Gender and Labour in New Times: An Introduction

Heroines of enterprise: Post-recession media representations of women and entrepreneurship in a UK newspaper 2008–2016

“…For example, the emphasis on women helping each other and having the 'right' traits falls in the category of relational rather than individualised entrepreneurial femininity; yet, relational entrepreneurial femininity is also characterised by a rejection of a masculine, growth orientation to business and advocates small and stable businesses. This is consistent with the work of Peck and Brenner (2012), Adkins and Dever (2014) and Gill (2014) It is an idealised and simplified construction, unlike the one which emerges from the empirical realities of the texts in Lewis's paper.…”

Post‐Fordist reconfigurations of gender, work and life: theory and practice

“…Instead, social relations are put to work to create ‘surplus in relation to collective cognitive mechanisms’ (1996: 6). As such, the economy is folded into society to the extent that it ‘has no obvious or clear‐cut “outside”’ (Adkins and Dever : 2). In the Fordist industrial order, reproductive labour and productive labour are linked to the division of social realms into household and economy onto which naturalized models of gender are mapped (Weeks : 237).…”

“…Some see this diffusion and privatization of social provisioning as putting the institutions and structures of social life and extra‐market relations of social reproduction in crisis (Roberts ; Bakker ; Caffentzis ; Mitchell, Marston and Katz ). Indeed, post‐Fordist social arrangements have been charged with ‘undercutting and hollowing out … the conditions required for the renewal, sustainability and reproduction of material life’ (Adkins and Dever : 5).…”

“…The remainder of the article is structured into five sections: the following section briefly introduces the empirical study upon which the article is based. The three subsequent sections identify emergent themes in the data that both resonate with and challenge the key maxims of recent theoretical debate regarding post‐Fordist work patterns: first, the rearranging of working and life place boundaries (Henry and Massey ; Weeks ; Gregg ; Morini and Fumagalli ); second, the reconfiguring of working and life time boundaries (Weeks ; Gregg ; Morini and Fumagalli ); and third, the renegotiation of the gendered boundaries of work and life (production and social reproduction) (Adkins and Dever ; Roberts ; Bakker ; Mitchell, Marston and Katz ). The concluding discussion draws on our findings to challenge theoretical assertions of a post‐Fordist order in which ‘social life itself becomes a productive machine’ (Hardt and Negri : 148), so that there is an elimination of boundaries; there is no outside.…”

“… Abstract Based on an in‐depth study with 56 informants (25 women and 31 men), across the ICT (information and communication technology), creative and academic sectors in one city/regional hub in Ireland, this article investigates the so‐called revolution in work/life practices associated with the post‐Fordist labour processes of the Knowledge Economy from the perspectives of workers themselves. Recent theorizations of post‐Fordist work patterns emphasize a rearranging of work and life place boundaries ; a reconfiguring of work and life time boundaries ; and a dissolving of the gendered boundaries of work and life (production and social reproduction) (Adkins and Dever ; Morini and Fumagalli ; Gill and Pratt ; Weeks ; Hardt and Negri ). Our findings suggest that, instead of dissolving boundaries, workers constantly struggle to draw boundaries between what counts as work and as life, and that this varies primarily in relation to gender and stage in a gendered life trajectory.…”