BSA Gender Study Group and BSA Youth Study Group

Masculinities, Adaptation and Difference

A joint, one day seminar

http://bsamasculinities.wordpress.com/

BSA Meeting Room, Imperial Wharf, London

Friday 4 July 2014

Call for Papers

Deadline extended to 25.04.2014

Since the late 1970s critical studies of men and masculinities have explored the ways in which men’s lives have been shaped by a variety of cultural, political and economic transformations, from increasing gender equality and the growing recognition of LGBT rights to the wide-ranging transformations in employment associated with globalization and neo-liberal capitalism. On the whole, research about men over this period of scholarship may be seen as having coalesced around the theme of adaptation, with different groups of men interpreted as either succeeding or failing in their attempts to adapt to new circumstances. Thus, while hegemonic forms of masculinity have been regarded as capable of adapting to changing circumstances while retaining their dominance, other, more subordinate forms of masculinity have often been regarded as failing to adapt to the new demands and realities of more feminized labour markets and liberal societies.

While a welcome corrective to popular representations or notions of masculinity as a singular, essentialised form, this body of work as a whole might be accused of presenting a somewhat polarized portrait of men, which not only exaggerates the extent of change or resistance to change at these two extremes, but also misses the more subtle forms of adaptation and resistance amongst ‘middling’ men.

This seminar invites a broader perspective on men’s adaptations from across the spectrum of masculinities, drawing attention to the diverse ways in which men with different social characteristics have adapted to changing demands in different spheres of their lives. In particular, echoing recent work in the study of femininities, it invites perspectives on the ways in which class, ethnicity, age, and other aspects of difference shape men’s responses to neo-liberal demands for ‘self-making’ across three interconnected spheres: education and employment, lifestyles and consumption, and family. What pressures are different men under to ‘reinvent themselves’ across these different spheres, how are these pressures experienced, and to what extent are emergent ways of ‘being a man’ available to men across a range of subject positions? In exploring these questions, we understand masculinity as not necessarily fixed to the 'sexed' body and thus take account of female and trans masculinities.

Abstracts of 300-400 words should be sent to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> by Friday 25 April 2014.

Organisers: Charlie Walker (University of Southampton), Steven Roberts (University of Kent), Sally Hines (University of Leeds) and Zowie Davy (University of Lincoln)

Fees: £25 for BSA members; £40 non members

To book online please go http://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10355

Or to contact the event department at the BSA please send your question to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>