Abstract
In the first part of this paper we present the results of a bibliographic analysis of German-speaking academic theses and of journal articles explicitly discussing issues on gender and geography. The second part focuses on people, networks and institutions in the German-speaking context. For those familiar with gender research it is hardly surprising that women authors are almost exclusively the producers of this knowledge. Defensive conservatism against this innovative field of research seems to be stronger in Germany than in Austria and Switzerland. We identify a shift in the theoretical perspectives away from the originally dominating women studies towards gender studies perspectives in the publications analyzed, while men or masculinity studies are still missing. Two diverse interpretations must be taken into account for the significant recent decrease of the numbers of theses and articles. On the one hand we have to note a decrease in students’ interest in taking courses on gender. On the other hand the decline of publications explicitly focusing on gender is caused by a trend to mainstream gender into a broader discussion of social difference and identity.
Highlights
From Migration der Frau aus Berggebieten1 to Gender and Sustainable Development : Dynamics in the field of gender and geography in Switzerland and in the Germanspeaking context
32 What kinds of gendered “realities” did the theses and journal articles produce during the last three decades? We will conclude this section of the paper by offering a comparative summary of our main results for the two different types of analyzed texts giving special attention to a discussion of possible causes for the remarkable decline of the numbers of texts produced in German-speaking geography towards the end of the time period
(official) publications could provide a representative picture of German-speaking feminist geography (Fleischmann & Meyer-Hanschen, 2005, p. 43; Garcia-Ramon & Caballe, 1998, p. 11)
Summary
32 What kinds of gendered “realities” did the theses and journal articles produce during the last three decades? We will conclude this section of the paper by offering a comparative summary of our main results for the two different types of analyzed texts giving special attention to a discussion of possible causes for the remarkable decline of the numbers of texts produced in German-speaking geography towards the end of the time period. 40 We assume that a number of other theses and journal articles in German-speaking geography mainstream the gender dimension in similar ways This trend could be considered as a successful effect of theoretical conceptions of gender that have been developed mainly in feminist research which see gender as only one of many dimensions of social identity (see Table 1). 45 Secondly we would like to highlight the only two feminist geographers, who are presently working as university professors in the German-speaking context: Professor Doris Wastl-Walter in Berne and Assistant Professor Elisabeth Aufhauser in Vienna. 48 The third institution to be mentioned here is the annual one-day interdisciplinary workshop work in progress gender studies This workshop provides a platform for researchers at a specific university to present and discuss the results of their theses and research projects. Other universities in Switzerland have institutionalized similar one-day workshops
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