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PurposeThe purpose of this research is to show that the management of social relations involves specific forms of intellectual labour. An Australian study explores this through life‐history interviews.Design/methodology/approachCareer‐ and life‐history interviews were conducted with 16 intellectual workers whose professions involve the management of social relations. Both individual case studies and group analysis were conducted.FindingsIn some situations this labour is carried out by a collective intellectual increasingly integrated with information technology. Several modes of the organization of knowledge can be specified. Extensive links with global society are found, yet few respondents make global society itself part of their object of knowledge. Participants perform classic functions of assembling and reticulating knowledge, and some have high levels of training, yet tend to refuse an "intellectual" identity.Originality/valueLocal practice tilts away from ivory‐tower models of social knowledge and towards supportive engagement in global market society. Social management is thus partly integrated with neoliberalism; yet among the partly residualized groups of intellectual workers some indications of opposition remain. Knowledge itself therefore seems to be a focus of tension.

The familiar sociology of intellectuals has been constructed in the global metropole, and it is debatable how relevant its concepts are to the periphery. A life-history study was conducted with diverse intellectual workers in South Africa. A range of intellectual identities is apparent. The specific history of the Apartheid era, the struggle against Apartheid, and the advent of neo-liberalism have all shaped intellectual workers' cultural formation and created major differences in trajectories. Periphery/metropole relations profoundly structure cultural practices and consciousness, but these relations are not static. Distinctive patterns of intellectual work appear. The legacy of democratic struggle gives prominence to 'crossover' forms of intellectual work, fuels resistance to neo-liberal globalization, and gives a distinctive form to the problem of reproducing the intellectual workforce and project. The research thus emphasizes the cultural productiveness of the global 'periphery' and the need for forms of social theory based here.

Gender is now understood as an inbuilt feature of organisations, and gender equity strategies need to consider organisational processes as a key issue. Researchers lack, however, an effective common framework for understanding them. An approach is suggested, used in a recent study of gender patterns in a group of Australian public sector organisations. This study was based on a multi-dimensional theory of gender relations. The concept of an organisational gender regime is defined, and a four-dimensional model for analysing gender regimes is outlined. Details of the research are given, including a method for documenting and describing the gender regimes of particular worksites, and a strategy of careful and collaborative analysis. Practical suggestions are made for organisations undertaking their own gender research, emphasising a conceptual and collaborative approach to organisational gender research.

The phrase "Global South" marks a shift from a focus on development or cultural difference toward an emphasis on geopolitical power relations. Nour Dados and Raewyn Connell demystify and contextualize this term.