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Social Sciences
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Gender Knowledges and Cultures of Equalities in Global Contexts
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Gender Knowledges and Cultures of Equalities in Global Contexts

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Gender Studies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 4999

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Suzanne Clisby

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Guest Editor
Education & Social Justice within the School of Education, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
Interests: gender; global education; feminist methodologies; international development
Prof. Dr. Mark Johnson

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK
Interests: gender; sexualities; material culture; migration and transnationalism

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In this Special Issue of Social Sciences, we invite papers that investigate different knowledges and understandings of gender and equalities, explore people’s everyday embodied experiences of in/equalities and foreground the diverse cultural practices developed in different parts of the world to address, enable or enhance equalities. Here, we adopt a critical feminist and decolonial perspective that contests assumptions that cultures of equality originate in and flow from specifically historically dominant spaces and seek to highlight the creative practices that challenge social injustice and enhance gender equalities in diverse cultural contexts. By ‘gender’ we mean both ideologies and embodied practices through which femininities, masculinities, transgender and Queer subjectivities are produced and the relations between people who occupy differently gendered subject positions: subjectivities and subject positions that are mutually shaped by the intersections of sexuality, race/ethnicity, nationality, class, dis/ability and age. We see equality, especially gender equality, as a culturally contingent product and seek to bring together interdisciplinary work to investigate the production and meanings of cultures of equality across a range of sites, events, practices and objects.

We view culture not only as a process of communication and a contested arena of meaning-making practices, but also as a process of invention and innovation. Here, we ask how equalities are produced, embodied, objectified and visualised in and through a variety of cultural practices and sites. Investigating cultures of gender equality also requires us to examine the relations of inequality that are its corollary: this includes attending to how authorised versions of equality and inclusivity may produce new divisions and/or reproduce and reinforce existing inequalities.

We invite papers that foreground the investigation of the productions and meanings of cultures of in/equality in global contexts and explore the ways through which these arise within a particular set of intersectional gender inequalities. Papers may consider, for example, the following questions: who has the power to know and control meanings of gender and equalities? How are understandings of and knowledges about gender in/equalities culturally inculcated and enforced in different contexts? How can new and alternative cultures of equality be produced within and out of positions and situations of marginality? Papers may also, for example, highlight examples of the ways people in different cultural contexts are creatively building and enhancing gender equalities; explore gendered knowledges, considering ways of knowing, teaching and learning about gender in/equalities in different contexts; or investigate the production and meanings of cultures of equality and inequalities across a range of spaces, sites, events and practices.

Please submit your proposals and any questions to the Special Issue editor by 2 December 2024. Notification of acceptance will be provided by 1 January 2025.

Prof. Dr. Suzanne Clisby
Prof. Dr. Mark Johnson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • gender
  • knowledge
  • equality
  • cultural contexts
  • social justice

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 8997 KiB  
Article
Intersectionality Under Debate in a Globalized World: A Critical Review of the Construction of Democratic Societies Through the Interrelation of Gender, Race, and Cultural Diversities
by Elena Montejo-Palacios, María del Consuelo Díez-Bedmar and Pablo Cantero-Castelló
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(4), 247; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14040247 - 17 Apr 2025
Viewed by 183
Abstract
Teacher education is paramount for nurturing democratic, critical, and participative citizenship. Educators should approach identity formation from an intersectional perspective, encompassing sex–gender, racial, and cultural diversities. This perspective highlights social inequalities and challenges the power structures that sustain them. Teachers play a crucial [...] Read more.
Teacher education is paramount for nurturing democratic, critical, and participative citizenship. Educators should approach identity formation from an intersectional perspective, encompassing sex–gender, racial, and cultural diversities. This perspective highlights social inequalities and challenges the power structures that sustain them. Teachers play a crucial role in shaping and reflecting on these identities since their responsibilities extend beyond knowledge transmission. Their ability to incorporate intersectional perspectives into teaching influences students’ understanding of intersectionality, thereby supporting the development of inclusive identities and promoting democratic citizenship. This article opens with the results of research on how trainee teachers acquire competencies in feminist critical visual literacy. Following this review, we analyzed educational materials to examine stereotypes, racism, and the invisibility of racialized and cultural minority communities. We also addressed the identification and counteraction of hate speech targeting the LGTBIQ+ community as well as different gender-based violence. Comparative data from participating universities provide insights into the critical skills of pre-service teachers across international contexts. This study highlights an urgent need for further research into integrating intersectionality in teacher training, supported by educational policies that strengthen critical competencies through a holistic, gender- and race-sensitive approach aimed at social justice. These initiatives would promote an education system responsive to multifaceted diversities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender Knowledges and Cultures of Equalities in Global Contexts)
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17 pages, 295 KiB  
Article
Disputing Authorship: Reinscriptions of Collective Modes of Knowledge Production
by Andréa Gill and Marta Fernández
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(4), 243; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14040243 - 16 Apr 2025
Viewed by 228
Abstract
This article proposes a conversation on the limits and possibilities of collectivizing the way in which we generate and inscribe knowledge within the terms of a political economy of knowledge production and circulation regulated by hierarchies of academic and non-academic classifications, as well [...] Read more.
This article proposes a conversation on the limits and possibilities of collectivizing the way in which we generate and inscribe knowledge within the terms of a political economy of knowledge production and circulation regulated by hierarchies of academic and non-academic classifications, as well as those that demarcate centres and peripheries domestically and internationally through racial–gendered distributions of authority. To this end, it explores a series of collective projects elaborated within the GlobalGRACE network in Brazil (Global Gender and Cultures of Equality), which experiment with residency methodologies designed to create the necessary infrastructure for a redistribution of power, knowledge, and authority in investigations on racial–gendered violence in the peripheries of Rio de Janeiro. As collaborators in this research–action project initiated in 2018 with the Observatory of Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, here, we mobilize two of these collective projects as case studies—the dance residency of Cia Passinho Carioca and the Free School of Arts ELÃ residency—so as to reflect on our ways of knowing and experiencing racial–gendered inequalities in context. In this way, it becomes possible to propose not only questions around the production, erasure, and appropriation of knowledge but also possibilities for the broad-based circulation of dissident knowledge practices and the subsequent displacement of established authorities in the field, notably by means of a disobjectification of subjects of knowledge and exercises in authoring in the first-person plural. This entry point into the conversation on who has the power to know and control the meanings of intersectional inequalities enables a focus on practice, pedagogy, and methods to unpack the ethical and epistemological questions at hand. By centring the problem of authorship, we argue that feminist and decolonial approaches to knowing, teaching, and learning need to effectuate redistributions of power and the construction of politico-epistemic infrastructure if we have any chance of cultivating the conditions needed for liberatory knowledge practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender Knowledges and Cultures of Equalities in Global Contexts)
15 pages, 1755 KiB  
Article
Plantationo(s)cenes: Creative Activism and Sri Lankan Plantation Workers
by Yasmin Gunaratnam and Menaha Kandasamy
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(4), 240; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14040240 - 15 Apr 2025
Viewed by 302
Abstract
This paper describes the methods of creative activism used by a women-led plantation trade union in Sri Lanka to improve workers’ living and working conditions. We discuss how the feminist idea of “relational humility” is a vital component of how creative activism with [...] Read more.
This paper describes the methods of creative activism used by a women-led plantation trade union in Sri Lanka to improve workers’ living and working conditions. We discuss how the feminist idea of “relational humility” is a vital component of how creative activism with plantation workers can work against extractive forms of research and knowledge-making. The paper unfolds in three parts. After setting out our orienting ideas and describing the colonial history of Sri Lankan plantations, we present two examples of unexpected relational humility, first in a workshop and then in a plantation Sunday School. Finally, we suggest the particular value of trade union research in taking up and locating research findings within workers’ self-organised struggles for sustainable living and working conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender Knowledges and Cultures of Equalities in Global Contexts)
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19 pages, 1821 KiB  
Article
Understanding the Effects of Intersectionality on Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Perspective of Small-Scale Cross-Border Fish Traders in Lake Chilwa, Malawi
by Chikondi Manyungwa-Pasani, Emmanuel Kaunda, Kingdom Simfukwe, Lisungu Banda, Netsayi Noris Mudege and Keagan Kakwasha
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(4), 213; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14040213 - 28 Mar 2025
Viewed by 496
Abstract
The global COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant threat to public health, inflicting enduring hardships upon humanity, particularly among vulnerable populations. Artisanal cross-border fish traders from developing countries like Malawi were severely impacted by imposed control measures. Gender inequalities exacerbated these challenges, forming the [...] Read more.
The global COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant threat to public health, inflicting enduring hardships upon humanity, particularly among vulnerable populations. Artisanal cross-border fish traders from developing countries like Malawi were severely impacted by imposed control measures. Gender inequalities exacerbated these challenges, forming the basis of this study on informal cross-border traders along the Malawi–Mozambique border near Lake Chilwa during the pandemic. Using an intersectional theory, this research explores how gender disparities were shaped by COVID-19, considering social determinants, consequences, and coping mechanisms in cross-border fish trading. The study employed a cross-sectional qualitative approach, collecting data from 169 participants through focus group discussions (FGDs), Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), the Cognitive Edge Sensemaker Tool, and the Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis toolkit (EMMA) between April and November 2022. Findings indicate that COVID-19 control measures disproportionately affected female cross-border fish traders, leading to increased human rights violations, particularly sexual exploitation and rape. These violations left women with enduring health traumas, including sexually transmitted diseases. Both men and women employed coping strategies that exposed women to further marginalization and human rights violations. Given the widespread nature of violence across borders, inter-country coordination is crucial to protect the rights of cross-border traders. Policy measures should focus on educating vulnerable women about reporting mechanisms for abusive practices and establishing local support systems where reporting mechanisms are lacking. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender Knowledges and Cultures of Equalities in Global Contexts)
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12 pages, 269 KiB  
Article
Postcolonial Intellectuals: Exploring Belonging Across Borders in Igiaba Scego’s La mia casa è dove sono (My Home Is Where I Am)
by Sandra Ponzanesi and Maria Auxiliadora Castillo Soto
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(4), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14040209 - 27 Mar 2025
Viewed by 1224
Abstract
This article focuses on the life writing narratives of diasporic writers in Europe, such as the Italian writer of Somali descent Igiaba Scego, who, through her writing and public role, manages to create powerful interventions on issues of belonging, diversity, and creativity, contributing [...] Read more.
This article focuses on the life writing narratives of diasporic writers in Europe, such as the Italian writer of Somali descent Igiaba Scego, who, through her writing and public role, manages to create powerful interventions on issues of belonging, diversity, and creativity, contributing to a renewed understanding of gender knowledge and cultures of equalities in localized as well as global contexts. This article focuses on her role as a writer as well as a postcolonial intellectual, as she is not just a spokesperson for her community, nor simply a promotor of universal values, but someone who straddles complex positionalities in their location in imperial–colonial orders. We align ourselves with the notion of postcolonial intellectuals as those who speak truth to power on issues of cultural integration and gender equalities). In her autobiographical work titled La mia casa è dove sono, published in 2010, Scego draws a subjective map of different places inhabited by her family: Somalia, Italy, and Great Britain, contributing to the understanding of unbelonging and transnationalism through topics of migration, biculturalism, gender, race, and identity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender Knowledges and Cultures of Equalities in Global Contexts)
12 pages, 276 KiB  
Article
Motivations, Choices, and Constraints of Italian Transgender Travelers: A Study of Tourism Dynamics within the Rainbow
by Salvatore Monaco, Elisa Cisotto, Antón Freire Varela and Fabio Corbisiero
Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(9), 489; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13090489 - 15 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1392
Abstract
This study explores the motivations, choices, and constraints shaping tourism behavior among transgender individuals living in Italy. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research begins with quantitative data collection and analyses, followed by qualitative insights to uncover the multifaceted reasons that drive transgender individuals [...] Read more.
This study explores the motivations, choices, and constraints shaping tourism behavior among transgender individuals living in Italy. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research begins with quantitative data collection and analyses, followed by qualitative insights to uncover the multifaceted reasons that drive transgender individuals to engage in tourism. These motivations range from seeking personal authenticity to cultural exploration and community connection. This study also examines the intricate interplay of choice and constraint in shaping transgender travelers’ tourism experiences, highlighting the challenges they face and the strategies they use to cope with the obstacles they face within the tourism context. Given Italy’s persistent stereotypes and prejudices against gender and sexual minorities, this research provides a critical examination of the intersectionality of gender identity and tourism within a challenging cultural and legal landscape. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of transgender travelers’ tourism experiences and offer valuable implications for industry stakeholders, policymakers, and scholars. By amplifying the voices of Italian transgender travelers, this study aims to foster greater inclusivity and recognition of their diverse needs and experiences within the tourism sector. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender Knowledges and Cultures of Equalities in Global Contexts)
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