Alyson Cole

Bio: Alyson Cole is an academic researcher from City University of New York. The author has contributed to research in topics: Political science & Politics. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 18 publications receiving 233 citations. Previous affiliations of Alyson Cole include The Graduate Center, CUNY.

All of Us Are Vulnerable, But Some Are More Vulnerable than Others: The Political Ambiguity of Vulnerability Studies, an Ambivalent Critique

Abstract: This paper raises several concerns about vulnerability as an alternative language to conceptualize injustice and politicize its attendant injuries. First, the project of resignifying “vulnerability” by emphasizing its universality and amplifying its generative capacity, I suggest, might dilute perceptions of inequality and muddle important distinctions among specific vulnerabilities, as well as differences between those who are injurable and those who are already injured. Vulnerability scholars, moreover, have yet to elaborate the path from acknowledging constitutive vulnerability to addressing concrete injustices. Second, vulnerability studies respond to, and have been shaped by, debates in the 1980s and 1990s over oppression, identity and agency. This genealogy needs to be acknowledged and evaluated. As I demonstrate, prominent theorists define vulnerability in contradistinction to victimization, adopting neo-liberal formulations of victims and victimhood. Finally, I turn to address the politics of vuln...

The Cult of True Victimhood: From the War on Welfare to the War on Terror

Abstract: Contents Acknowledgments 1. Situating Anti-Victim Discourse 2. Shaming the Victim: The Anti-Victimist Campaign 3. Victims on a Pedestal: Anti-'Victim Feminism' & Women's Oppression 4. Blue Lester: Two Faces of Victimhood 5. Therapeutics of Blame: Blaming Victims & Victims as Blamers 6. 9-1-1: The Nation as Victim EPILOGUE Notes Index

Do Working Mothers Oppress Other Women? The Swedish Maid Debate and the Welfare State Politics of Gender Equality

Abstract: In this article, we use a recent controversy concerning a tax policy designed to facilitate the hiring of housecleaners in Sweden as a case study to reconsider the politics of gender equity in contemporary welfare regimes. We identify a frontier of gender politics that is not captured by current comparative scholarship. As the boundary between family and market changes to accommodate the entry of women into the labor market, who will assume these women’s family‐welfare work? Under what terms should the state or market intervene? While research has focused on one dimension—child care—we follow the Swedish debate to shift attention toward other household labor that has been neglected, both in terms of public policy and scholarly analysis. Swedish and American working women live under two very different welfare regimes, yet they seem to face the same dilemma—either work an oppressive double shift, combining paid employment and unpaid housework, or employ help and expose themselves to the charge that...

"There Are No Victims in This Class": On Female Suffering and Anti-"Victim Feminism"

Abstract: I borrow the title for this article from a scene in the film Dangerous Minds. The movie depicts the "true" story of a former Marine, performed by the fetching Michelle Pfeiffer, who as a high school teacher transformed her students from potential criminals and "welfare queens" into responsible future citizens. Hollywood recruited Pfeiffer to engage in psychological combat, hence her mission, reforming the students' "dangerous minds." At a crucial point in the narrative, Pfeiffer's students attempt to excuse their unruly behavior and appeal to her sense of guilt by attributing their failings to the impoverished conditions of their lives. In response Pfeiffer resolutely declares: "There are no victims in this class!" Pfeiffer's assertion encapsulates a current popular sentiment against victims and "victimism." Victimhood-politicians and pundits tell usis a state of mind, and those who choose to view themselves as victims are self-indulgent, hopeless dependents. Over the last few years feminists have been the target of much criticism for allegedly inciting the rise of victimism. Critics blame the modern women's movement for encouraging the proliferation of individuals and groups who attempt to secure their status as victims in order to gain various material and psychological rewards (Dershowitz 1994; D'Souza 1991; Sykes 1992). These critics were joined recently by a group of self-described feminists, often referred to as "third wave," "power," "neo," "post," "revisionist," "dissident," or "post-ideological" feminists. While these labels designate a variety of critiques and individuals, the coterie of popular writers whom I examine share the conviction that women are no longer oppressed as a group, and that their progress as individuals is now impeded by the women's movement. It is feminism, they claim, that turns women into victims both in theory and in fact. In Katie Roiphe's words, feminists' "conceptual framework"-their lan

Cleaning the ‘People's Home’: The Politics of the Domestic Service Market in Sweden

Abstract: While there is a substantial scholarly literature depicting the abuses and exploitation of domestic workers in the informal cleaning sector, there is virtually no work that examines conditions in the formal market. This is not an oversight. For many, commodifying domestic labour entrenches gender and economic inequalities; we all should simply clean up after ourselves. We seek to offer a fresh approach: the vital question for those concerned with the women performing this work for pay is not whether to commodify reproductive labour, but rather what form the market will take and what conditions might render it a decent job. In order to make such an assessment, we need to look beyond worst-case scenarios in the informal sector, and study instead the evolution of the formal market. Only by also examining the content and terms of the work can we address how not to perpetuate inequalities such as the gendered division of labour and its intersection with nationality, race and class. In this article, we analyse the market for household services in Sweden's gender egalitarian social democracy, where a recent tax policy fostered the rapid expansion of a formal market for domestic cleaning. We conclude that domestic cleaning can be a decent job and that there is no inherent contradiction between a market for household services and a social democratic political economy.

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

Abstract: Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject

Abstract: WOMEN Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, by Saba Mahmood Princeton, NJ and Oxford, UK: Princeton University Press, 2004 xvi + 199 pages Gloss, to p 203 Refs to p 223 Index to p 233 $55 cloth; $1795 paper This book explores "the conceptual challenges that women's involvement in the Islamist movement poses to feminist theory in particular and to secular-liberal thought in general through an ethnographic account of the urban women's mosque movement that is part of the Islamic Revival in Cairo, Egypt" (p 2) However, Saba Mahmood promises more than an ethnography based on two years of fieldwork (1995-1997) She embarks on an intellectual journey of selfreflection in which she has come "to believe that a certain amount of self-scrutiny and skepticism is essential regarding the certainty of my own political commitments, when trying to understand the lives of others who do not necessarily share these commitments" (p xi) By refusing to take her own political stance as the necessary lens through which the analysis proceeds, the author opens up the possibility that "my analysis may come to complicate the vision of human flourishing that I hold most dear and which has provided the bedrock of my personal existence" (p xii) It is necessary, the author cautions as she embarks upon her inquiry, not to assume that the political position we uphold will necessarily be vindicated or provide the ground for our theoretical analysis As readers, we are invited to join her in "parochializing our assumptions, about the constitutive relationship between action and embodiment, resistance and agency, self and authority - that inform most feminist judgments from across a broad range of the political spectrum about non-liberal movements such as the women's mosque movement" (p 38) It is within that spirit that I have critiqued this book The five chapters are a running argument with and against key analytic concepts in liberal thought as these concepts have come to inform various strands of feminist theory through which non-liberal movements, such as the women's mosque movement, are analyzed Through each chapter Mahmood makes her ethnographic talk back to the normative liberal assumptions about human nature against which such a movement is held accountable "The Subject of Freedom" illustrates the different ways in which the activism of the mosque movement challenges the liberal conception of politics Mahmood analyzes the conception of self, moral agency, and politics that undergird the practices of this non-liberal movement in order to come to an understanding of the historical projects that animate it The pious subjects of the mosque movement occupy an uncomfortable place in feminist scholarship because they pursue practices and ideals embedded in a tradition that has historically accorded women a subordinate status "Topography of the Piety Movement" provides a brief sketch of the historical development against which the contemporary mosque movement has emerged and critically engages with themes within scholarship of Islamic modernism regarding such movements We sense the broad-based character of the women's mosque movement through the author's description and analysis of three of six mosques where she concentrated her fieldwork Despite the differences among the mosque groups - ranging from the poorest to the upper-middle income neighborhoods of Cairo - they all shared a concern for the increased secularization of Egyptian society and illustrate the increasing respect accorded to the da 'iya preacher/religious teacher (who undertakes da'waliterally call, summons or appeal that in the 20th century came to be associated with proselytization activity) "Women and the Da'wa" (pp 64-72) is particularly insightful, as the author juxtaposes the emergence of secular liberalism with the da'wa movement and concludes that "the modernist project of the regulation of religious sensibilities, undertaken by a range of postcolonial states (and not simply Muslim states), has elicited in its wake a variety of resistances, responses and challenges …

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Abstract: On behalf of Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this international scientific conference. Drylands are often considered fragile ecosystems, yet they have a remarkable resilience to stress. They are home to unique and well-adapted plant and animal species that we need to conserve. Some of the world’s greatest cultures and belief systems have originated in drylands. On the other hand, desertification and land degradation in drylands often result in poverty and cause environmental refugees to abandon their homes. These problems can only be addressed in a holistic manner, based on sound scientific research and findings. Solutions to the problems of dryland degradation need to be communicated as widely as possible through education at all levels. These are many reasons why UNESCO – within its mandate of science, education, culture and communication – took the intiative to organize this conference. And we are glad that so many partners have responded to our call. UNESCO considers this conference as its main contribution to the observance of the International Year of Deserts and Desertification in 2006. We have deliberately chosen the title ‘The Future of Drylands’ as we feel it is time to redefine our priorities for science, education and governance in the drylands based on 50 years of scientific research in arid and semi-arid zones. In fact UNESCO has one of the longest traditions, within the UN system, of addressing dryland problems from an interdisciplinary, scientific point of view. In 1955, the ‘International Arid Land Meetings’ were held in Socorro, New Mexico (USA). They were organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), sponsored by UNESCO and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. One important output of the International Arid Land Meetings was a book entitled The Future of Drylands, edited by Gilbert F. White and published in