Social Production And Reproduction At The Interface Of Public And Private Spheres

This volume examines the ways individuals, families and societies strive to balance paid and unpaid labor, engage in parenting and accomplish other care-work, seek education for themselves and their children and respond to the mass media, sometimes under conditions of poverty or violence.

Social Production and Reproduction at the Interface of Public and Private Spheres

This timely Companion traces the interlinking histories of globalisation, gender, and migration in the 21st century, setting up a completely new agenda beyond Western research production. Natalia Ribas-Mateos and Saskia Sassen bring together 27 incisive contributions from leading international experts on gender and global migration, uncovering the multitude of economies, histories, families and working cultures in which local, regional, national, and global economies are embedded.

This volume reflects on how the study of gender has changed and how studying gender has affected our research methods and our knowledge of the world around us. The interdisciplinary nature of gender studies and the cross-pollination of theoretical perspectives are illustrated as is the globalization of gender theory, research and policies.

This volume discusses why faculty and administrators of academe should care about implementing family-friendly policies and practices, as well as how they can advocate for policy changes. In section one, the book’s focus is on empirical studies that demonstrate the need for innovative programs and policies for faculty at colleges and universities. These pieces explore issues such as the value of work/life programs for employee retention, the need for a variety of family support policies including elder care, and the influence of workplace culture on the use of existing policies. Section two includes case studies of the process of formulating family-friendly policies and their adoption at a variety of universities. The subjects of these chapters include use of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the enactment of a parental leave policy, the development of a unique “life cycle professorship program,” and strategies used to implement new policies. The case study chapters provide descriptions of the identification of faculty and staff needs and the process of policy development as well as advice to faculty and administrators who seek to develop similar policies at their institutions.

Training for and pursuing a career in science can be treacherous for women; many more begin than ultimately complete at every stage. Characterizing this as a pipeline problem, however, leads to a focus on individual women instead of structural conditions. The goal of the book is to offer an alternative model that better articulates the ideas of agency, constraint, and variability along the path to scientific careers for women. The chapters in this volume apply the metaphor of the road to a variety of fields and moments that are characterized as exits, pathways, and potholes. The scholars featured in this volume engaged purposefully in translation of sociological scholarship on gender, work, and organizations. They focus on the themes that emerge from their scholarship that add to or build on our existing knowledge of scientific work, while identifying tools as well as challenges to diversifying science. This book contains a multitude of insights about navigating the road while training for and building a career in science. Collectively, the chapters exemplify the utility of this approach, provide useful tools, and suggest areas of exploration for those aiming to broaden the participation of women and minorities. Although this book focuses on gendered constraints, we are attentive to fact that gender intersects with other identities, such as race/ethnicity and nativity, both of which influence participation in science. Several chapters in the volume speak clearly to the experience of underrepresented minorities in science and others consider the circumstances and integration of non-U.S. born scientists, referred to in this volume as international scientists. Disaggregating gender deepens our understanding and illustrates how identity shapes the contours of the scientific road.

First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.