies, men's studies, postcolonial studies, film studies). It also addresses reading methods in literary and cultural studies

What concepts of 'gender' and 'diversity' emerge in the different regions and pertinent research and practical fields? On the back drop of current European developments – from the deregulation of economy, a shrinking welfare state to the dissolution and reinforcement of borders – the book examines the development of Gender and Diversity Studies in different European regions as well as beyond and focuses on central fields of theoretical reflection, empirical research and practical implementation policies and politics.

Abstract
Research on African women and gender studies has grown substantially to a position where African-centered gender theories and praxis contribute to theorizing on global feminist scholarship. Africanist scholars in this field have explored new areas such as transnational and multiracial feminisms, both of which address the complex and interlocking conditions that impact women's lives and produce oppression, opportunity and privilege. In addition, emergent African-centered research on women and gender explores those critical areas of research frequently addressed in the global North which have historically been ignored or marginalized in the African context such as family, work, social and political movements, sexuality, health, technology, migration, and popular culture. This article examines these developments in African gender studies scholarship and highlights the contributions that new research on understudied linguistic populations, masculinity, migration, political development and social movements and the virtual world are making to global feminist discourse.

Biographical note: Elke Kleinau (Dr. phil.) ist Professorin für Historische Bildungsforschung und Gender History an der Universität zu Köln. Dirk Schulz (Dr. phil.) ist Geschäftsführer der zentralen wissenschaftlichen Einrichtung GeStiK (Gender Studies in Köln) an der Universität zu Köln. Susanne Völker (Dr. phil.) ist geschäftsführende Direktorin und wissenschaftliche Leiterin von GeStiK (Gender Studies in Köln) sowie Professorin für Methoden der Bildungs- und Sozialforschung und der Gender Studies an der Universität zu Köln.

Wie sind die Entwicklungen der Gender Studies vor dem Hintergrund ihrer Historie zu verstehen? Die Beiträger*innen des Bandes diskutieren diese Frage in drei thematischen Blöcken: Biografische Reflexionen treffen auf politische, künstlerische sowie wissenschaftliche Interventionen und stellen so das Potential der Disziplin heraus. Die einzelnen Beiträge entsprechen Schlaglichtern, die sowohl Dis- als auch Kontinuitäten der Diskurse beleuchten. Die dadurch entstehenden Synergieeffekte bestätigen die Notwendigkeit eines entgrenzenden Dialogs im Fach, transdisziplinär wie transnational.

In his presidential address to the American Statistical Association in 1931, William Fielding Ogburn, an American sociologist important particularly in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, took as his theme the difference between statistics and art. His argument, articulated here and in a wide range of writings throughout his career, was that "statistics has been developed to give an exact picture of reality, while the picture that the artist draws is a distortion of reality" (Ogburn 1932: 1). He then went on to express his belief that emotion leads to distortion in our observations. "It is this distorting influence of emotion and wishes," he said, "that is more responsible for bad thinking than any lack of logic" (ibid.: 4). But statistics, he believed, could ameliorate the distorting effects of emotion on our empirical observations. There was a problem, however, because "the artist in us wants understanding rather than statistics. But understanding is hardly knowledge. . . . The tests of knowledge are reliability and accuracy, not understanding" (ibid.: 5).