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Imperialism, Labour and the New Woman: Olive Schreiner's Social Theory

Liz Stanley

Imperialism, Labour and the New Woman

Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was the best-known feminist theorist and writer of her time. Her writings spanned a number of conventionally separate genres (including the novel, short story, allegory, political essay, polemic and theoretical treatise), which she crafted to produce a highly distinctive feminist and analytical 'voice'. A feminist who was contemporaneously an internationally-renowned social commentator, Schreiner's developing political analysis was - and still is - highly original. She developed a materially-based socialist and feminist analysis of 'labour' which led her to theorise social and economic change, divisions of labour in society and between women and men, capitalism and imperialism, around innovative ideas about how -- and by whom -- economic and social value was produced. She combined with this a keen attention to inter-personal relations, between women as literally or politically sisters, between 'respectable' and sexually outcast women, between feminist women and the 'New Men', and within the family. Distinctively, Schreiner's writings on economic and political life in South Africa criticised the policies and practice of Rhodes in the Cape Colony and British imperialism in southern Africa more widely. She opposed the South African War of 1899-1902, promoted federation rather than union as the form the South African state should take and insisted on equal political rights for all. Schreiner steadfastly opposed the development of apartheid segregationist policies and provided a radical analysis of the relationship between 'race' and capital. Imperialism, Labour and the New Woman is based on primary archive research, making particular use of Schreiner's unpublished letters and other major manuscript sources to provide a major reconceptualisation of the scope and importance of her writings and innovative and experimental ideas about genre and form. It offers a major rethinking of Schreiner's political writings on South Africa, and it emphasises the distinctiveness of Schreiner's contribution as the major feminist theorist of her age and that which followed. The book will appeal particularly to readers interested in the development of social theory, in influential feminist ideas and writing of the fin de sicle period, in the contemporary critique of capitalism and imperialism, and in 'the age of imperialism' in Southern Africa, as well as to Women's Studies scholars across the academic disciplines.

Stanley, Liz

A Sociological History of the British Sociological Association

This book is about the development of sociology in Britain told through the story of its learned society, The British Sociological Association. Learned societies have been neglected in the history of the discipline, though they are a vital part of the social structure of academic life. The BSA has had its internal dynamics, but it has also been affected by external factors relevant to wider academic life, which range from government policies to the rise of feminism. These have had an important effect on all the social sciences, but their impact upon sociology has been particularly marked. The first two chapters of the book give a general historical overview, starting with the range of predecessor organisations, and going on to how the BSA came to be founded, the major changes in educational policy and structures which have formed much of the context for its activities, and how it has, in response to both internal and external pressures, changed over time. Against that background, the remaining chapters look in more analytical detail at particular issues across the whole time-span. These include the role of the BSA in the intellectual life of the discipline, the nature of the membership and activists, the role of feminism, case studies of key issues of controversy and politics arising from individual cases, and consideration of how the association has been run and its relationship with other organisations such as the International Sociological Association and the ESRC (a key government funding body). The book concludes with an overview of the history of the BSA and its role as a professional association.  The book will be of interest to sociologists, and to others interested in the history and sociology of the social sciences and the professions  

A Sociological History of the British Sociological Association: A sociological history

Platt, Jeniffer

Cottons and Casuals

Cottons and Casuals explores the connections between women's work in different spheres since the 1930s: paid employment, at home, and in the community. Women's own testimony and an array of other source materials are used to develop new ways of looking at their changing patterns of living and working. The book examines changes in the organisation and commodification of domestic production and consumption, the use of technology, housing, family structures, gender relations and inter-generational mother-daughter relations. Differing temporalities of work are highlighted, as are their far-reaching effects for the organisation of peoples' lives and life courses. The significance of varying locations and spatial organisations of work for communities, streets, families and gender relations provides another important focus. In the process, Glucksmann addresses the nature of the research process, reflecting on her sources and her own work in the production of knowledge

Cottons and Casuals: The Gendered Organisation of Labour in Time and Space: The gendered organisation of labour in time and space

History

Glucksmann, Miriam

World

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