National Global Imaginaries

This article examines the notion of empowerment as it has been conceptualized, operationalized, and applied through various programs and projects by some donors funding women- and gender-related projects in the Middle East between 1998 and 2008. The main

This essay, written in reflection of earlier work, introduces the themes needed to analyze forms of gender and class oppression as these have been mediated through, and by, hegemonic projects of imperialism and nationalism. It argues that the gender criti

"Challenging Inequalities: Nations, Races and Communities," that is, challenging inequalities among nations, among races, and among communities. As we wrote in the call for papers: "The conference theme can be interpreted in two different ways. Political,

In Mozambique and Cape Verde, writing in Portuguese by African women has directly engaged political reconstruction by denouncing colonial oppression and embracing national freedom. This article addresses the recent history of Lusophone African women's fiction, which has been pivotal in inscribing the intimate arena of sexuality and motherhood into power relations and has also revealed ways in which the domain of violence intersects with private lives. By focusing on two novels that exemplify this trend, this article demonstrates links between the political and the intimate. It also shows how Lusophone African authors contribute to healing social conflict through their narratives, and draws some conclusions about gender relations in the Lusophone African experience and across the continent. Résumé: Au Mozambique et au Cap Vert, les écrits de femmes africaines en langue portugaise ont participé directement à la reconstruction politique en dénonçant l'oppression coloniale et en adoptant les principes de liberté nationale. Cet article aborde l'évolution historique récente des romans d'écrivaines africaines de langue portugaise, qui ont été essentiels pour introduire les domaines privés de la sexualité et de la maternité dans l'arène publique des relations de pouvoir, et pour révéler les

Leading sociologists have approached the climate crisis by emphasising a way forward and identifying hopeful directions. What sense is to be made of suggestions that we are instead on the brink of a 'collapse' in which the crisis is not resolved but leads to the end of existing civilisation? Partly based on three studies of contemporary opinion in the Hunter Valley in Australia, a coal industry centre, this discussion is also based on an examination of the public response to climate change world wide, the nature of the crisis as understood by science, the political response so far and the economic problems of replacing fossil fuels. What social theories might help explain what is happening? It is concluded that 'collapse' can be understood by conceiving capitalist society as a social machine, informed by a 'social imaginary'.