http://hdl.handle.net/1842/1682 Sun, 19 May 2013 03:13:55 GMT 2013-05-19T03:13:55Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6595 Title: Gender Mainstreaming as a Knowledge Process: towards an understanding of perpetuation and change in gender blindness and gender bias Authors: Cavaghan, Rosalind Abstract: This thesis locates itself in wider developments in gender theory and examinations of the state’s production of gender inequality. It responds to two research problems in existing literature. Firstly, scholars have developed increasingly complex theorisations of the social construction of gender and the state’s role in it. This body of research has shown how gender blindness and gender bias in state policies produce inequality and how gender structures priorities, hierarchies and roles within state organisations. Fully operationalising these insights has, however, thus far proved difficult. Secondly, whilst existing research provides a nuanced picture of these multiple dynamics involved in the state’s reproduction of gender inequality, we cannot yet fully account for the processes through which these dynamics are maintained. As a result, our explanations of how change could be achieved are also under-developed. This thesis uses gender mainstreaming (GM) implementation as a model to explore these research problems, examining the processes underlying the ‘disappointing’ policy outcomes which existing analyses of GM implementation have documented (Bretherton 2001, Daly 2005, Mazey 2000). Whilst these existing studies provide an essential starting point, this thesis argues that many have applied an implicitly rigid or rationalistic approach to policy analysis, highlighting the disparity between the intended and actual outcomes of GM. This kind of approach fails to operationalise our understanding of the construction of gender as a process and a constantly renegotiated phenomenon. It also fails to exploit the research opportunities which GM implementation provides. To enable such an analysis, this thesis draws together literatures from policy studies, particularly interpretative policy analysis (Colebatch 2009, Pressman and Wildavsky 1984, Yanow 1993) and science and technology studies/the sociology of knowledge (STS/SK) (Latour and Callon 1981, Law 1986) to apply an understanding of policy implementation as a process of negotiation, where we analyse how policy is interpreted, understood and enacted, on the ground. This perspective emphasises how local responses to strategic policy demands emerge through collective processes of interpretation, which are heavily affected by pre-existing policy assumptions, activities and practices (Wagenaar 2004, Wagenaar et al 2003). These concepts are used to operationalise the concept of gender knowledge (Andresen and Doelling 2002, Caglar 2010, Cavaghan 2010, 2012, Doelling 2005) to investigate how shared (non)perceptions of gender inequality are institutionalised and perpetuated, whilst competing notions are marginalised. Thus developed, the gender knowledge concept enables us to grasp and analyse (non)perceptions of the gender inequality issue; the evidence or ways of thinking which underpin them; and the processes, materials and persons involved in institutionalising them to the exclusion of competing perceptions. This approach therefore operationalises the notion that gender and gendering is a process and connects the ‘genderedness of organisations’ (Benschop and Verloo 2006, Rees 2002) to gendered policy outputs. Examining ‘what is happening’ when GM is implemented in this manner provides an opportunity to identify mechanisms of resistance, i.e. the processes through which the production of gender inequality is maintained. By corollary, examining ‘successful’ incidences of GM implementation provides empirical examples of how change has occurred. The project thus aims to produce theoretical insights which can be extrapolated to a wider understanding of the perpetuation of the state production of gender inequality. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6595 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6463 Title: Retirement home? France’s migrant worker hostels and the dilemma of late-in-life return. Authors: Hunter, Alistair Pursell Abstract: Unlike many of their North African and West African compatriots who reunified with family and settled in France in the 1970s and 80s, the decision of migrant worker hostel residents not to return definitively to places of origin at retirement is puzzling. Firstly, it calls into question the assumptions of the ‘myth of return’ literature, which explains non-return on the basis of family localisation. In the case of ‘geographically-single’ hostel residents, however, the grounds for non-return cannot be family localisation, since the men’s families remain in places of origin. Secondly, older hostel residents also remain unmoved by the financial incentives of a return homewards, where their French state pensions would have far greater purchasing power. Instead of definitive return, the overwhelming preference of hostel residents is for back-and-forth migration, between the hostel in France and communities of origin. The aim of this dissertation is to resolve this puzzle, by asking: What explains the hostel residents’ preference for back-and-forth mobility over definitive return at retirement? In order to make sense of these mobility decisions, several theories of migration are presented and evaluated against qualitative data from a multi-sited research design incorporating ethnography, life story and semi-structured interviews, and archive material. This fieldwork was carried out across France, Morocco and Senegal. Although no one theory adequately accounts for all the phenomena observed, the added value of each theory becomes most apparent when levels of analysis are kept distinct: at the household level as regards remittances; at the kinship/village level as regards re-integration in the home context; at the meso-level of ethnic communities in terms of migrants’ transnational ties; and at the macro-level of social systems concerning inclusion in healthcare and administrative organisations. Widening the focus beyond the puzzle/dilemma of late-in-life mobility, the thesis concludes by questioning what ‘home’ can mean for the retired hostel residents. An innovative way of theorising home – building on conventional conceptions of home based on territory and community – is outlined, arguing that to be ‘at home’ can also mean to be ‘included’ in different ‘social systems’. With this argument the thesis aims to contribute to broader debates on what it means for immigrants to belong and achieve inclusion in society. Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6463 2012-06-29T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6454 Title: Right to asylum and its protection Authors: Kuosmanen, Jaakko Niilo Abstract: The topic of this thesis is justice and asylum. The central argument in the thesis is that citizens of all states have a moral right that entitles them to asylum in certain circumstances of deprivation. The right to asylum can be understood as a general derivative right, and it is grounded in the more fundamental entitlement to basic needs. More specifically, I argue that all persons whose basic needs are insufficiently protected in their home states have the right to asylum when they cannot be assisted with other remedial instruments by the international community within a reasonable timeframe. By using the right to asylum as a normative evaluative standard, I also argue that the existing refugee protective institutions are morally unsatisfactory, and that a 'moral refugee regime' should be established to replace the current protective institutions. Then the questions becomes, what specific form these institutions should take. In the thesis I focus primarily on one institutional proposal, 'the tradable quota scheme', and its ethical dimensions. I defend the tradable quota scheme against several lines of criticism, and suggest that the scheme constitutes a normatively viable alternative for the existing institutional framework. Finally, I examine obligations in the protection of the right to asylum in circumstances of partial compliance. I conclude that the citizens of complying states have the obligation to 'pick up the slack' and assist those bearers of the right to asylum who are unjustly denied assistance by the non-complying states. Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6454 2012-06-29T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6450 Title: Governance, participation and avoidance: everyday public involvement in the Scottish NHS Authors: Stewart, Ellen Anderson Abstract: Public involvement in health services is an area of policy where ostensibly good intentions appear to repeatedly fail in implementation. Since the late 1990s public involvement in the UK NHS has been subject to frequent reforms, and this has continued in Scotland since devolution. Reformers have criticised mechanisms for being subject to manipulation by managers, parochial in their outlook, and crucially, ‘unrepresentative’ of the wider public. Academic literature has responded primarily by seeking to ‘fix’ the problems of public involvement, offering typologies and models of participation intended to apply across a wide range of settings and to the entire ‘public’. Taking a different route focused on the complexity of a single case, this thesis explores the multiple meanings and goals contained within the public involvement agenda in Scotland, and argues that these are far-removed from the way that many individual patients seek to influence their health-care in the everyday. In particular this project illuminates the creative and political potential of citizens’ interactions with public services. Research comprises an interpretive case study of the implementation of public involvement policy within one Community Health Partnership in Scotland, and a nested case study of interviews with ‘ordinary’ young adults in the area. Fieldwork across twelve months included semi-structured interviews with staff, participants, and young adults; observation of public and private meetings of the Community Health Partnership and the Public Partnership Forum; and analysis of local reports and plans for public involvement. Given a low level of awareness or interest in public involvement, interviews with young adults concentrated instead on accounts of using health services. Rather than simply illuminating ‘non-participation’, the resulting data act as a lens through which public involvement policy can be seen anew. Public involvement is depicted as an unevenly embedded assemblage of actors and materials pursuing a range of goals, including the strengthening of public influence and the diversification of the public voice. I argue that many current participants in the Public Partnership Forum seek not to change the NHS, but to serve or assist it, and accordingly that their actions can best be understood as work or volunteering, not as activism. Finally, drawing on the reported experiences of my young adult interviewees, I argue that the transition from individual patient to participant is an unlikely one, revealing a range of alternative (oppositional) tactics available to individuals who feel unhappy with some aspect of their care. I conclude by arguing that NHS staff confront the inherently chimerical nature of participatory projects within public services. By operating without a sense of what amount or degree of participation is ‘good enough’, public involvement re-interprets my young adult interviewees as apathetic nonparticipants, and NHS managers and staff as failed engagers. The thesis uncovers the neglected, often-mundane everyday realities of public involvement as both governmental practice and citizen participation. In doing so it troubles the growing literature on contemporary forms of citizen participation and engagement, demonstrating the need for a critical approach to an ostensibly compelling policy agenda. Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6450 2012-06-29T00:00:00Z