CODESRIA: Gender in the Economy of Care / Institut sur le Genre,
05/04
CODESRIA Gender Institute 2004
Theme: Gender in the Economy of Care
Call for Applications
Each year, since 1994, CODESRIA has organised a Gender Institute which brings
ogether some 12 to 15 researchers for between four to six weeks of
concentrated debate, experience-sharing and knowledge-building. During the
first few years of the existence of the Institute, its main objective centred
on the promotion of a generalised gender awareness in the African social
research community. The Institute has subsequently been organised around
specific themes designed to strengthen the use of gender as an analytic
category that is integral both to the output of African social researchers and
the emergence of a networked community of scholars versed in the field of
Gender Studies. The theme that has been selected for the 2004 Institute is:
Gender in the Economy of Care.
The struggles for social equality between men and women remain an area of
continuing relevance to any quest for a holistic understanding of economy,
society and politics in contemporary Africa. The household, in spite of its
changing forms over the years, constitutes the primary framework within which
the basic ground rules for these struggles are set - and, therefore, the main
site where the quest for gender equality and justice are fought, won and/or
lost in the first instance. It is the arena where the power relations that are
germane to the dynamics of gender in the broader society are fashioned, given
ideological legitimation, institutionalised, contested, revised and
transformed. Previous academic preoccupations with the household from a gender
point of view have involved scholars in a close interrogation of history,
tradition and culture; the mode of construction and exercise of patriarchal
power; the contradictory interface between patriarchy and matriarchy and
within these categories as well; the framework for the structuring of
opportunities between the girl-child and the boy-child; the gender/sexual
division of labour; the dynamics of domesticity; and the practice of male
power and masculinity, including domestic violence of various kinds. Interest
has also been shown in the household as a site of a complex of transactions:
production, exchange, socialisation, affection, and identity formation.
More recently, attention has been drawn to the emergence and growing
importance of female-headed households and the implication of this development
for the concept of the family "breadwinner" and the politics of femininity.
Female headship of households was initially linked to the destabilising
consequences of the migrant labour system; today, it has been reinforced by
the ravages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the spate of violent conflicts occurring
across the continent, and the increase in the number of displaced persons,
developments which in their own right feed into the growth of the domestic
economy of care. At all stages of the evolution of the household, the
centrality of the labour of women to its production and reproduction and,
ultimately, the production and reproduction of the economy at the local,
national and regional levels has never been in question. Gender economists
have sought to demonstrate the critical function performed by women's unpaid
labour - most of which pertains to the structuring of the system of care - in
the politics of the wage relationship, urban settlement patterns, national
productivity, competitiveness, and external (cross-border) trade.
The exigencies of household welfare internal to the well-being of the members
of the family constitute a permanent element in the structuring of the economy
of care and the central role which women play in it. The changing requirements
of the macro-economy at different phases of the process of accumulation
impacts on the domestic, household context to produce other critical elements
of demand on the time and resources of women to shape the evolution of the
care economy. The structuring of the particular role which different
categories of women assume in the economy of care is, clearly, a function of
their broader social position, a fact which makes the arena of the care
economy a terrain of complex, interlocking gender and class equations. In the
contemporary context, critical developments which have had a direct impact on
the changing content and contours of the economy of care include the economic
crises which most African countries began to undergo in the period from the
1980s onwards and which have persisted for much of the last two decades; the
orthodox structural adjustment programmes sponsored by the IMF and the World
Bank and which fed into the overall dynamic of crises, stagnation and decline;
the rapid and far-reaching erosion of state capacity, including the historic
role assumed by the post-colonial state in basic social provisioning; the
expanding boundaries of unemployment, poverty and informalisation; the
processes of globalisation which have produced a set of new opportunities and
constraints; the widespread alienation of the youth that has become a key
feature of the contemporary African political terrain; the increased
precariousness of the condition of the child; and the emergence and
institutionalisation of various low-level survival strategies as individuals,
households, and communities seek to cope with the effects of prolonged
economic crises and structural adjustment. These developments have impacted
directly on the household in a way as to compel changes in the gender division
of labour, produce new pressures on the allocation of women's time, catalyse
the emergence of new gender identities, and steer women into various new
activity clusters designed to secure the welfare of the family.
Participants in the 2004 Gender Institute will be invited to, among other
things, explore various aspects and dimensions of the economy of care as
viewed from the perspective of the changing requirements for the upkeep and
well-being of the family, the reconstitution of the division of labour within
the household, and the re-composition of male - female relations at a time of
broad-ranging retrenchments that have affected the state and state capacity,
the public sector, the formal economy, the health status of the citizenry and
the stability of the polity. The wealth of conceptual, theoretical and
methodological issues thrown up by the growing economy of care will be
explored by participants in the Institute as will the range of factors that
account for its changing content and context. The basic contours of the
economy of care will also be examined by the participants, including
especially a disaggregation of the differing location of different categories
of women and men in the structure of care and the interface of gender and
class which it produces. Furthermore, the shifting composition of male-female
relations within the household and beyond, as well as the import of the of
reversals taking place in pre-established roles will be analysed from the
point of view of the dialectic of the empowerment and disempowerment of women.
The economy of care also broaches the issue of the public provision of social
services. The interface between the public and the "private" realms in the
constitution of the economy of care will be explored as part of the overall
critique that will be undertaken of contemporary public policy-making in
Africa. The challenges posed by the processes of globalisation to the economy
of care and the opportunities that they offer will also be studied. It is
expected that the contributions from the participants in the Institute will
generate a significant African contribution to the body of literature which is
emerging on the political economy of care.
The objectives of the 2004 Gender Institute are to:
-
Provide a platform to African scholars with an interest in undertaking
theoretical and empirical research on gender in the economy of care;
-
Familiarise researchers with the latest literature in the field and through
this help consolidate an African perspective on the theoretical debates taking
place;
-
Sharpen researchers' gender analytic skills, as well as promote an African
feminist methodology in the study of the economy of care;
-
Encourage African knowledge production on the economy of care and, in so
doing, contributing to the emergence of a critical mass of networked
intellectuals with an active research interest in deepening research on this
theme.
Eligibility and Selection
Director
For every session, CODESRIA appoints an external scholar to provide the
intellectual leadership of the Institute. Directors are senior scholars known
for their expertise on the topic of the year and for the originality of their
thinking on it. They are recruited on the basis of a proposal and course
outline covering a total of up to forty five days during which they are
expected to:
- participate in the selection of laureates;
- assist with the identification of appropriate resource persons;
- design the course for the session, with specifications of
sub-themes;
- deliver a set of lectures and provide a critique of the papers
presented by the resource persons and the laureates; and
- submit a written scientific report on the session.
In addition, the Director is expected to (co)edit the revised versions of the
papers presented by the resource persons with a view to submitting them for
publication in one of CODESRIA's collections. The Director also assists
CODESRIA in assessing the papers presented by laureates for publication as a
special issue of Africa Development or as monographs.
Resource Persons
Lectures delivered at the Gender Institute are not introductory courses, but
think-pieces that are meant to help advance the reflections of participants on
the main topic of the year, and on their own research topics. Resource Persons
are, therefore, senior scholars or scholars in their mid-career who have
published extensively on the topic, and who have a significant contribution to
make to the debates on it.
Once selected, resource persons must:
- submit a copy of their lectures for reproduction and distribution to
participants not later than one week before the lecture begins ;
- deliver their lectures, participate in debates and comment on the
research proposals of
the laureates;
- review and submit the revised version of their research work for
publication by CODESRIA not later than two months following their
presentation.
Laureates
African social scientists who have a minimum qualification of a Masters'
degree, with a proven research capacity and who are currently engaged in
teaching and/or research activities are invited to send in their applications
for consideration for admission into the Institute. The selection of laureates
is done by an independent committee of renowned scholars.
Application
Applicants for the position of Course Director should submit:
- an application letter ;
- a proposal indicating the course outline and showing in what way the
course would be original or responsive to the needs of prospective laureates,
specially focussing on the issues to be covered in each sub-theme.
- a curriculum vitae ;
- three writing samples.
Applicants for the position of a Resource Person should include:
- an application letter ;
- two writing samples ;
- a curriculum vitae and ;
- a two-pages abstract of their proposed lecture.
Applicants for laureates should include the following:
- an application letter;
- a curriculum vitae ;
- a letter indicating institutional or organisational affiliation ;
- a research proposal (two copies and not more than 10 pages)
indicating a descriptive analysis, outlining the theoretical interest of the
theme chosen by the applicant, and its relation to the problematic and
concerns of the theme of the 2003 Institute and ;
- two reference letters from scholars and/or researchers known for
their competence and expertise in the candidate's research area, including
their names, addresses and telephone, e-mail, fax numbers.
The deadline for the submission of applications is set for 14 May 2004.
Applications should be sent to:
The CODESRIA Gender Institute
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop X Canal IV
B.P. 3304
Dakar, SENEGAL
Tel. (221) 825 98 21/22/23
Fax : (221) 824 12 89
E-mail : <mailto:Gender.Institute@codesria.sn>Gender.Institute@codesria.sn
Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.