Stopped in our tracks: From ‘giving an account’ to an ethics of recognition in feminist praxis

Abstract

When the Western Australian government announced in 2010 that Indigenous people would be compensated for unpaid wages, a Yindjibarndi woman named Bigali Hanlon submitted an application to access her government files so that she could lodge a claim. At the age of four, Bigali was taken from her home in Mulga Downs, Western Australia to live in a church‐run hostel for ‘fair‐skinned’ Indigenous children until she was sent into indentured domestic service as a teenager. Three large files document her history. These files, combined with in‐depth interviews, and a film about Bigali and other Indigenous Australian people, Walking Tracks Back Home, form the basis of this article. In reflecting on the issues raised by Bigali's story, we draw on feminist writing on the costs associated with being called to give an account of oneself, considering how listening might form the basis of an ethics of recognition in feminist praxis.

Organizing vulnerability exploring Judith Butler's conceptualization of vulnerability to study organizations

“…Especially their conceptualizations of gender (Hancock & Tyler, 2007; Jeanes, 2007; Pullen, 2006) and how it is performed in organizations (De Coster & Zanoni, 2019; Phillips & Knowles, 2012; Simpson et al., 2020) has inspired MOS scholars. This work has discussed how management and organization theory can be queered (Souza, Brewis, and Rumens, 2016; Tyler & Cohen, 2008), how resistance toward marginalizing and excluding management practices can be achieved (Bowring, 2004), how embodiment relates to inclusion (Tyler, 2018) and how Butler's ethics based on recognition applies to management and organization (Borgerson, 2005; Milroy et al., 2019; Rhodes, 2017). This vast work includes few mentions of vulnerability most often using an individualist perspective on vulnerability and treat it as an attribute of individuals or groups (cf.…”

Troubling/transforming working lives: Editorial introduction

“…A growing body of scholars, practitioners and activists have already drawn on and developed insights from Butler's texts. This has often involved re-framing their earliest writing through an organizational lens (Harding et al, 2017(Harding et al, , 2022Kenny, 2019;Milroy et al, 2019;Parker, 2002;Pullen & Knights, 2007;Riach et al, 2014Riach et al, , 2016Rumens, 2018;Tyler, 2019;Varman & Al-Amoudi, 2016). But as Butler's own interests in organizational lives and contexts continue to evolve, so too do the possibilities of their work speaking more directly to organizational scholarship and activism.…”