2019
Publications
IfS Working Paper 03/2019
Über Umwege zu Müttern und Vätern gemacht: Reproduktionstechnologien und die (Ko-)Konstruktion von Technik und Geschlecht am Beispiel österreichischer Kinderwunschkliniken
Lisa Bock
DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.121
The aim of this article is to elaborate the (co-)construction of technology and gender using the example of presentation and discussion of the use of assisted reproductive technolo-gies in Austria. The analysis is based on feminist, technology-critical approaches.
The procedures of assisted reproductive technologies have opened up new understand-ings of nature. The concepts of motherhood and fatherhood are subject to constant change. The binary gender relations between women and men are still regarded as stable, although from a feminist, technology-critical point of view there is an ambivalent relation-ship between the use of technology and the interfered gender categories. Women are mostly seen as only users, while men are pushed into the background. The use of assisted reproductive technologies and the closely intertwined medical risks or legal regulations are justified with socially constructed attributions and desires such as good motherhood and femininity. Although it is rarely discussed, the use of technology in the discourse of reproduction no longer represents a marginal medical phenomenon. The materiality of assisted reproductive technologies altered the meaning to the newly emerging social norms.
IfS Working Paper 02/2019
Subjektpositionen im Internet: Eine wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse im Social Web am Beispiel der Plattform unzensuriert.at
Valeria Zenz
DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.120
The following working paper assumes that the internet (social web) allows subjects to take speaking positions, which they could not obtain without this infrastructure due to lack of resources. The bearer of this speaking position can be conceived of as social Actor promoting specific subject positions. The following paper analyses subject positions taken in the platform unzensuriert.at by using a sociology of knowledge approach of discourse analysis as elaborated by Reiner Keller. The paper assumes that the modes of construction of subject positions are connected with the communicated topoi. Discursive and non-discursive practices of the platform are analyzed by using content analysis.
IfS Working Paper 01/2019
Elective Co-Parenting: Entscheidungsprozesse zu gewählter Co-Elternschaft
Ines Jogl
DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.114
This paper is based on my master thesis and looks at the private life of individuals choosing elective co-parenting. Elective co-parenting involves two or more individuals who decide to get and raise a child together, without being in a romantic or sexual relationship with each other nor necessarily living together in a shared household.
Data were collected by using eight episodic interviews with respondents from Austria, Germany and Switzerland who are or have been in the process of being an elective coparent. Six out of the eight interviews were evaluated with the fine structure analysis and eight interviews with the topic analysis according to Froschauer and Lueger. The results were related to the individualization and pluralization thesis of Ulrich Beck and the RREEMM model by Lindenberg.
The main results focus on the decision-making process for being an elective co-parent as well as on the structuring conditions and the influence of norms and values during the decision-making process. Findings suggest that female participants choose elective coparenting because of their desire to also involve the biological father, although, in most cases the actual level of involvement did not matter. Male gay participants mostly see coparenting as the only way to be a parent of a biological child with paternal involvement. Family ideals, such as the advantage of a male parent within a family, also influence the decision for elective co-parenting.
2018
IfS Working Paper 02/2018
Die Akzentuierung des Unscheinbaren: Zur Stofflichkeit der sozialen Welt am Beispiel ‚Zero Waste‘
Raphaela Casata
DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.57
The 'material turn' marked the end of a long-lasting 'blindness' and 'oblivion' towards things in sociology. Since this turn, especially man-made artifacts received increasing attention, but nevertheless it often remains on the surface. The materiality of things and substances is hardly taken into account, although this can turn out to be fruitful for the understanding of social phenomena. A few works show when and how the mostly inconspicuous component of material culture becomes noticeable and appears to be socially and sociologically relevant. The interdisciplinary concept of 'substance stories' also promises new insights into social-material worlds: its perspective, which considers temporality and contextuality, focuses on the interrelation between substances, individuals and society. The phenomenon 'Zero Waste' shows how substances and their histories not only find entrance into empirical and theoretical discussions, but also emerge from their shadowy existence as central points of reference for an interpretation of the world and a community.
IfS Working Paper 01/2018
The Social Construction of Gender and Lifestyles - Theoretical Concept for Gender and Social Inequality
Susanne Vogl, Nina Baur
DOI: 10.25365/phaidra.46
This article offers a conceptual framework for researching the interrelation of gender constructsand lifestyles and suggests categories for empirical research. We argue that genderpractices and lifestyles are intertwined, vary according to social milieu, and are negotiatedon a relationship level. Thus, researchers have to consider behaviour and ascribed meaningto explain underlying reasons for certain behaviours. On the individual level, normativeorientations, values, and gender images influence semantics. Regarding pragmatics, theconcrete task share among partners on a household level is central. Thus, gender practicesare specific to social milieus and spheres of life. We argue that employment, care, andleisure time activities as well as consumption are important constructions for understandinggendered lifestyles. Our framework offers categories for better grasping differences ofgender constructions, doing and undoing gender through lifestyles in social milieus simultaneouslyand systematically.