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‘Victim’ or ‘survivor’?: language, identity and ethics revisited
- Barker, Kim, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Barker, Kim , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143738 , vital:38278 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Initially in feminist circles, and subsequently in more common usage, the term ‘survivor’ came to signify those who have been (sexually) violated and live on, and even thrive. The passivity implied by the term ‘victim’ therefore gave way to the more agentic connotations of ‘survivor’. However, neither term adequately captures the complexity and fluidity of subject positions taken up by and ascribed to women who have been subjected to sexual violence. The selection of an inadequate word is not neutral: each identifier calls forth particular identity constructions which have real effects. Reducing women’s experiences to one pole of this simple binary can diminish and totalise those experiences. In this paper we re-consider the use of these terms with reference to research conducted with protestors participating in an annual anti-rape protest held at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. We focus on the perspectives of women who are ‘survivors’ of sexual violence.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Barker, Kim , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143738 , vital:38278 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Initially in feminist circles, and subsequently in more common usage, the term ‘survivor’ came to signify those who have been (sexually) violated and live on, and even thrive. The passivity implied by the term ‘victim’ therefore gave way to the more agentic connotations of ‘survivor’. However, neither term adequately captures the complexity and fluidity of subject positions taken up by and ascribed to women who have been subjected to sexual violence. The selection of an inadequate word is not neutral: each identifier calls forth particular identity constructions which have real effects. Reducing women’s experiences to one pole of this simple binary can diminish and totalise those experiences. In this paper we re-consider the use of these terms with reference to research conducted with protestors participating in an annual anti-rape protest held at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. We focus on the perspectives of women who are ‘survivors’ of sexual violence.
- Full Text:
Reconsidering research ethics in ethnographic research: bearing witness to ‘irreparable harm’
- Barker, Kim, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Barker, Kim , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143805 , vital:38284 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Research with persons who have experienced trauma requires careful consideration. In preparing the ethics protocol for an ethnographic study of an anti-rape protest, we thought carefully about how the first author would manage ethical decisions in accordance with the University ethics code. However, this process did not prepare us for the dynamic and reciprocal positioning the first author encountered in the field. Nor was she prepared for her sense of the ethical duty of response when entrusted with the narratives of women who had suffered ‘irredeemable harm’. Drawing on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, and examples from the research, we show how ethical decision-making in ethnographic research is always relational and dialogical; extending beyond our direct interactions with participants to the ways in which we approach our ‘data’. We argue that ethics cannot be reduced to a cognitive-rational process and propose ways to acknowledge and draw on the ‘affective’ and ‘transcendent’ in our ethical decision-making.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Barker, Kim , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143805 , vital:38284 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Research with persons who have experienced trauma requires careful consideration. In preparing the ethics protocol for an ethnographic study of an anti-rape protest, we thought carefully about how the first author would manage ethical decisions in accordance with the University ethics code. However, this process did not prepare us for the dynamic and reciprocal positioning the first author encountered in the field. Nor was she prepared for her sense of the ethical duty of response when entrusted with the narratives of women who had suffered ‘irredeemable harm’. Drawing on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, and examples from the research, we show how ethical decision-making in ethnographic research is always relational and dialogical; extending beyond our direct interactions with participants to the ways in which we approach our ‘data’. We argue that ethics cannot be reduced to a cognitive-rational process and propose ways to acknowledge and draw on the ‘affective’ and ‘transcendent’ in our ethical decision-making.
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Negotiating access to the problematised subject:
- Bomela, Yolisa, Feltham-King, Tracey, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Bomela, Yolisa , Feltham-King, Tracey , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143816 , vital:38285 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Our ethnography at public antenatal and postnatal clinics involved collecting data from a variety of sources constituting the reproductive healthcare nexus, including interviews with teenaged pregnant and mothering women. We discuss the complexities of trying to propose these interviews to the University ethics committee and difficulties in gaining access to the state healthcare facilities. We also consider a recurring disjuncture in our negotiations for access. The teenaged subject we imagined and anticipated in our research proposal contradicted the already problematized subject the gatekeepers assumed we were going to meet. Further, while our intention was to focus on the myriad aspects of the context which contributed to the construction of the reproductive teenaged subject, the enduring assumption was that our focus should and would be on the individual teenaged pregnant or mothering woman. We discuss balancing these contradictory assumptions and strategies to avoid re-inscribing the taken-for-granted existing institutional hierarchical power relations.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Bomela, Yolisa , Feltham-King, Tracey , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143816 , vital:38285 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Our ethnography at public antenatal and postnatal clinics involved collecting data from a variety of sources constituting the reproductive healthcare nexus, including interviews with teenaged pregnant and mothering women. We discuss the complexities of trying to propose these interviews to the University ethics committee and difficulties in gaining access to the state healthcare facilities. We also consider a recurring disjuncture in our negotiations for access. The teenaged subject we imagined and anticipated in our research proposal contradicted the already problematized subject the gatekeepers assumed we were going to meet. Further, while our intention was to focus on the myriad aspects of the context which contributed to the construction of the reproductive teenaged subject, the enduring assumption was that our focus should and would be on the individual teenaged pregnant or mothering woman. We discuss balancing these contradictory assumptions and strategies to avoid re-inscribing the taken-for-granted existing institutional hierarchical power relations.
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Deconstructing developmental psychology twenty years on : reflections, implications and empirical work
- Callaghan, Jane, Andenæs, Agnes, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Callaghan, Jane , Andenæs, Agnes , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6315 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020934 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353515583702
- Description: Editorial
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- Authors: Callaghan, Jane , Andenæs, Agnes , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6315 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020934 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353515583702
- Description: Editorial
- Full Text:
A narrative-discursive analysis of abortion decision making in Zimbabwe:
- Chiweshe, Malvern, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Chiweshe, Malvern , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143882 , vital:38291 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: The available research on abortion-decision-making tends to focus on the ‘factors’ or ‘influences’ that are seen to affect abortion decision-making. This approach is rarely able to account for the complex, multi-faceted nature of abortion decision-making, and is often not located within a framework that can unpick the complex array of power relations that underpin the ‘process’ of abortion decision-making. Data reported on in this paper were collected from three sites in Zimbabwe. Narrative interviews were conducted with 18 women who had terminated pregnancies (six at each site) and semi-structured interviews were conducted with six service providers. The women employed discursive resources around stigma, religion, health and culture in telling stories around abortion shame, abortion as justified and the fearful, secretive act of abortion. Comparisons of the way women positioned themselves and how they were positioned by health service providers point to the availability and embeddedness of social discourses and power relations that work to enable/constrain reproductive justice.
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- Authors: Chiweshe, Malvern , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143882 , vital:38291 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: The available research on abortion-decision-making tends to focus on the ‘factors’ or ‘influences’ that are seen to affect abortion decision-making. This approach is rarely able to account for the complex, multi-faceted nature of abortion decision-making, and is often not located within a framework that can unpick the complex array of power relations that underpin the ‘process’ of abortion decision-making. Data reported on in this paper were collected from three sites in Zimbabwe. Narrative interviews were conducted with 18 women who had terminated pregnancies (six at each site) and semi-structured interviews were conducted with six service providers. The women employed discursive resources around stigma, religion, health and culture in telling stories around abortion shame, abortion as justified and the fearful, secretive act of abortion. Comparisons of the way women positioned themselves and how they were positioned by health service providers point to the availability and embeddedness of social discourses and power relations that work to enable/constrain reproductive justice.
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Waging war : discourses of HIV/AIDS in South African media
- Connelly, Mark, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Connelly, Mark , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2003
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6255 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007873
- Description: This paper explores a discourse of war against HIV/AIDS evident in the Daily Dispatch, a South African daily newspaper, from 1985 to 2000, and discusses the implications of this in terms of the way in which HIV/AIDS is constructed. The discursive framework of the war depends, fundamentally, on the personification of HIV/AIDS, in which agency is accorded to the virus, and which allows for its construction as the enemy. The war discourse positions different groups of subjects (the diseased body, the commanders, the experts, the ordinary citizens) in relations of power. The diseased body, which is the point of transmission, the polluter or infector, is cast as the 'Other', as a dark and threatening force. This takes on racialised overtones. The government takes on the role of commander, directing the war through policy and intervention strategies. Opposition to government is couched in a struggle discourse that dove-tails with the overall framework of war. Medical and scientific understandings pre-dominate in the investigative practices and expert commentary on the war, with alternative voices (such as those of people living with HIV/AIDS) being silenced. The ordinary citizen is incited to take on prevention and caring roles with a strong gendered overlay.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Connelly, Mark , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2003
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6255 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007873
- Description: This paper explores a discourse of war against HIV/AIDS evident in the Daily Dispatch, a South African daily newspaper, from 1985 to 2000, and discusses the implications of this in terms of the way in which HIV/AIDS is constructed. The discursive framework of the war depends, fundamentally, on the personification of HIV/AIDS, in which agency is accorded to the virus, and which allows for its construction as the enemy. The war discourse positions different groups of subjects (the diseased body, the commanders, the experts, the ordinary citizens) in relations of power. The diseased body, which is the point of transmission, the polluter or infector, is cast as the 'Other', as a dark and threatening force. This takes on racialised overtones. The government takes on the role of commander, directing the war through policy and intervention strategies. Opposition to government is couched in a struggle discourse that dove-tails with the overall framework of war. Medical and scientific understandings pre-dominate in the investigative practices and expert commentary on the war, with alternative voices (such as those of people living with HIV/AIDS) being silenced. The ordinary citizen is incited to take on prevention and caring roles with a strong gendered overlay.
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Gender, abortion and substantive representation in the South African newsprint media
- Feltham-King, Tracey, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Feltham-King, Tracey , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6306 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018222 , http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539515000680
- Description: Democratisation and abortion legislation transformation in South Africa provided a unique opportunity to reflect on the descriptive and substantive representation of women regarding abortion in the newsprint media. Using Celis and Childs' (2012) inductive approach, we conducted a content analysis of newspaper articles on abortion from 1978 to 2005 answering: ‘Who is called upon to comment on abortion issues?’; ‘From what position do these commentators contribute to the discussion?’; ‘What changes emerged around the transition to democracy?’ Our analysis revealed the distinctly gendered nature of substantive representation of abortion in the newsprint media, including: a bifurcation of positions taken by male and female commentators, with around two-thirds of women commentators substantively representing women through a pro-choice position; a consistency in the percentage of female commentators taking this position both before and after democratisation; and the socio-political changes shifting male commentators' perspectives from neutral or unstated positions to, mostly, a pro-life position. , Full text available on publisher website: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539515000680
- Full Text: false
- Authors: Feltham-King, Tracey , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6306 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018222 , http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539515000680
- Description: Democratisation and abortion legislation transformation in South Africa provided a unique opportunity to reflect on the descriptive and substantive representation of women regarding abortion in the newsprint media. Using Celis and Childs' (2012) inductive approach, we conducted a content analysis of newspaper articles on abortion from 1978 to 2005 answering: ‘Who is called upon to comment on abortion issues?’; ‘From what position do these commentators contribute to the discussion?’; ‘What changes emerged around the transition to democracy?’ Our analysis revealed the distinctly gendered nature of substantive representation of abortion in the newsprint media, including: a bifurcation of positions taken by male and female commentators, with around two-thirds of women commentators substantively representing women through a pro-choice position; a consistency in the percentage of female commentators taking this position both before and after democratisation; and the socio-political changes shifting male commentators' perspectives from neutral or unstated positions to, mostly, a pro-life position. , Full text available on publisher website: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539515000680
- Full Text: false
How content analysis may complement and extend the insights of discourse analysis: an example of research on constructions of abortion in South African newspapers 1978–2005
- Feltham-King, Tracey, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Feltham-King, Tracey , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6317 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021159 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1609406915624575 , http://ijq.sagepub.com/content/15/1/1609406915624575.abstract
- Description: Although discourse analysis is a well-established qualitative research methodology, little attention has been paid to how discourse analysis may be enhanced through careful supplementation with the quantification allowed in content analysis. In this article, we report on a research study that involved the use of both Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) and directed content analysis based on social constructionist theory and our qualitative research findings. The research focused on the discourses deployed, and the ways in which women were discursively positioned, in relation to abortion in 300 newspaper articles, published in 25 national and regional South African newspapers over 28 years, from 1978 to 2005. While the FDA was able to illuminate the constitutive network of power relations constructing women as subjects of a particular kind, questions emerged that were beyond the scope of the FDA. These questions concerned understanding the relative weightings of various discourses and tracing historical changes in the deployment of these discourses. In this article, we show how the decision to combine FDA and content analysis affected our sampling methodology. Using specific examples, we illustrate the contribution of the FDA to the study. Then, we indicate how subject positioning formed the link between the FDA and the content analysis. Drawing on the same examples, we demonstrate how the content analysis supplemented the FDA through tracking changes over time and providing empirical evidence of the extent to which subject positionings were deployed.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Feltham-King, Tracey , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6317 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021159 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1609406915624575 , http://ijq.sagepub.com/content/15/1/1609406915624575.abstract
- Description: Although discourse analysis is a well-established qualitative research methodology, little attention has been paid to how discourse analysis may be enhanced through careful supplementation with the quantification allowed in content analysis. In this article, we report on a research study that involved the use of both Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) and directed content analysis based on social constructionist theory and our qualitative research findings. The research focused on the discourses deployed, and the ways in which women were discursively positioned, in relation to abortion in 300 newspaper articles, published in 25 national and regional South African newspapers over 28 years, from 1978 to 2005. While the FDA was able to illuminate the constitutive network of power relations constructing women as subjects of a particular kind, questions emerged that were beyond the scope of the FDA. These questions concerned understanding the relative weightings of various discourses and tracing historical changes in the deployment of these discourses. In this article, we show how the decision to combine FDA and content analysis affected our sampling methodology. Using specific examples, we illustrate the contribution of the FDA to the study. Then, we indicate how subject positioning formed the link between the FDA and the content analysis. Drawing on the same examples, we demonstrate how the content analysis supplemented the FDA through tracking changes over time and providing empirical evidence of the extent to which subject positionings were deployed.
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Counsellors’ constructions of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy and their interventions with women suffering such IPV:
- Fleischack, Annie, Macleod, Catriona, Böhmke, Werner
- Authors: Fleischack, Annie , Macleod, Catriona , Böhmke, Werner
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143716 , vital:38276 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: South African research reveals a high prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) yet little research exists regarding IPV during pregnancy. In this paper we present data collected through narrative interviews with eight counsellors from two NGOs working with women experiencing IPV during pregnancy. Using a narrative-discursive analytical lens, attention was given to the construction of subject positions and power relations between the men and women in the counsellors’ narratives. Men were largely positioned as subscribing to violent patriarchal behaviour whilst women were mostly positioned as nurturing, and as victims. The counsellors saw IPV during pregnancy as occurring for a variety of reasons, including conflicts around abortion, and male partners finding the women physically unattractive. It was noted that IPV during pregnancy is managed by women in complex ways. Counsellors’ emphasis on individual counselling and leaving the IPV relationship suggests that women are ultimately responsible for their own wellbeing and success.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Fleischack, Annie , Macleod, Catriona , Böhmke, Werner
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143716 , vital:38276 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: South African research reveals a high prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) yet little research exists regarding IPV during pregnancy. In this paper we present data collected through narrative interviews with eight counsellors from two NGOs working with women experiencing IPV during pregnancy. Using a narrative-discursive analytical lens, attention was given to the construction of subject positions and power relations between the men and women in the counsellors’ narratives. Men were largely positioned as subscribing to violent patriarchal behaviour whilst women were mostly positioned as nurturing, and as victims. The counsellors saw IPV during pregnancy as occurring for a variety of reasons, including conflicts around abortion, and male partners finding the women physically unattractive. It was noted that IPV during pregnancy is managed by women in complex ways. Counsellors’ emphasis on individual counselling and leaving the IPV relationship suggests that women are ultimately responsible for their own wellbeing and success.
- Full Text:
"The man can use that power", "she got courage" and "inimba": discursive resources in counsellors' talk of intimate partner violence: implications for practice
- Fleischack, Annie, Macleod, Catriona, Böhmke, Werner
- Authors: Fleischack, Annie , Macleod, Catriona , Böhmke, Werner
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67498 , vital:29103 , http://dx.doi.org/10.15270/52-2-550
- Description: Publisher version , Given the high rate of intimate partner violence (IPV), understanding how counsellors talk about IPV and their interventions is important. The authors conducted narrative interviews with eight counsellors from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with IPV. Using narrative-discursive methodology, this qualitative study paid attention to the discursive resources that the participants drew upon. Two broad clusters of discursive resources and one contradictory (‘nurturing femininity’) discourse emerged. The first cluster engenders a sense of helplessness in the face of overwhelming power relations; the second enables the counsellors to foresee positive outcomes for their counselling. Implications for counselling include emphasising enabling discourses, highlighting multiplicities of gender, and wider-scale interventions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Fleischack, Annie , Macleod, Catriona , Böhmke, Werner
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67498 , vital:29103 , http://dx.doi.org/10.15270/52-2-550
- Description: Publisher version , Given the high rate of intimate partner violence (IPV), understanding how counsellors talk about IPV and their interventions is important. The authors conducted narrative interviews with eight counsellors from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with IPV. Using narrative-discursive methodology, this qualitative study paid attention to the discursive resources that the participants drew upon. Two broad clusters of discursive resources and one contradictory (‘nurturing femininity’) discourse emerged. The first cluster engenders a sense of helplessness in the face of overwhelming power relations; the second enables the counsellors to foresee positive outcomes for their counselling. Implications for counselling include emphasising enabling discourses, highlighting multiplicities of gender, and wider-scale interventions.
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Beyond coming out: lesbians’ (alternative) stories of sexual identity told in post-Apartheid South Africa
- Gibson, Alexandra, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:6304 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016063
- Description: Over the last several decades, the ‘coming out’i story has become entrenched as the central narrative with which lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people can narrate their experiences of claiming a sexual identity and storying their lives in general (Bacon, 1998; Blackburn, 2009). It has developed into a “canonical narrative” (Bruner, 1987, p. 15), or a culturally recognisable story for LGB people, in that it involves the recounting of a series of familiar events in moving from a place of shame to one of self-acceptance about one’s sexual identity (Cohler & Hammack, 2007; Plummer, 1995). The ‘coming out’ canonical narrative additionally operates as a counter-narrative, which has enabled LGB people to voice their sexuality within heterosexist and heteronormative confines (Blackburn, 2009). Nevertheless, there are limitations (and limiting effects) to this narrative, and further refinement of how we understand sexual identity narratives is required. To illustrate this argument, we draw on a narrative-discursive study of eight lesbians’ stories of sexual identity in post-apartheid South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:6304 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016063
- Description: Over the last several decades, the ‘coming out’i story has become entrenched as the central narrative with which lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people can narrate their experiences of claiming a sexual identity and storying their lives in general (Bacon, 1998; Blackburn, 2009). It has developed into a “canonical narrative” (Bruner, 1987, p. 15), or a culturally recognisable story for LGB people, in that it involves the recounting of a series of familiar events in moving from a place of shame to one of self-acceptance about one’s sexual identity (Cohler & Hammack, 2007; Plummer, 1995). The ‘coming out’ canonical narrative additionally operates as a counter-narrative, which has enabled LGB people to voice their sexuality within heterosexist and heteronormative confines (Blackburn, 2009). Nevertheless, there are limitations (and limiting effects) to this narrative, and further refinement of how we understand sexual identity narratives is required. To illustrate this argument, we draw on a narrative-discursive study of eight lesbians’ stories of sexual identity in post-apartheid South Africa.
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(Dis)allowances of lesbians’ sexual identities: Lesbian identity construction in racialised, classed, familial, and institutional spaces
- Gibson, Alexandra, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6222 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006536 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353512459580
- Description: This article explores how lesbian identity construction is facilitated and constrained by the raced, classed, gendered, familial, and geographical spaces that women occupy. We present a narrative-discursive analysis of eight lesbians’ stories of sexuality, told within a historically white university in South Africa. Three interpretative repertoires that emerged in the narratives are discussed. The ‘disallowance of lesbian identity in particular racialised and class-based spaces’ repertoire, deployed by black lesbians only, was used to account for their de-emphasis of a lesbian identity through the invocation of a threat of danger and stereotyping. The ‘disjuncture of the (heterosexual) family and lesbian identity’ repertoire emphasised how the expectation of support and care within a family does not necessarily extend to acceptance of a lesbian identity.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6222 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006536 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353512459580
- Description: This article explores how lesbian identity construction is facilitated and constrained by the raced, classed, gendered, familial, and geographical spaces that women occupy. We present a narrative-discursive analysis of eight lesbians’ stories of sexuality, told within a historically white university in South Africa. Three interpretative repertoires that emerged in the narratives are discussed. The ‘disallowance of lesbian identity in particular racialised and class-based spaces’ repertoire, deployed by black lesbians only, was used to account for their de-emphasis of a lesbian identity through the invocation of a threat of danger and stereotyping. The ‘disjuncture of the (heterosexual) family and lesbian identity’ repertoire emphasised how the expectation of support and care within a family does not necessarily extend to acceptance of a lesbian identity.
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A discourse of disconnect : young people from the Eastern Cape talk about the failure of adult communications to provide habitable sexual subject positions
- Jearey-Graham, Nicola, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6308 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018864 , http://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC171669
- Description: Face-to-face adult communication with young people about sexuality is, for the most part, assigned to two main groups of people: educators tasked with teaching schoolbased sexuality education that is provided as part of the compulsory Life Orientation (LO) learning area, and parents. In this paper, we report on a study conducted with Further Education and Training College students in an Eastern Cape town. Using a discursive psychology lens, we analysed data from, first, a written question on what participants remember being taught about sexuality in LO classes and, second, focus group discussions held with mixed and same-sex groups. Discussions were structured around the sexualities of high school learners and the LO sexuality education that participants received at high school. We highlight participants’ common deployment of a ‘discourse of disconnect’ in their talk. In this discourse, the messages of ‘risk’ and ‘responsibility’ contained in adult face-to-face communications, by both parents and LO teachers, are depicted as being delivered through inadequate or nonrelational styles of communication, and as largely irrelevant to participants’ lives. Neither of these sources of communication was seen as understanding the realities of youth sexualities or as creating habitable or performable sexual subject positions. The dominance of this ‘discourse of disconnect’ has implications for how sexuality education and parent communication interventions are conducted.
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- Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6308 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018864 , http://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC171669
- Description: Face-to-face adult communication with young people about sexuality is, for the most part, assigned to two main groups of people: educators tasked with teaching schoolbased sexuality education that is provided as part of the compulsory Life Orientation (LO) learning area, and parents. In this paper, we report on a study conducted with Further Education and Training College students in an Eastern Cape town. Using a discursive psychology lens, we analysed data from, first, a written question on what participants remember being taught about sexuality in LO classes and, second, focus group discussions held with mixed and same-sex groups. Discussions were structured around the sexualities of high school learners and the LO sexuality education that participants received at high school. We highlight participants’ common deployment of a ‘discourse of disconnect’ in their talk. In this discourse, the messages of ‘risk’ and ‘responsibility’ contained in adult face-to-face communications, by both parents and LO teachers, are depicted as being delivered through inadequate or nonrelational styles of communication, and as largely irrelevant to participants’ lives. Neither of these sources of communication was seen as understanding the realities of youth sexualities or as creating habitable or performable sexual subject positions. The dominance of this ‘discourse of disconnect’ has implications for how sexuality education and parent communication interventions are conducted.
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Young people’s use of ‘peer pressure/normalization’ as discursive resources to justify gendered youth sexualities: implications for Life Orientation sexuality education programmes
- Jearey-Graham, Nicola, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143749 , vital:38279 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: ‘Peer pressure’ has been associated in the scientific literature with a range of risky sexual behaviors, thereby undermining safe sex messages delivered in Life Orientation (LO) classes. LO texts warn against peer pressure. Taking a discursive psychology perspective, we show how young people, in contrast, use the discourses of ‘peer pressure to have sex’ and ‘peer normalization of sex’ to justify youth sexual activity. Using data from focus group discussions about youth sexualities with students at a Further Education and Training College in South Africa, we show how participants outlined a need for young people to be socially recognizable through engaging in, and being able to talk about sex, and how they implicated peer norms in governing individual sexual behavior. Both discourses pointed to a gendering of sexual norms. The deployment of these discourses by young people themselves has implications for Life Orientation programmes. Nuanced engagement with ‘peer group’ narratives is indicated.
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- Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143749 , vital:38279 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: ‘Peer pressure’ has been associated in the scientific literature with a range of risky sexual behaviors, thereby undermining safe sex messages delivered in Life Orientation (LO) classes. LO texts warn against peer pressure. Taking a discursive psychology perspective, we show how young people, in contrast, use the discourses of ‘peer pressure to have sex’ and ‘peer normalization of sex’ to justify youth sexual activity. Using data from focus group discussions about youth sexualities with students at a Further Education and Training College in South Africa, we show how participants outlined a need for young people to be socially recognizable through engaging in, and being able to talk about sex, and how they implicated peer norms in governing individual sexual behavior. Both discourses pointed to a gendering of sexual norms. The deployment of these discourses by young people themselves has implications for Life Orientation programmes. Nuanced engagement with ‘peer group’ narratives is indicated.
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When is it legitimate to use images in moral arguments? The use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns as an exemplar of an illegitimate instance of a legitimate practice
- Kelland, Lindsay, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016146
- Description: We aim to interrogate when the use of images in moral persuasion is legitimate. First, we put forward a number of accounts which purport to show that we can use tools other than logical argumentation to convince others, that such tools evoke affective responses and that these responses have authority in the moral domain. Second, we turn to Sarah McGrath’s account, which focuses on the use of imagery as a means to morally persuade. McGrath discusses 4 objections to the use of imagery, and outlines responses that may be used to legitimate the use of imagery in moral arguments. Assuming that we accept her account and that the invocation of affect has authority in the moral domain, we, using McGrath’s responses, examine whether the use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns is a legitimate instance of this practice.
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- Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016146
- Description: We aim to interrogate when the use of images in moral persuasion is legitimate. First, we put forward a number of accounts which purport to show that we can use tools other than logical argumentation to convince others, that such tools evoke affective responses and that these responses have authority in the moral domain. Second, we turn to Sarah McGrath’s account, which focuses on the use of imagery as a means to morally persuade. McGrath discusses 4 objections to the use of imagery, and outlines responses that may be used to legitimate the use of imagery in moral arguments. Assuming that we accept her account and that the invocation of affect has authority in the moral domain, we, using McGrath’s responses, examine whether the use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns is a legitimate instance of this practice.
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Child sexual abuse: South African research on incidence, prevalence and intervention (1984 - 1990)
- Levett, A, Macleod, Catriona
- Authors: Levett, A , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 1991
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6283 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014347 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16826108.1991.9631452
- Description: This article was co-written with A Levett in association with the Child Guidance Clinic, University of Cape Town. , Full text available on publisher website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16826108.1991.9631452
- Full Text: false
- Authors: Levett, A , Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 1991
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6283 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014347 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16826108.1991.9631452
- Description: This article was co-written with A Levett in association with the Child Guidance Clinic, University of Cape Town. , Full text available on publisher website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16826108.1991.9631452
- Full Text: false
Research as intervention within community mental health
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 1997
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6286 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014525 , http://www.curationis.org.za/index.php/curationis/article/view/1307
- Description: This paper raises some issues for discussion and debate concerning the nature of research within a mental health setting. Research, no matter what form it takes, is always an intervention. Sensitivity to various concerns surrounding research is required of the mental health worker. Participatory research, which is seen as empowering participants, has become popular in mental health programmes. Attention needs to be paid however, to the meaning of participation and the process of decision-making. Researchers are often uncomfortable with shedding their “objective informer” stance and adopting a position that requires social action. Some of this has to do with the epistemological view taken by the researcher. This paper suggests that the knowledge produced in research is a social construction created in interaction between the researcher and participants and has a multiplicity of potential meanings. The instrumental, conceptual and persuasive uses of research are discussed, and two intervention-type research procedures (needs assessment and evaluation) are critically reviewed It is concluded that research, as with all other interventions, should be carefully planned, implemented, monitored and evaluated. , This paper was written by Catriona Macleod as M.Ed (Psych), Department of Educational Psychology, University of Zululand
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- Authors: Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 1997
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6286 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014525 , http://www.curationis.org.za/index.php/curationis/article/view/1307
- Description: This paper raises some issues for discussion and debate concerning the nature of research within a mental health setting. Research, no matter what form it takes, is always an intervention. Sensitivity to various concerns surrounding research is required of the mental health worker. Participatory research, which is seen as empowering participants, has become popular in mental health programmes. Attention needs to be paid however, to the meaning of participation and the process of decision-making. Researchers are often uncomfortable with shedding their “objective informer” stance and adopting a position that requires social action. Some of this has to do with the epistemological view taken by the researcher. This paper suggests that the knowledge produced in research is a social construction created in interaction between the researcher and participants and has a multiplicity of potential meanings. The instrumental, conceptual and persuasive uses of research are discussed, and two intervention-type research procedures (needs assessment and evaluation) are critically reviewed It is concluded that research, as with all other interventions, should be carefully planned, implemented, monitored and evaluated. , This paper was written by Catriona Macleod as M.Ed (Psych), Department of Educational Psychology, University of Zululand
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South African psychology and ‘relevance’: continuing challenges
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6290 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014542 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/008124630403400407
- Description: During the apartheid era, psychology was accused of being irrelevant, and of advertently or inadvertently bolstering apartheid. Since 1994, much has changed in psychology. However, much has remained the same. In a situational analysis of research in psychology over the last five years it emerged that quantitative methods based on ‘hard’ science theory, as well as the traditional topics of assessment, psychotherapy, counselling, psychopathology and stress continue to dominate psychological research. A minority of studies utilise theoretical frameworks and tackle topics that illuminate the interweaving of the individual with the sociopolitical context. Knowledge is being generated chiefly about urban, middle-class adults living in the three wealthiest provinces, with university students being the most popular source of participants. Historically white universities continue to dominate the publishing scene, and collaboration takes place chiefly with high-income countries. A comparison of these results with the key issues raised in the United Nation Development Programme's South Africa human development report 2003 shows that psychology has a long way to go before it can establish its ‘relevance’ credentials. , Full text access on Publisher website: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/008124630403400407
- Full Text: false
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6290 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014542 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/008124630403400407
- Description: During the apartheid era, psychology was accused of being irrelevant, and of advertently or inadvertently bolstering apartheid. Since 1994, much has changed in psychology. However, much has remained the same. In a situational analysis of research in psychology over the last five years it emerged that quantitative methods based on ‘hard’ science theory, as well as the traditional topics of assessment, psychotherapy, counselling, psychopathology and stress continue to dominate psychological research. A minority of studies utilise theoretical frameworks and tackle topics that illuminate the interweaving of the individual with the sociopolitical context. Knowledge is being generated chiefly about urban, middle-class adults living in the three wealthiest provinces, with university students being the most popular source of participants. Historically white universities continue to dominate the publishing scene, and collaboration takes place chiefly with high-income countries. A comparison of these results with the key issues raised in the United Nation Development Programme's South Africa human development report 2003 shows that psychology has a long way to go before it can establish its ‘relevance’ credentials. , Full text access on Publisher website: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/008124630403400407
- Full Text: false
‘Who? what?’: an uninducted view of towards a new psychology of women from post-Apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6251 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007869 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353508092088
- Description: From the text: Towards a New Psychology of Women (TPNW) promises a new psychology of “women”. On the cover of the second edition, the Toronto Globe and Mail is cited as acclaiming the book as “nothing short of revolutionary” as it “set out to recognize, re-define and understand the day-to-day experience of women”. But when we take a closer look at these “women” we discover that they are in fact “white”, (for the most part) middle-class women living in heterosexual relationships in a liberal democracy. This kind of exclusionary inclusion, in which the use of the generic term “woman” disguises the normative assumptions made about the race, class, sexual orientation and location of women, replicates the phallocentrism evidenced in the normalising masculinist terms “mankind” or “Man”. By now, of course, these kinds of critiques of “white” Western feminism by African American writers (e.g. Collins, 1999) postcolonial feminists (e.g. Mohanty, 1991), African feminists (e.g. Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994; Mangena, 2003), and queer theorists (e.g. Jackson, 1999) are well known.
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- Authors: Macleod, Catriona
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6251 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007869 , http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959353508092088
- Description: From the text: Towards a New Psychology of Women (TPNW) promises a new psychology of “women”. On the cover of the second edition, the Toronto Globe and Mail is cited as acclaiming the book as “nothing short of revolutionary” as it “set out to recognize, re-define and understand the day-to-day experience of women”. But when we take a closer look at these “women” we discover that they are in fact “white”, (for the most part) middle-class women living in heterosexual relationships in a liberal democracy. This kind of exclusionary inclusion, in which the use of the generic term “woman” disguises the normative assumptions made about the race, class, sexual orientation and location of women, replicates the phallocentrism evidenced in the normalising masculinist terms “mankind” or “Man”. By now, of course, these kinds of critiques of “white” Western feminism by African American writers (e.g. Collins, 1999) postcolonial feminists (e.g. Mohanty, 1991), African feminists (e.g. Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994; Mangena, 2003), and queer theorists (e.g. Jackson, 1999) are well known.
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Men and talk about legal abortion in South Africa : equality, support and rights discourses undermining reproductive ‘choice’
- Macleod, Catriona, Hansjee, Jateen
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona , Hansjee, Jateen
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014770 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2013.802815
- Description: Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.
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- Authors: Macleod, Catriona , Hansjee, Jateen
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014770 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2013.802815
- Description: Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.
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