Preface (1999) Preface (1990) 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire I. 'Women' as the Subject of Feminism II. The Compulsory Order of Sex/Gender/Desire III. Gender: The Circular Ruins of Contemporary Debate IV. Theorizing the Binary, the Unitary and Beyond V. Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance VI. Language, Power and the Strategies of Displacement 2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix I. Structuralism's Critical Exchange II. Lacan, Riviere, and the Strategies of Masquerade III. Freud and the Melancholia of Gender IV. Gender Complexity and the Limits of Identification V. Reformulating Prohibition as Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acts I. The Body Politics of Julia Kristeva II. Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity III. Monique Wittig - Bodily Disintegration and Fictive Sex IV. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions Conclusion - From Parody to Politics

Postmodern Subjects, Postmodern BodiesThinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Postmodernism in the Contemporary WestYearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural PoliticsGender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

This book demonstrates the relevance, rigor, and creativity of interpretive research methodologies for the social and human sciences. The book situates methods questions within the context of broader methodological questions--specifically, the character of social realities and their "know-ability." Exceptionally clear and well-written chapters provide engaging discussions of the methods of accessing, generating, and analyzing social science data, using methods ranging from reflexive historical analysis to critical ethnography. Reflecting on their own research experiences, the contributors offer an inside, applied perspective on how research topics, evidence, and methods intertwine to produce knowledge in the social sciences.

Interpretation and Method : Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn

This is the first comprehensive critical evaluation of the use of rational choice theory in political science. Writing in an accessible and nontechnical style, Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro assess rational choice theory where it is reputed to be most successful: the study of collective action, the behavior of political parties and politicians, and such phenomena as voting cycles and Prisoner's Dilemmas. In their hard-hitting critique, Green and Shapiro demonstrate that the much heralded achievements of rational choice theory are in fact deeply suspect and that fundamental rethinking is needed if rational choice theorists are to contribute to the understanding of politics. In their final chapters, they anticipate and respond to a variety of possible rational choice responses to their arguments, thereby initiating a dialogue that is bound to continue for some time.

Pathologies of rational choice theory: A critique of applications in political science.

Ethnography: Step By Step

John Gerring's exceptional textbook has been thoroughly revised in this second edition. It offers a one-volume introduction to social science methodology relevant to the disciplines of anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology and sociology. This new edition has been extensively developed with the introduction of new material and a thorough treatment of essential elements such as conceptualization, measurement, causality and research design. It is written for students, long-time practitioners and methodologists and covers both qualitative and quantitative methods. It synthesizes the vast and diverse field of methodology in a way that is clear, concise and comprehensive. While offering a handy overview of the subject, the book is also an argument about how we should conceptualize methodological problems. Thinking about methodology through this lens provides a new framework for understanding work in the social sciences.

Social Science Methodology: A Unified Framework

D insider perspectives and groundlevel processes “matter” in political life? Do ethnographic approaches to the study of politics have a place in the discipline? How one answers these questions depends on the particular research question(s) being asked and the epistemological predispositions of the researcher(s). But, even the staunchest proponents of deductive, quantitative, and rational choice approaches tend to answer with a qualified “yes.” For those occasions when these phenomena indeed warrant study, ethnographic methods are among the tools in the methodological toolbox. Yet, it is striking how few political scientists reach for them, and how even fewer become expert in their use. The rising technical sophistication of computer-aided methods might make ethnographic study seem lacking in rigor—a sort of quaint relic of yesteryear. As part of a drive to take calls for methodological pluralism seriously, this article addresses the question of ethnography’s utility, suggesting that it sheds crucial light on central issues about political life. We are motivated by a truism that bears repeating: if we privilege certain methods of inquiry over others, we lose the potential to generate important insights about the political world. Our purpose in this article is threefold. First, we suggest that the marginalization of ethnographic methods leads to a lamentable state of affairs in which certain types of research questions a priori are undervalued by the discipline. Second, we argue that the usual criticisms of ethnographic methods are rooted in inaccuracies about what ethnographic work entails. Like other approaches, ethnography has shortcomings, but if used judiciously, its contribution is noteworthy. Third, given the marginalization of ethnographic methods, we suggest that a positive agenda for incorporating them into graduate curricula should be a central part of reform in the discipline.

From the Inside Out: Ethnographic Methods in Political Research

Contents: Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1: "We Want a Free Country for Our Children," 1977-1984 Chapter 2: Movement as Symbol: The Mothers of Matagalpa, 1979-1984 Chapter 3: The Priorities of War: Deferring Feminism, (Re) drafting Motherhood, 1984-1990 Chapter 4: The Latent and the Visible: The Mothers of Matagalpa in Two Dimensions, 1984-1990 Chapter 5: From a War of Bullets to a War of the Stomach: Discursive and Organizational Strategies and Regime Transition. 1990-1994 Chapter 6: Testing the Limits of Maternal Identity: Regime Change and Expanded Membership, 1990-1994 Chapter 7: Voice, Agency, and Identity: Counting the Mixed Blessings of Revolution and Maternal Identity Politics Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs: Gender Identity Politics in Nicaragua, 1979–1999

This article argues for a multidirectional and gendered understanding of the causal relationship between emotion and collective identity. Based on interviews and participant observation with core members of a Nicaraguan mothers' organization, I identify four ways in which emotion and identity are causally linked: emotion-based identity, therapy, affective bonds, and change in collective identity leading to change in grieving style. These indicate a dynamic relationship between emotion and collective identity. Furthermore, to understand emotion-based collective identity and perceptions of the emotional benefits of participation, this relationship must be understood through gendered cultural expectations about emotion.

The Dynamics of Emotion and Activism: Grief, Gender, and Collective Identity in Revolutionary Nicaragua

This study addresses a gap in the literature on gender and war by focusing on revolutions in smaller states. I examine how individuals, revolutionary societies, and other states were engaged, marginalized, and defied through certain gendered logics, broadening our understanding of wars and security events beyond those of the global military powers. The cases of Cuba and Nicaragua do not exhibit the masculine logic of superpowers: these smaller nations could not claim masculinity on the basis of traditional military strength, and they purported to challenge hierarchies in their quest for revolutionary social transformation. Yet I argue that the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions did rely on certain gendered logics that organized the way war and security events were interpreted, creating an alternative privileged masculinity that in some instances drew on race hierarchies. Revolution relied on and reproduced gendered oppositions, and thus gender in these revolutionary contexts continued to mark hierar...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/661727

A Revolution in the Binary? Gender and the Oxymoron of Revolutionary War in Cuba and Nicaragua

Studies document that in wartime, states often employ maternal imagery and mobilize women as mothers.Yet we know relatively little about when and why states and their opposition do so. This study seeks to build theory for this phenomenon through frame analysis of the Nicaraguan Contra War. The author proposes that maternal framing, aimed at mothers as well as a broader national and international audience, benefits militaries in at least three ways: (1) channeling maternal grievances, (2) disseminating propaganda through “apolitical” mothers, and (3) evoking emotions and sympathy nationally and internationally. This study furthermore explores three underexamined features of both gendered studies of war and frame analysis: (1) It applies frame theory to states, (2) it develops our understanding of crossnational gendered framing strategies, and (3) it introduces gender framing to the study of war.

Lorraine Bayard de Volo

Papers

From the Inside Out: Ethnographic Methods in Political Research

Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs: Gender Identity Politics in Nicaragua, 1979–1999

The Dynamics of Emotion and Activism: Grief, Gender, and Collective Identity in Revolutionary Nicaragua

A Revolution in the Binary? Gender and the Oxymoron of Revolutionary War in Cuba and Nicaragua

Mobilizing Mothers for War: Cross-National Framing Strategies in Nicaragua’s Contra War