The gender order in urban India is changing rapidly. Several economic, political and sociocultural shifts have brought with them new opportunities and challenges for Indian men and women. This thesis attempts to understand some of these social and cultural changes from the perspective of a group of affluent young men in Delhi. By ethnographically studying young men and their masculinities in urban public spaces of leisure and consumption, this thesis explores some of their relatively new practices of consumption and embodied performances of gender, as well as its consequences on gendering a city space. Through focusing on newly commodified spaces like gyms, shopping malls, night clubs, bars, metro trains and cruising parks in Delhi, I argue that a politics of space, age, gender and class come together to mark men's identities, bodies as well as urban spaces, creating forms of belonging and exclusions in a neoliberal India. Within this context, I explore how ideas of what it means to be a young man are changing in a consumerist India and how this in turn shapes young men's relationships with other men, women, families and changing city spaces. Using ethnographic data collected over fourteen months of fieldwork in Delhi, along with visual and cultural analysis, this thesis lays bare the layers of masculine performances and reveals the everyday attempts at embedding and reproducing a heterosexist patriarchal social order under the guise of a 'new Indian man' and his 'new' India. In the process, I critically but empathetically explore the gendered hierarchies and anxieties that emerge in contemporary India and its consequences on various bodies and city spaces. The chief arguments are presented in five empirical chapters: 1) A 'New' Indian Man, 2) A Masculine Body, 3) Desexing a Masculine Body, 4) A Smart and Masculine City, and 5) A Safe/Unsafe City.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 270-281).

This poststructuralist research into managerial subjectivity follows ten senior managers’ experience, during significant organizational restructuring in the National Health Service. Located in the North of England the managers were interviewed three times during an eighteen-month period. An autoethnographic component is integral to the study; this recognises the researcher was a practising manager undergoing the same organizational change, whilst researching the field. Judith Butler’s theories provide the principle theoretical framework for the study. Whilst the managers narrated a fantasy of having a ‘true’ and coherent self, the research illustrated how fragile, fleeting and temporary each managerial self is and how passionately attached to their managerial subjectivity (despite how painful) they were. Emotion is presented as inextricably tied up with gender performativity and managerial subjectivity; despite best efforts the emotional ‘dirt’ of organizations cannot be ordered away; there is a constant seepage and spillage of emotion – as illustrated in the vignettes and profiled in the Butlerian deconstruction. During organizational change there was a fear of a social (organizational) death and even the most senior of managers were profoundly vulnerable. This fear and vulnerability heightened in contact with others perceived as more powerful (in critical conversations and interviews). Failure to receive the desired recognition and the risk of being organizationally unintelligible compounded this vulnerability and triggered recurrent, unpredictable patterns of loss, ek-stasis and unravelling of the managerial self. This acute vulnerability during restructuring anticipates and therefore (re) enacts a Machiavellian discourse, one that excuses unethical behaviour and relations as a ‘necessary evil’.

Background: Gender Variance (GV) is an experience that the gender assigned at birth is different to one’s preferred gender identity. It includes the possibility of a preferred gender identity being different to either male or female. It is reported that around 4000 people per year access care from the NHS in relation to GV (Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES), 2009) and both the physical and psychological elements of these experiences is well documented. However, little research specifically explores how Gender Variant (GVt) people make sense of their experiences and construct meaningful expression of their preferred identity. The aim of this study is to further the understanding of GV with a view to considering the implications for service provision to this population. Methodology: The study employed a qualitative method that explored the narratives of the participants. A purposive sample of seven participants self identified as GVt was recruited for a single interview. The interviews used a topic guide to elicit the narratives that these people tell about their experiences. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a narrative approach to explore what the participants said and the way they said it. This was then situated within the local and broader social contexts within which the narratives exist. Analysis and findings: The findings are presented through a global impression of each of the individual narratives and then through discussion of the similarities and differences in relation to the collective storylines. Particular attention is paid to the identity construction and the emotional experiences that take place during the interviews. These two elements are told within and through each of the storylines. The local and wider narratives available to the participants are used to contextualise the analysis and findings, and so are reported within the analysis. The analysis offers the following findings: i) their first experiences of understanding GV was important, leading them to find others who felt the same to gain a sense of hope of a normal life ii) sharing their experiences with others was an anxiety provoking time and was part of a decision making process about treatment and establishing an acceptable gender expression iii) relationships with family, friends, peers and members of their social context influence sense making and identity constructions of GVt people and typify the challenges faced within their GVt experiences. Some of these challenges were reported as ongoing and illustrated throughout the stories of the day to day lives of the participants iv) for these participants distressing emotional challenges were often situated in the past and participants spoke of ‘overcoming’ challenges. This offered a counter to the more dominant isolation and loneliness narratives within the literature on GVt experiences The findings of the study are discussed in relation to its clinical implications, the strengths and limitations of the methodology, and directions for future research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-204).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Nov. 11, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-138).

A pesquisa intitulada A HERMENÊUTICA EPISTEMOLÓGICA E ONTOLÓGICA DE GÊNERO NA EDUCAÇÃO BÁSICA: Uma análise da inserção de professores e professoras no magistério teve a intencionalidade de compreender e analisar aspectos da constituição identitária profissional de professoras e professores no exercício do magistério no Estado do Pará no que tange à concepção de identidade e gênero enfatizando a questão de sexo, cor/raça e formação superior. A investigação efetivou-se a partir de estudos bibliográficos, de caráter exploratório e descritivo, feita com base em dados quantitativos envolvendo dados do MEC/Inep/Deed/ ano de 2013, e da análise de diversas produções literárias e acadêmicas. No primeiro momento, o conteúdo versará acerca da desmistificação sobre gênero, identidade e sexualidade, analisando e questionando a hermenêutica epistemológica de gênero, conceituando o que é gênero; a identidade de gênero; a hermenêutica ontológica de gênero versus educação e sobre a carreira do magistério analisando a questão de gênero e sexualidade. No segundo momento realizou-se estudos analíticos sobre a Educação Básica e suas legislações regulamentares enfatizando a Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Básica Nacional LDBEN. N. 9.394/96. Efetivando um conhecimento sistêmico quanto à Organização e Estruturação da Educação Básica em relação à Educação Infantil ao Ensino Fundamental e Médio, desbravando uma percepção comprobatória da atuação de professoras e professores nesses níveis de ensino. E no terceiro momento fez-se a descrição da atuação profissional de professoras e professores que fazem parte da Educação Básica no Estado do Pará, enfatizando a estatística quanto ao número destes em relação ao: sexo, cor/raça e formação superior. Como evidência desta investigação pode-se apontar que há predominância de mulheres na Educação Básica quanto ao número de homens; há prevalência das declarações da cor/raça definidos como parda entre homens e mulheres; e há um índice significativo de profissionais com nível superior. Essas questões fortalecem uma convicção instigante de que na Educação Básica o predomínio é das mulheres enquanto que o número de homens ainda é bastante reduzido nessa área profissional. / The research entitled A HERMENÊUTICA EPISTEMOLÓGICA E ONTOLÓGICA DE GÊNERO NA EDUCAÇÃO BÁSICA: Uma análise da inserção de professores e professoras no magistério [The epistemological and ontological hermeneutics of gender in basic education: an analysis of the insertion of male and female teachers in the teaching profession] had the intentionality of understanding and analyzing aspects of the professional identity constitution of teachers exercising the teaching profession in the state of Pará as they relate to the conception of identity and gender emphasizing the issue of sex, color/race and higher education. The investigation was carried out through bibliographic studies of exploratory and descriptive character, based on quantitative data involving data from MEC/Inep/Deed/ of the year 2013 and on the analysis of various literary and academic productions. In the first moment the content talks of the demystification of gender, identity and sexuality, analyzing and questioning the epistemological hermeneutics of gender, conceptualizing what gender is; the identity of gender; the ontological hermeneutics of gender versus education and about the teaching career analyzing the issue of gender and sexuality. In the second moment analytical studies on Basic Education and its regulatory legislations were carried out emphasizing the Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Básica Nacional LDBEN [Law of Guidelines and Bases for the National Basic Education] N. 9.394/96, effecting a systemic knowledge as to the Organization and Structuring of Basic Education with regard to early childhood education up to Basic Education and Secondary Education, breaking through an evidential perception of the work of teachers at these levels of teaching. And in the third moment a description was produced of the professional work of teachers who are part of the Basic Education system in the state of Pará, emphasizing the statistics as to the number of these with regard to: sex, color/race and higher learning. As evidenced by this investigation one can point out that there is a predominance of women in Basic Education as regards the number of men; there is a prevalence of declaration of color/race being colored among men and women; and there is a significant index of professionals with higher learning. These issues strengthen an instigating conviction that in Basic Education women are predominant while the number of men is still quite reduced in this professional area.

This thesis examines the multiple meanings attached to risk by a small group of climbers based in the North of England. The study is anchored, empirically in sustained observational fieldwork, and in-depth interviews with adult subjects (9 females aged 22-77, 14 males aged 20-70). In completing this thesis, I believe I have made an original contribution to knowledge in three areas. In re-imagining risk in climbing, I argue that climbers do not participate in climbing because of a desire to take risks, rather, they make every effort to assess, manage and control risks when climbing. In reconceptualising risk in climbing, I present a conceptual model derived from the interviewees’ accounts of risk. This model situates risk in climbing with risk in everyday life. The basis of my third original contribution to knowledge lies in the relationship between risk and identity. The interviewees differentiated between safe and unsafe climbers through reference to embodied climbing practices. The way a climber in this study assessed and managed risk marked them as a safe climber or conversely an unsafe climber. Furthermore, the data revealed both a gendered and an age-related dimension to the relationship between risk and identity. The desire to retain the identity of a climber over time was so strong that older climbers reported modifying their practices to sustain their status as a member of the insider group. In addition, the female interviewees described how perceived family responsibilities mediated membership of the insider group, and their identity as a safe and qualified climber. The female climbers in this study described how such responsibilities led them, like older climbers, to draw back from the edge. These findings have implications beyond the sport of rock climbing and its participants. This research has the potential to inform and enhance our appreciation of risk in other lifestyle sports and moreover, whilst there is a tendency to distinguish between lifestyle and traditional sports, there may be some application of the account of risk presented here to an exploration of risk in traditional sports. The arguments presented in this study also contribute to an understanding or risk more generally. A key conclusion from this study is that risk is best understood where the meanings attached to it are derived from individuals’ everyday lived experience and relatedly where risk is situated within the broadest context of their lives. Finally, the data reported here suggests that risk activities and risk-taking should be explored in relation to an individual’s perceived identity and crucially, the significance of risk for the construction of that identity.

Although Vietnamese has currently made up one of the three largest foreign community in the Czech Republic, the number of studies that focus on the challenges of Vietnamese immigrant descendants, especially regarding their ethnic identities in the Czech society is unfortunately confined. Different from their parents, one of the biggest obstacles that young Vietnamese descendants in the Czech Republic are facing in life is the question of their ethnic identities in the term of liminality and being strangers to both cultures (Vietnamese and Czech). Taking those reasons into account, this thesis aims to examine the experiences of "being stuck in-between" and confronting the process of (re)forming and shifting ethnic identities among children of Vietnamese immigrants in the Czech Republic in the relation with other gendered identities that they define with. Based on a feminist approach, this paper pulls together prior and existing studies, developing from the data collected from questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews to illustrate the subject matter. Relying immigrant lived experiences from the perspective of children and young people who have Vietnamese roots; this paper facilitates a broader understanding of their unique situation and factors that constitute their identity. Central to my...

1 ABSTRACT The aim of the thesis was to explore the approach of schools towards trans and nonbinary students in Czech Republic. The theoretical part presents an analysis and comparison of various approaches to this issue and places it in the context of the Czech educational system. The practical part of the thesis brings quantitative research devoted to the assessment of the whole situation in a comprehensive form from the perspective of trans and nonbinary students themselves, with an extension of qualitative insight. The survey conducted through electronic questionnaires focused on experiences in the field of: school procedure after coming out; solving specific situations; the school's approach to queer and gender themes; safety in the school environment. The research involved 105 people who provided 122 experiences from schools in primary, secondary and tertiary education. The results provided a detailed description of the current situation and its significant diversity, while also pointing to specific problematic aspects and differences in the degree of respect for the identities of students growing along with the level of education. The variability of research results and frequently mentioned disregarding attitudes and approaches correlate with the theoretical finding that there are no officially...