HomeAges of Life, Gender and Social Temporalities
Ages of Life, Gender and Social Temporalities
Âges de vie, genre et temporalités sociales
Enfances Famille Générations Review – Autumn 2016
Revue Enfances Famille Générations – automne 2016
Published on Wednesday, January 07, 2015
Abstract
Long pursued in parallel fashion, studies of the ages of life and of gender have increasingly converged in recent years, nonetheless leaving large areas to be discovered. This issue of the journal Enfances Familles Générations therefore proposes to contribute to this convergence. It will focus on constructions of age by sex and trajectories structured by gender. This will lead naturally to take account of the passage of time and historical time, female and male lifecycles, (inter)generational experiences or gendered social temporalities (work, family, leisure, etc.).For this issue of EFG, we call especially for articles offering broad perspectives that are not limited to one age or one phase of life. Directed at specialists of varied regional and national horizons, this call is addressed also to those who adopt a transnational perspective to grasp how norms, practices or representations of age and gender circulate beyond frontiers. Theoretical as well as empirical perspectives are equally welcome.
Announcement
Argument
Long pursued in parallel fashion, studies of the ages of life and of gender have increasingly converged in recent years, nonetheless leaving large areas to be discovered. This issue of the journal Enfances Familles Générations therefore proposes to contribute to this convergence. It will focus on constructions of age by sex and trajectories structured by gender. This will lead naturally to take account of the passage of time and historical time, female and male lifecycles, (inter)generational experiences or gendered social temporalities (work, family, leisure, etc.).
If some researchers have already opened a path, there remains a long way to go so that age and gender are treated as two systems of social relations simultaneously distinct and intertwined. The social sciences and humanities still treat age (and sometimes gender) as a simple variable which does not require problematization. Feminist approaches to intersectionality that combine gender with other forms of social relations (class, “race”, ethnicity, etc.) still neglect age. As for works on different ages of life, they have multiplied and account better for gendered social relations. Generally limited to youth, adulthood, parenthood or old age, they lose sight of the fact that growing and aging constitute continuous processes. In short, historians say it, sociologists advance it, literary scholars and anthropologists confirm it: the connection between gender and age could be tightened.
Joan Scott argued in the 1980s for gender to be valued as a “useful category of analysis.” A bit later, Margaret M. Gullette argued from her perspective that age also be raised to the rank of category of analysis. To wield—simultaneously or in parallel—these two forms of social categorization reveals the similarities they share, the differences that separate them and the interactions that connect them. Age and gender structure collective organization as well as individual trajectories, generate complex power relations, create a number of cultural representations that are very dependent upon spatio-temporal contexts, and are regularly naturalized, even “biologized.” But it’s not only a matter of similarities. Important specificities also characterize them.
For this issue of EFG, we call especially for articles offering broad perspectives that are not limited to one age or one phase of life. To embrace the lifecyle in its totality offers another take on youth, female or male, which has already benefited from numerous studies. To treat together gendered relations of age or generation displaces the focus toward still neglected adulthood or old age. It also encourages refinement, in the light of age, of the analysis of masculinities. In short, these perspectives permit us to measure better in terms of gender and age the impact of demographic changes, cultural norms, systems of education or retirement, safety nets of social security, migrations or the medicalization of bodies. They also shed new light on several major evolutions: the generalization of age thresholds for each sex, the shortage of young women in Asia, the dechronologization of female and male lifecycles, the feminization of old age in the West, etc.
Directed at specialists of varied regional and national horizons, this call is addressed also to those who adopt a transnational perspective to grasp how norms, practices or representations of age and gender circulate beyond frontiers. Theoretical as well as empirical perspectives are equally welcome.
Références
- Bessin, Marc et Hervé Levilain, Parents après 40 ans, Autrement, «Mutations», Paris, 2012.
- Gullette, Margaret Morganroth, Aged by Culture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2004.
- Hearn, Jeff, «Neglected Intersectionalities in Studying Men: Age(ing), Virtuality, Transnationality», dans Helma Lutz, Maria Theresa Herrera Vivar et Linda Supik (dir.), Framing Intersectionality. Debates on a Multifaced Concept in Gender Studies, Ashgate Publihing, Burlington (R.-U.), p. 80-104.
- Jaspard, Maryse, et Michèle Massari, «Âge et rapports de sexe», Table-ronde de l'A.P.R.E. : Rapports sociaux de sexe : problématique, méthodologie, champs d'analyse, CNRS, Paris, 1987.
- Jyrkinen, Marjut et Linda McKie, «Gender, age and ageism: experiences of women managers in Finland and Scotland», Work, Employment & Society, vol. 26, no 1, 2012, p. 61-77.
- Kergoat, Danièle, « Une sociologie à la croisée de trois mouvements sociaux», L'Homme et la Société, nos 176-177, 2010, p. 27-42.
- Legrand, Monique et Ingrid Voléry (dir.), Genre et parcours de vie : vers une nouvelle police des corps et des âges? Nancy, Presses universitaires de Nancy / Éditions universitaires de Lorraine, 2013.
- Søland, Birgitte, «Ages of Women: Age as a Category of Analysis in Women's History», Journal of Women's History, vol. 12, no 4, 2001, p. 6-10
- Taefi, Nura, «The Synthesis of Age and Gender: Intersectionality, International Human Rights Law and the Marginalisation of the Girl-Child», International Journal of Children's Rights, vol. 17, no 3, 2009, p. 345 -377.
Submission guidelines
The proposal should be submitted online at the website of the journal
on the 16th of March 2015.
To do so, you must create a user’s as well as author’s account, clicking on the tab “S’inscrire.” (efg.inrs.ca)
Your submission ought to include a provisional title, a résumé (1500-2000 characters including spaces) as well as ways of reaching all authors.
Complete manuscripts (50,000 to 60,000 characters, including spaces, excluding the résumé and bibliography) of proposals accepted by the guest editors should be submitted online before the 14th of September 2015.
The authors are asked to conform to the editorial format of the journal: www.efg.inrs.ca/index.php/EFG/about/submissions#authorGuidelines
All manuscripts are accepted or rejected upon the recommendation of the board of editors and those responsible for the particular thematic issue after having been evaluated blindly by two or three external readers.
Guest Editors
- Aline Charles, professor, Université Laval (Canada)
- David Troyansky, professor, CUNY, Brooklyn College (USA)
Subjects
- Sociology (Main category)
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology > Social anthropology
- Society > Sociology > Gender studies
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology
- Society > History
- Society > History > Social history
- Society > Sociology > Ages of life
- Society > Sociology > Demography
Date(s)
- Monday, March 16, 2015
Attached files
Keywords
- âges, genre, temporalités sociales, cycles de vie
Reference Urls
Information source
- Delphine Lobet
courriel : efg [at] ucs [dot] inrs [dot] ca
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Ages of Life, Gender and Social Temporalities », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, January 07, 2015, https://doi.org/10.58079/ro9
