The New Politics of Masculinity

Ashe, Fidelma

doi:10.4324/9780203508367

Cited by 49 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…Commentators who contend that it is essential for the well-being of children, especially boys, that fathers take up parenting roles invoke an essentialist view of masculinity because they suggest that men by virtue of their biology have the capacity to bring a unique quality to parenting; a quality that mothers lack (see Mooney, 2003). Collectively, critical studies of men and masculinities contest essentialist theorisations of masculinities by exposing those identities as social constitutions (see Ashe, 2007, for an overview). John Stoltenberg (2000, p. xiv) writes that gender identity ‘gets made up.…”

Section: Politicising Masculinities In the Context Of The 2011 Summermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Critical studies of men and masculinities support a range of methodological approaches (see Ashe, 2007). Yet as indicated above there is broad agreement within this field that masculinities are contextually constituted and fluid (Ashe, 2007). Much work in this area has engaged with masculinities as socially situated products of diverse and often interacting social factors.…”

Section: Politicising Masculinities In the Context Of The 2011 Summermentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘All about Eve’: Mothers, Masculinities and the 2011 UK Riots

Ashe

2013

Political Studies

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The riots that erupted in English cities in August 2011 were provoked by a complex mix of socio‐economic factors. Sidelining structural explanations for the civil disorder, conservative commentators argued that dysfunctional families had caused the riots. Reinforcing traditional connections between criminality, the family and welfare, conservatives contended that the absence of fathers in lone mother‐headed families explained both the dynamics of the civil disorder and the aggressive behaviour of some of the young men involved. Such claims located both the causes of the riots and solutions to expressions of violent masculinities in the familial sphere. Employing the framework of critical studies of men and masculinities this article interrogates these narratives and maps their depoliticising effects. Additionally, it exposes how the effects of a range of social problems were projected on to poor, lone mothers, reinforcing a range of regulatory narratives and practices that target this social group.

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Section: Politicising Masculinities In the Context Of The 2011 Summermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Politicising Masculinities In the Context Of The 2011 Summermentioning

confidence: 99%

‘All about Eve’: Mothers, Masculinities and the 2011 UK Riots

Ashe

2013

Political Studies

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“…For theorists influenced by post‐structuralism, talking about gendered experience is not a process of the straightforward documentation of life histories. Rather it is a discursive process that involves reading experiences with recourse to different social frameworks of meaning, and therefore involves interpretation, selection and discursive construction (Ashe 2004 and 2007b). In this respect discussions of experience are political, involving exclusions and generating power effects by structuring and framing agency in particular ways (Ashe 2004 and 2007b).…”

Section: Gendering Knowledge Gendering Conflict Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It seems clear that the concentration on men's unique experiences and the subsequent neglect of women's agency stems from some writers' concern to legitimise the activities and community roles of ex-combatant men but it may also be driven by the novelty factor of men turning to and supporting non-violent models of justice. Critical studies of men have exposed the effects of this novelty factor in other contexts (see Ashe 2007b). Incorrectly the terrain of peacekeeping has been associated with women and violent conflict with men (see, e.g.…”

Section: Gendering Knowledge Gendering Conflict Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Paramilitaries to Peacemakers: The Gender Dynamics of Community-Based Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland

Ashe

2009

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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Community-based restorative justice (CBRJ) schemes emerged in NorthernIreland during the 'peace process' to provide an alternative to paramilitary systems of justice. These initiatives have received considerable academic attention. A complex and critical literature has now emerged in this area; however, extant explorations of CBRJ have tended to sideline issues of gender power. Feminists and international bodies, such as the United Nations, have highlighted the importance of addressing historical gendered inequities in terms of the design and evaluation of conflict transformation initiatives. Drawing on contemporary feminist frameworks this article exposes the importance of the category of gender in evaluations of CBRJ in Northern Ireland. Moreover, it scrutinises the theoretical processes through which issues of gender power have been filtered out of evaluations of community-based restorative justice schemes in the region.During the political conflict paramilitary systems of informal justice became deeply entrenched in many working-class communities in Northern Ireland. Despite the more recent process of conflict transformation, paramilitary systems of justice have proven difficult to eradicate. In response, community-based restorative justice (CBRJ) projects emerged in both loyalist and republican residential areas to offer an alternative form of communal justice. Restorative justice is based around an ethic of non-violence and focuses on repairing the harm caused by crime and antisocial behaviour through processes of mediation and conferencing. Championed by ex-paramilitaries, these projects have been framed as community-led initiatives that transfer responsibility for tackling community crime from the paramilitaries to the community itself. Given the challenges surrounding the elimination of paramilitary activity in the context of conflict transformation, the CBRJ initiatives that have emerged in Northern Ireland have received much academic attention. There is now a rich and informed body of literature on the development and outcomes of CBRJ in Northern Ireland.While complex and often critical, this literature has failed to engage with the gender politics of CBRJ practice. International declarations and bodies have forcefully argued that the development and analysis of conflict transformation processes should consider the gender implications of conflict transformation practices, particularly at local levels. Despite its sophistication and conceptual range, CBRJ literature is marked by a lack of engagement with the effects of CBRJ schemes on

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“…The British and Irish states and their interrelations remained the subject of historical analysis (Cunningham, 2001;O'Kane, 2007;Smith, 2011;Aughey and Gormley Heenan 2011;Patterson, 2013) and of analysis that ranged much more widely than Northern Ireland itself (Arthur, 2000;Coakley et al, 2005;Cox et al, 2006;). The most lively debates, however, concerned other issues: analyses of the newly designed consociational institutions (McGarry and O'Leary, 2004;Taylor, 2009); monitoring of the workings of the devolved and cross-border institutions (Carmichael and Knox, 2007;Coakley and O'Dowd, 2007;Wilford, 2012); exploration of the political dramas and contests within unionism, nationalism and republicanism, and among the (ex)-paramilitaries (Shirlow et al, 2010;McAuley et al, 2011); and the multiple aspects of the peace and settlement processes (Hennessey, 2000;Wilford, 2001;Irwin, 2002;McKittrick et al, 2004;Tonge, 2005;Ashe, 2007;McEvoy et al, 2007;Smithey, 2011 here make use of the reflections of political and civil service elites as data sources. They do so not out of a naive view that elites have any privileged insight into causality, or indeed that they are willing or able to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about stillcontentious events in which they played a part.…”

Section: Governments and Conflict Resolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breaking Patterns of Conflict in Northern Ireland: New Perspectives

Coakley

Todd

2014

Irish Political Studies

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Central to reaching peace and settlement in Northern Ireland was a sequence of British--Irish intergovernmental discussions and negotiations, dating from the beginning of the 1980s. British and Irish state cooperation and intervention has remained central to the stability of the settlement reached in 1998. The motives of state actors, however, have been unclear, and the role of the state in the political process has been the subject of some scholarly controversy. This paper looks at the types of evidence that can help to resolve such questions. It focuses on the value of elite interviews, arguing that they can constitute an important and irreplaceable body of evidence when used critically, but it also highlights the risks of excessive reliance on this type of source. It goes on to describe a major research project in University College Dublin whose aim was to record the experiences and interpretations of the actors who engaged in British-Irish negotiations over the last four decades. It discusses the resulting elite interviews and witness seminars and the methodological and ethical difficulties encountered. It describes how these were overcome, and outlines the conditions of confidentiality imposed.Keywords: Northern Ireland, British-Irish negotiations, data sources, elite interviews, witness seminars, confidentiality One recurring feature in efforts to break patterns of conflict and to install stable and durable peace settlements has been the role played by outside powers. External states may assist not just by underwriting security arrangements but also by forming part of a mechanism that is available to intervene at critical moments (Hartzell et al., 2001: 191-193). Of course, such intervention need not be disinterested. Analysis of external intervention in ethnic conflicts in a range of African cases led two researchers to conclude that Breaking patterns of conflict: introduction -2-Outside parties are most likely to intervene in ethnicized conflicts when their own national interests can be advanced. Selfless commitment to the international mediation of such conflicts, no matter how horrific they may be, remains a rare occurrence in contemporary international politics (Taras and Ganguly, 2010: 239).The huge variety of geopolitical contexts within which ethnic conflicts run their course can see neighbouring states play a range of different roles. Here we consider the special (but by no means unique) case where the conflict is located in a region of one state over which a neighbouring state has had a territorial claim, itself part of the legacy of a quasi-colonial relationship: Northern Ireland. Much analysis of conflict and settlement in Northern Ireland has put the spotlight on actors -populations, paramilitaries, parties and prime ministers. Less attention has been paid to the level of the state: the British state, whose writ of course extends over Northern Ireland, but also the Irish state, which surrendered a strong formal but ineffective claim to jurisdiction over Northern Ireland for the reality...

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The New Politics of Masculinity

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

‘All about Eve’: Mothers, Masculinities and the 2011 UK Riots

‘All about Eve’: Mothers, Masculinities and the 2011 UK Riots

From Paramilitaries to Peacemakers: The Gender Dynamics of Community-Based Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland

Breaking Patterns of Conflict in Northern Ireland: New Perspectives

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