CFP 2015
Political Masculinities and Social Transition
We are currently located at a point in history in which we can observe a tremendous number of societies undergoing rapid changes. Such changes influence gender orders within these societies that, in turn, determine their political and social orders. We want to examine the transitions in political masculinities brought about by such refashioned social structures and social systems, which are unfolding locally, at national level and worldwide.
We define “political masculinity” as including any kind of overt “political player” such as representatives/institutions of the state (police, military, intelligence, parliament, monarchies), the state itself, politicians, political parties, trade unions, lobbyists, NGOs, insurgents, political journalism, activists, voters, etc. However, we also emphasise less overt, or “hidden”, political masculinities such as global businessmen, as well as political structures and their relation to masculinity.
With regard to “transitional societies”, cases in point include, for example, European post-communist states, post-apartheid South Africa, countries of the “Arab Spring”, and nations with rapidly growing economic power such as Brazil, China and India. Further examples include cultures, which due to processes of globalisation and digitation of communication have experienced far-reaching social, political and economic changes, including (civil) war, revolution, economic collapse, new nation-building, forms of religious fundamentalism and grassroots protest movements such as “Occupy”. This includes the challenges posed by these processes to the relative stability of Western liberal democracies.
Rather than thinking about these key moments in history as single points of rupture, which produce “crises”, these may be examined as transitions that impact upon existing gender orders and political masculinities. That is to say, change is not seen to emerge from a single point of “crisis” in which we explore the “predicament” and its implications, but may alternatively be viewed as a process that is embedded in a broader socio-political milieu.
The main issue that we want to address, besides examining the characteristics of political masculinities in different transitional societies, is whether there is a certain trajectory in the characteristics of political masculinities during social transition that can be identified across cultures and times. Specific questions emerge:

! In what ways are “old” and “new” concepts of political masculinities and their location within the overall gender order negotiated and which “old” characteristics are retained or replaced within transition?
! Are there social mechanisms that accelerate or slow down the transition of political masculinities and whose interests do they serve?
! How stable are political masculinities in transition and can changes brought about by transition be reversed once the transitional conditions cease to exist?
! To what extent may processes of transition result in an individual “political masculinity identity” that is complex and contradictory, or arguably even psychically divided and multilayered?
! Further points of discussion are welcome.

 

Programme 2015
KEYNOTES:

• Simona Sahroni (SUNY) 

Transforming Violent Masculinities on Battlefield and Home Fronts

• Henri Myrttinnen (International Alert, London) 

Updating Patriarchy? – Four Sketches of ‘New’ Political Masculinities

Post-Apartheid

• Dube, Siphiwe Ignatius (University of Pretoria, South Africa): VIOLENCE AND THE “CRISIS” OF BLACK MASCULINITY IN SOUTH AFRICA 

• Magdalena Zawisza; Russell Luyt; Anna Maria Zawadzka (Anglia Ruskin University, UK): AMBIVALENT ATTITUDES TO MEN AND SOCIETIES IN TRANSITION: A COMPARISON BETWEEN POLISH, SOUTH AFRICAN AND BRITISH SAMPLES 

Neoliberalism & Post-Socialism

• Keiko Kaizuma (Iwate University, Japan): PHALLIC RECONSTRUCTION OF JAPANESE HOMOSOCIAL: THE RISE OF COLONIAL FLEXIBLE MASCULINITY IN NEOLIBERAL ECONOMY AND FORCE STRUCTURE 

• Marina Petras (University of Zagreb, Croatia): STRUCTURATION OF POLITICAL MASCULINITIES: FEW EXAMPLES FROM POST-TRANSITIONAL CROATIA 

• Ruth Ben Hadar (Charles University, Czech Republic): SIZE MATTERS: SMALL NATIONS AND IMAGES OF MASCULINITY - THE CASE OF CZECH CINEMA 

Parliament, Party Politics & Public Discourse

• Jiri Nieminen (University of Tampere, Finland): MALE POLITICIANS’ AFFECTS AND PERFORMATIVITIES OF MASCULINITIES AND FEMININITIES DURING FINNISH PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN 2015 

• Marion Löffler (University of Vienna, Austria): NEUTRAL AND STILL MASCULINE? AN ANALYSIS OF PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE ON AUSTRIA’S NEUTRALITY LAW 

• Eylul Culfaz (Madrid, Spain): OBSERVING POLITICAL MASCULINITY IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: TURKEY AND MASCULINITY IN AKP GOVERNMENT MEMBERS’ SPEECHES 

• Laura Rahm (Université Paris Descartes, France) DISCOURSES OF POLITICAL MASCULINITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF ASIA´S MISSING WOMEN 

• Benedetta Gennaro (TU Darmstadt, Germany): POLITICAL MASCULINITIES: THE CASE OF YANNIS VAROUFAKIS 

Warriors, Police, Security & Terrorism

• Betul Eksi (Northeastern University, USA/MArmara University, Turkey): THE MYTH OF THE TOUGH MEN'S BURDEN: MASCULINITIES OF THE TURKISH NATIONAL POLICE 

• Joakim Johansson (Märlardalen University, Sweden): THE MAKING OF WARRIOR MASCULINITIES BY SWEDISH CONFEDERATION OF EMPLOYERS ACTIVISTS 1980-91 

• Julian Schmid (University of Vienna, Austria): IMAGINED SECURITY: HOW SUPERHEROES ENFORCE THE CONTEMPORARY SECURITY REGIME IN GLOBAL POLITICS 

• Rainer Emig (Mainz University, Germany): TERRORIST MASCULINITIES – FICTION, FACTS, AND MEDIATION 

Personal & Political Transition

• Ingólfur V. Gíslason (University of Iceland): PARENTAL LEAVE AND MASCULINITY 

• Daragh McDermott, Rachel Cook (Anglia Ruskin University, UK), Poul Rohleder, (University of East London): HIV AND ME: THE TRANSITION FROM DESTRUCTION TO RE-EMERGENCE OF MEN’S SEXUAL SELF-ESTEEM 

• Åsa Ekvall (University of Antwerp, Belgium): UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: HOW THE TRANSITION FROM FAMILY PROVIDER TO CARING DADDY INFLUENCES ATTITUDES AND LEVELS OF VIOLENCE 

Political Movements & Peacebuilding

• Katarzyna Wojnicka (University of Gothenburg, Sweden): THE POLITICS OF MEN’S SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: UPDATED TYPOLOGY 

• Seamus Campbell (Ulster University, UK): MASCULINE VULNERABILITIES AND PEACEBUILDING