This paper will briefly explore the explanatory potential of analytical dualism for the analysis of one particularly contentious concept within social science, namely patriarchy. The claim advanced here is that (a) patriarchy, if it is to have any explanatory import, be held to refer to ideas about men and women which can be rendered in propositional form in various ways (“women are naturally suited to domestic labour”); (b) as ideas they are socially inefficacious until taken up by agents; and (c) (...) when they are taken up by agents, such ideas entangle agents in specific logical relations which, in turn, predispose them towards specific courses of action. Thus (c) refers to the inter- play of emergent relations between ideas (Archer’s “proposi- tional register” of society) and human agency. (shrink)

This article examines the production of consecrated femininity in contemporary Polish convents. Drawing on qualitative data from 35 interviews in five religious communities the article explores the type of female agency which transforms the dominant model of Polish femininity instead of resisting it. Following Lois McNay’s concept of narrative identity, the article argues that female agency does not necessarily emerge out of subversion of the male-dominated Polish Catholic Church. Rather than simply being placed within discursive structures, Catholic nuns reflexively alter (...) them by using a mixture of gender ideology and spiritually driven gender work in order to produce coherent and socially meaningful narratives of consecrated femininity. (shrink)

Feminist philosophers and social theorists have engaged in an extensive critique of the project of modernity during the past three decades. However, many feminists seem to assume that the critique of religion essential to this project remains valid. Radical criticism of religion in the European tradition presupposes a theory of religion that is highly ethnocentric, and Marx's theory of religion serves as a case in point.

Feminist scholars have consistently argued for broadened definitions of work that include the invisible family and emotion work done predominantly by women. This article focuses on women's resistances to placing these various activities into the common category of work. Drawing from interviews with teleworkers, it examines how and why women narrowed the meaning of work and explores some of the costs that may accompany a more expansive definition of work.