Research with Boys and Young Men: Critical Reflections on the Theme of Masculinity

Abstract

From the latter part of the 1980s masculinity, particularly within Western societies, has developed into an important area of global sociological interest. As a subject masculinity is also very much in vogue in the popular media and across academic disciplines. In the United States alone, for example, Bradley (2008) found that masculinity courses rose from 30 to over 300 from the 1980s. In 2015 the Centre for the Study of Men and Masculinity hosted an international conference entitled ‘Masculinities: Engaging Men and Boys for Gender Equality’ in New York, attracting over 400 abstracts from across the world. Part of this new-found interest and approach to studying men and masculinity, according to Flood (2007), has been rooted in the efforts of equality campaigners, intent on exploring how masculinity intersects with social discrimination movements such as feminism. Ashe (2007) contends that interest in the study of masculinity has been generated by a range of social, cultural, policy and political changes that led to claims that traditional forms of normative masculinities were being eroded by new social conditions. What has also became increasingly apparent is that masculinities as intersectional identities are being shaped not only by gender but also by factors such as ethnicity, social class, sexuality, age and disability (Ashe and Harland, 2014).