This book compares perspectives on gender equality in Norway and Japan, focusing on family, education, media, and sexuality and reproduction as seen through a gendered lens. What can we learn from a ...comparison between two countries who stand in significant contrast to each other with respect to gender equality? Norway and Japan differ in terms of historical, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Most importantly, Japan lags far behind Norway when it comes to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report. Rather than taking a narrow approach that takes as its starting point the assumption that Norway has so much ‘more’ to offer in terms of gender equality, the authors attempt to show that a comparative perspective of two countries in the West and East can be of mutually benefit to both contexts in the advancement of gender equality. The interdisciplinary team of researchers contributing to this book cover a range of contemporary topics in gender equality, including fatherhood and masculinity, teaching and learning in gender studies education, cultural depictions of gender, trans experiences and feminism. This unique collection is suitable for researchers and students of gender studies, sociology, anthropology, Japan studies and European studies.
This book compares perspectives on gender equality in Norway and Japan, focusing on family, education, media, and sexuality and reproduction as seen through a gendered lens. What can we learn from a ...comparison between two countries who stand in significant contrast to each other with respect to gender equality? Norway and Japan differ in terms of historical, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Most importantly, Japan lags far behind Norway when it comes to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report. Rather than taking a narrow approach that takes as its starting point the assumption that Norway has so much ‘more’ to offer in terms of gender equality, the authors attempt to show that a comparative perspective of two countries in the West and East can be of mutually benefit to both contexts in the advancement of gender equality. The interdisciplinary team of researchers contributing to this book cover a range of contemporary topics in gender equality, including fatherhood and masculinity, teaching and learning in gender studies education, cultural depictions of gender, trans experiences and feminism. This unique collection is suitable for researchers and students of gender studies, sociology, anthropology, Japan studies and European studies.
Odyssey to the Model Norwegian State ØYGARDSLIA, KRISTINE; RINGROSE, PRISCILLA
Nordic Journal of Migration Research,
2023, Letnik:
13, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This article examines digital stories about migration journeys produced by students in a mainstream upper secondary class in Norway. The digital stories were introduced as part of a social studies ...module designed to foster critical thinking around migration. The class was made up of ethnic Norwegian students, students with a family migration background, and recently arrived migrant students. Using multimodal analysis, we examined the storylines in the students’ digital stories, focusing on the understandings of migration and nation produced. Inspired by Bamberg’s (2004) conceptualisation of dominant and counter narratives, we explored the extent to which these understandings interpellated/resisted dominant narratives of migration and nation. We asked: What understandings of the migrant and of Norway do the storylines re/produce? To what extent do these understandings draw on dominant Norwegian narratives of migration? Our findings suggest that most of the digital stories draw on dominant narratives, especially that of Norway as an idealised model state. In conclusion, we discuss possible reasons for the narrative standardisation and suggest potential ways of opening up educational spaces for more counter narratives.
What are the political implications of an Arab feminist writing practice? How do the works of Assia Djebar, Algeria's internationally acclaimed francophone writer, relate to the priorities and ...perspectives of both Western and Arab feminist politics? Does Djebar succeed in her aim of reclaiming the history of her homeland, and of her religion, Islam, for women? Or in reclaiming the sexuality of Arab women? In Assia Djebar: In Dialogue with Feminisms, Priscilla Ringrose uncovers the mechanisms of Djebar's revisionary feminism and examines the echoes and dissonances between what Djebar terms her "own kind of feminism" and the thinking of French and Arab feminists such as Irigaray, Cixous, Kristeva, Mernissi and Ahmed. Arguing that Djebar's work is in constant dialogue with other feminisms, Ringrose assesses the strengths and weaknesses of its ideals and identifies their own particular intervention into current political and cultural debates. This book will appeal not only to scholars working on Djebar, but also to students of colonial history, women's studies and cultural politics.
This study investigates how teachers working with newly arrived adolescent refugee students reflect on these students, their situation within the educational system and in Norwegian society. We ...research the ways in which these reflections engage with the various understandings of the ubiquitous and 'fuzzy' notion of immigrant integration, a concept which we approach critically. The empirical data consists of interviews with teachers in three Adult Education establishments in Norway. Our aim was to identify the narratives of integration the teachers draw on and (re)produce, and to discuss these in relation to policies and perceptions of integration in Norwegian schools and society. Our analysis identified three narratives of integration, namely (1) Integration as having social relations with 'Norwegians', (2) Integration as acquiring knowledge and (3) Integration as endorsing 'Norwegian' values. These narratives exist alongside a corresponding image of the newly arrived migrant students as socially unintegrated and as educationally and culturally deficient. The article's main argument is that the teachers' narratives, despite their complex and multifaceted character, are embedded in an educational and societal context where the longstanding Norwegian ideal of cultural sameness leads to added pressure on immigrants to assimilate.
This article examines the French media representation of low-cost live-in "granny" au pairing services available to French families in France and abroad. It argues that the French news broadcast ...media repackage "granny" au pairing as positive ageing while underplaying its status as work. The media not only gloss over the low (or no) payment these older single women receive, but also sidestep the precarious economic conditions which motivate them to undertake this work. Instead of portraying au pairs as underpaid workers, it promotes au pairing as "good-life fantasies" and au pairs as active agers. "Granny" au pairs are framed as glamorous, adventurous tourists, or as devoted super grannies. Following Lauren Berlant's notion of "cruel optimism," I argue that the media promote these fantasies despite the lack of evidence of reciprocity in the au pairs' surrogate family relations and working arrangements. There is a sense of cruel optimism in the way these fantasies deny the reality of au pairing as work, assume that older citizens should find private solutions for inadequate pensions, and reinforce the idea that constant activity is what is required of older single women.
This article undertakes a filmic and cultural analysis of representations of migrant domestic work in Lebanon, with reference to Sara Ahmed's theorization of the sociality of emotions. It focuses on ...documentaries, TV programs and news bulletins featuring migrant domestic workers (MDWs). These representations bring to bear intensely emotional situations that capitalize on conflict, loss, and attachment. According to Sara Ahmed, emotions are social and cultural practices that shape individual and collective bodies and legitimize political decisions. In this article, we look at the ways in which the mise-en-scène of encounters involving MDWs, their employers, and other agents, provide for viewers emotional scripts that legitimize certain political positions. We suggest that these mise-en-scène encounters shape domestic work as a site of abuse perpetrated by 'bad' employers, as a site of horror inhabited by 'tragic' victims, and as a site of loving relations performed by 'good' employers. In doing so, we argue that they inflate the privatized and sensationalized dimensions of domestic work and depoliticize this field of labor. The exception to this trend is the documentary A Maid for Each that unflinchingly addresses the moral bankruptcy of Lebanon's migration and labor regimes.
This article investigates use of digital storytelling as a learning activity in education about migration. Based on a study in two Norwegian schools and two adult education centers for refugees and ...migrants, the article analyzes student's digital stories and observations of the process of production. Counter to research on the promise of digital storytelling to promote diverse perspectives, personal experience and creativity, our findings show that digital stories as a learning activity includes powerful standardization drivers. The standardization limits diversity in students' knowledge and experience from coming into view in the final product. The identified standardization drivers are; (1) discursive blueprints of refugee experience, including the narrative about the 'Good Refugee' and idealization of the destination country, (2) challenges with representing traumatic experiences through photographic imagery, and (3) material affordances in the production process such as google algorithms. In conclusion, we argue that critical engagement with the involved modalities and standardization drivers is a condition for using digital stories to foster critical thinking about migration.
