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A feminist re-reading of theories of late modernity: Beck, Giddens and the location of gender

Mulinari, Diana LU and Sandell, Kerstin LU (2009) In Critical Sociology 35(4). p.493-507
Abstract
This article is a critical reappraisal of the understandings of gender and the location of women within theories of late modernity. These theories, as articulated by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck, have gained a wide use, not the least since they claim to account for changes in intimate relations. We will use four major feminist interventions for our argument – the problematization of the public-private divide, feminist theorizing of kinship, feminist understandings of labor, and the heterosexual matrix.

We argue that the late modern story is made through violently created presences – of the reinvention of the heterosexual matrix, the private sphere as the location of women/gender, reproduction coupled to biology, and gender as... (More)
This article is a critical reappraisal of the understandings of gender and the location of women within theories of late modernity. These theories, as articulated by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck, have gained a wide use, not the least since they claim to account for changes in intimate relations. We will use four major feminist interventions for our argument – the problematization of the public-private divide, feminist theorizing of kinship, feminist understandings of labor, and the heterosexual matrix.

We argue that the late modern story is made through violently created presences – of the reinvention of the heterosexual matrix, the private sphere as the location of women/gender, reproduction coupled to biology, and gender as an intimate relation between women and men – and absences of analysis of reproductive and productive labor, of the role of the state, and of gender as a social relation constituted through and within other social inequalities. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
in press
subject
keywords
gender, feminist theory, late modernity, family
in
Critical Sociology
volume
35
issue
4
pages
493 - 507
publisher
Brill
external identifiers
  • scopus:70349327784
ISSN
0896-9205
project
2003-2165 Theorizing social change in feminist thinking
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
644d5d1f-1c6d-4625-876c-b4c9dee68023 (old id 944795)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 11:49:15
date last changed
2022-01-29 22:31:05
@article{644d5d1f-1c6d-4625-876c-b4c9dee68023,
  abstract     = {{This article is a critical reappraisal of the understandings of gender and the location of women within theories of late modernity. These theories, as articulated by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck, have gained a wide use, not the least since they claim to account for changes in intimate relations. We will use four major feminist interventions for our argument – the problematization of the public-private divide, feminist theorizing of kinship, feminist understandings of labor, and the heterosexual matrix.<br/><br>
We argue that the late modern story is made through violently created presences – of the reinvention of the heterosexual matrix, the private sphere as the location of women/gender, reproduction coupled to biology, and gender as an intimate relation between women and men – and absences of analysis of reproductive and productive labor, of the role of the state, and of gender as a social relation constituted through and within other social inequalities.}},
  author       = {{Mulinari, Diana and Sandell, Kerstin}},
  issn         = {{0896-9205}},
  keywords     = {{gender; feminist theory; late modernity; family}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{493--507}},
  publisher    = {{Brill}},
  series       = {{Critical Sociology}},
  title        = {{A feminist re-reading of theories of late modernity: Beck, Giddens and the location of gender}},
  volume       = {{35}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}