Complex Negotiations Research Articles

Editor’s Note

Previous articleNext article FreeEditor’s NotePDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe editorial team wishes to acknowledge the artists and art historians whose lives have been lost in the coronavirus pandemic. The Archives is honored to help preserve their legacies. Our upcoming issues will feature responses from the art world to the pandemic and its social effects as well as highlight Black artists whose work paved the way for the current calls for racial justice.This issue foregrounds how the Archives can support innovative arguments about the performance of gender and sexuality. Two research articles, authored by Katie Anania and Miriam Kienle, explore this subject. Anania examines the artistic teachings of Kimon Nicolaïdes at the Art Students League, as documented in the papers of his student Mamie Harmon. Engaging in a queer reading of the archive, Anania concludes that Harmon’s experiments in drawing and work editing her mentor’s 1941 drawing manual enabled a complex negotiation of her lesbian identity. Kienle digs deeply into Ray Johnson’s practice of creating portraits that imagine identity as fluid and relational rather than fixed and absolute. Her analysis centers on a portrait by Johnson of Sam Wagstaff, elements of which are preserved in the curator’s papers, which Kienle links to Johnson’s (and Wagstaff’s) queerness and the homophobic US art world of the 1960s. Additionally, the commissioned essay in “Archive Matters” reflects on Tirza True Latimer’s decades of research on lesbian portrait painter Romaine Brooks and on her recent efforts to look queerly at archival materials. Latimer calls for the critical examination of ephemera, especially that associated with so-called minor artists and artistic genres, as part of a larger effort to rewrite the history of modernism.This issue also includes an essay by ShiPu Wang that mines the recently acquired papers of Chiura Obata. Focusing on the artist’s correspondence, it sheds new light on the relationship between his visual production and the US government’s forced incarceration of Japanese Americans—including Obata and his family—during World War II. We hope that readers will similarly find rich fodder for future research in new collections, a selection of which Archives staff introduce in each issue.New York-based painter Josh Dorman becomes the latest artist to produce original work for the journal inspired by the Archives’ collections. He transforms a seemingly innocuous watercolor—on a 1933 holiday card sent by landscape painter Charles Burchfield—into a poetic meditation on loss, longing, and regeneration. Dorman’s artwork is a powerful statement for the contemporary moment as we reexamine our responsibilities to nature and to one another. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Archives of American Art Journal Volume 59, Number 2Fall 2020 Sponsored by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/711969 Views: 136 © 2020 by The Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

체제전환국의 민간기업 및 기업가 육성과 북한에 대한 시사점 연구: 러시아, 베트남 사례를 중심으로 (A Study on Private Enterprises and Entrepreneurs in Transition Economies: Focusing on Russia and Vietnam)

Korean Abstract: 체제전환을 시도하는 국가들은 우선적으로 국영기업을 민영화함으로써 사적 소유 기업을 출현시킨다. 이는 사적 소유권 개념을 확대하고, 명령과 계획 중심의 경제를 시장과 수요·공급의 원칙에 따르는 경제로 전환시키기 위한 가장 좋은 방법 중 하나이기 때문이다. 또 대부분의 민영화 대상 국영기업들이 해당 업종이나 지역에서 독점 혹은 과점의 상태를 유지해 경쟁력을 확보하고 있으며, 외국자본의 입장에서도 이들 기업에 투자 및 기술을 이전시켜 이득을 얻는 것이 유리하기 때문이다. 하지만 실제로 들어가면 이 문제는 매우 복잡한 체계의 모순을 가지고 있다. 또 이를 해결하지 않고서는 국유기업의 민영화와 민간기업인 육성이라는 목표를 달성하기가 매우 어렵다. 특히 민영화를 추진함에 있어서 실제 소유주가 누구인가를 결정하는 것이 매우 중요하다. 소유권 문제를 해결하기 위해서는 이해당사자들간의 복잡한 이해관계 조정 과정이 필요하다. 그렇지 않으면 민영화는 제대로 진행되지 않으며 민영화의 기대효과를 도출하기 어렵다. 이러한 배경을 바탕으로 제2장에서는 체제전환이 이루어질 당시의 계획경제 상황과 직면 과제들에 대해서 분석했다. 제3장에서는 러시아의 민영화를 시기별로 살펴보고, 그 과정에서 나타난 기업 및 기업가의 특징을 정리했다. 아울러 민영화된 기업 사례를 발굴하여 성공 요인과 실패요인을 분석하였다. 이러한 내용을 바탕으로 북한이 시장을 개방하면서 직면할 수 있는 과제를 꼽아보고 시사점을 도출하고자 했다. 제4장에서는 베트남의 민영화 사례를 분석했다. 베트남은 러시아와 다른 경제·사회 구조를 가지고 있었다. 러시아가 대규모 폐쇄경제였으며, 산업발전수준이 높았던 반면, 베트남은 소규모 폐쇄경제였으며, 농업 중심의 산업구조를 가지고 있었다. 점진적인 민영화를 추진하고 있는 베트남은 공산당에 의한 ‘집단지도체제’를 유지하고 있다. 따라서 민영화를 추진하게 된 계기와 추진 방식이 다르다. 러시아와 베트남의 체제전환 경험을 통해서 후발 체제전환국들이 얻을 수 있는 첫째 시사점은 제도화이다. 그 이유는 경제 및 사회 구조의 변화는 법률 제정과 제도화를 통해서만 완료되기 때문이다. 개인에 의존하기보다 법적, 제도적 장치의 완비를 통한 구조적 변환 노력 없이는 자본가의 투자 의욕과 외국 기업의 시장 참여가 제한적일 수밖에 없다. 또 하나의 시사점은 개혁 추진과정에서 강력한 지지집단을 만드는 것이다. 이들이 과거로의 회귀를 막는 완충 역할을 하기 때문이다. 러시아와 베트남의 사례에서 알 수 있듯이 북한이 추진하는 개혁·개방 정책의 성공은 결국 북한이 추진하는 정책의 수혜 계층을 얼마나 강력하고 빠르게 육성하느냐에 달려있다. 그리고 이러한 수혜 계층은 국영기업의 민영화와 기업인 양성 과정을 통해 창출된다는 점을 명심해야 한다. 얼마나 빠른 속도로 기업을 양성하고 이들이 자생할 수 있는 기업친화적 환경을 조성하느냐에 북한 체제전환의 성패가 달려 있다. English Abstract: Privatization is the first priority of transition economies because it is the most critical process of shifting from a planned economy to a market economy. Even state enterprises can gain competitiveness by attracting foreign capital and adopting foreign technologies. Meanwhile, the most important element of privatization is confirming ownership. For this, it is necessary to go though complex negotiation and mediation between conflicting parties. Otherwise, privatization cannot be completed and the expected effects will not be realized. Based on this understanding, chapter 2 examines the economic plight and challenges faced by the planned economies before the transition process. Chapter 3 reviews the major features of Russia’s privatization by period and of Russian businessmen. In addition, success factors and failure factors are presented through an analysis of privatized companies. Against this backdrop, implications for North Korea are drawn, centered on potential issues that could arise during its transition process. In chapter 4, Vietnam’s case is analyzed. Vietnam had a different social and economic structure from Russia when it began privatization. Russia was a large autarkic economy with a highly industrialized structure, whereas Vietnam was a small autarkic economy with a low level of industrial development. Thus, privatization in Vietnam proceeded differently as the collective leadership system by the labor party remains intact. The first lesson we learn from Russia’s and Vietnam’s experiences is that institutionalization is the prerequisite of privatization. Structural changes of a society and economy can be accomplished only through legislation and institutionalization. Without these crucial developments, investors or capitalists in the market can be discouraged from participating. Another lesson is the importance of forming ardent reformist groups. Such groups can prevent any attempts to reverse progress and return to the past. As seen in Russia’s and Vietnam’s cases, North Korea can implement reforms and transition successfully by quickly developing the private sector and nurturing capitalist businessmen. Establishing a business-friendly climate is a significant factor of success in privatization.

Fetishizing the Foot: Mobility and Meaning in Indian Ocean Sandals

Fetishizing the Foot: Mobility and Meaning in Indian Ocean Sandals

Menachem Begin and the Israel-Egypt Peace Process: Between Ideology and Political Realism

Menachem Begin and the Israel-Egypt Peace Process: Between Ideology and Political Realism

Artificially Intelligent Futures: Technology, the Changing Nature of Work, and Organizing

Though beginning with deterministic views on how technologies affect organizations, organizational scholars have made significant progress since, providing a variety of nuanced frameworks by which to understand disruptive workplace technologies - such as AI - and what effects they may have. However, lessons learned about technology and organizing in the literature’s development seem to have been lost in today’s discourse on AI. For instance, Collins (2018) bemoans the state of this discourse, noting our tendency to view this technology deterministically: an unstoppable force which will consume everything in its path. Our symposium is an attempt at re-orienting the emerging literature on AI and their effect on work and organizing. It aims at leaving determinism behind to instead uncover the complex negotiations – among humans and between the social and technical – which both shape and are shaped by AI, and the consequences of such negotiations for AI’s development and use. It does so by drawing on and comparing across four ethnographic studies on AI from the very edge of the future of work: a response to scholars’ concern that “discourse on the topic is largely speculative, focusing on the possibilities” (Brayne 2017: 977) rather than grounded in what has actually been going on (see also Barley and Kunda 2001; Bechky 2011). Doubting the Diagnosis: Using AI when Forming Critical Professional Judgments Presenter: Sarah Lebovitz; U. of Virginia “It’s Like Being in the Future” vs. “It’s a Joke”: Divergent Interpretations of Facial Recognition Presenter: Elizabeth Anne Watkins; Columbia U. Augmenting or Automating? Breathing Life into the Promise of Artificial Intelligence Presenter: Kevin Woojin Lee; New York U. The Interpretation of Machine-Learning Technologies in Organizations Presenter: Katherine C. Kellogg; MIT

User activities and the heterogeneity of urban space: The case of Dahiyat Al Hussein park

Urban researchers have maintained a constant interest in the complexity and continuity of urban space usage. Some have applied actor–network theory (ANT) to investigate the heterogeneity of spaces and present them through the networks of their users’ activities. However, these accounts are predominantly limited in examining the extent to which these spaces may be heterogeneous when exploring such networks. This paper draws on recent ANT scholarship, which employs an ethnographic research conducted in a main park in a housing project at Dahiyat Al Hussein in Amman, Jordan. The findings describe the complex and unpredictable negotiations that occur within spaces by documenting the varieties and interrelations among user activity networks within this common and shared urban space. This research reveals the extent to which spaces, parks in this case, may be heterogeneous by unpacking their usage. The conclusions and insights assert the necessity of paying attention to design detail and creating designs that are responsive to evolving user activities.

Conflicts between adolescents and their caregivers living in slums of Mumbai, India in relation to junk food consumption and physical activity.

To explore influences on the diet and physical activity of adolescents living in Mumbai slums, from the perspectives of adolescents and their caregivers. Three investigators from Mumbai conducted six focus group discussions. The study was conducted in suburban Mumbai slums. Thirty-six adolescents (aged 10-12 and 15-17 years) and twenty-three caregivers were recruited through convenience sampling. The findings highlighted the complex negotiations between adolescent and caregivers surrounding adolescent junk food consumption and physical activity opportunities. Caregivers learned recipes to prepare popular junk foods to encourage adolescents to eat more home-cooked, and less 'outside', food, yet adolescents still preferred to eat outside. To adolescents, the social aspect of eating junk food with friends was an important and enjoyable experience. Caregivers felt that they had no control over adolescents' food choices, whereas adolescents felt their diets were dictated by their parents. Adolescents wanted to be physically active but were encouraged to focus on their academic studies instead. Gender was also a key driver of physical activity, with girls given less priority to use outside spaces due to cultural and religious factors, and parental fears for their safety. These findings show that adolescents and caregivers have different agendas regarding adolescent diet. Adolescent girls have less opportunity for healthy exercise, and are more sedentary, than boys. Adolescents and caregivers need to be involved in designing effective interventions such as making space available for girls to be active, and smartphone games to encourage healthy eating or physical activity.

An incentive mechanism-based negotiation model for green supply chain networks

This research aims to prompt agents to improve their strategies initiatively in order to decrease carbon dioxide emissions and enhance green factors during production and consumption processes. An incentive negotiation mechanism is proposed for agents in supply chains to improve their strategies. Multiple items, multiple attributes, and multiple echelons are involved in the proposed model. In addition, this research takes both the commerce and the environmental attributes into account. The environmental attributes were transformed into rewards or penalty by setting reward factors or penalty factors, and were taken into account during the calculation of the profits. The simulation results show that the proposed model was feasible to solve the complex negotiation problems, and had a good performance. The green factors of agents in the green supply chain network are increased when the agents have low initial green factors. Moreover, the proposed model can effectively reduce the carbon dioxide emissions as well. The proposed model can be seen as a “win–win” solution from the perspective of both business and environmental protection. The total profit of the green supply chain network is improved, and the harm to the environment is decreased as well.

Russian Foreign Ministry and the Reorganization of Russian Orthodox Churches Abroad in 1860-s

Based on the unearthed documents from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, the article examines an interaction of Russian diplomacy and Russian orthodox churches abroad in the process of their reform in the early 1860-s. This reorganization was undertaken in context of the “Great reforms” of Alexander II and aimed at rationalization of the previous system of subordination of those churches to civil and ecclesiastical authorities in St. Petersburg. The architects of the reform initiated by the Tzar himself sought to create a unified system of subordination and financing of those churches with identical criteria for their personnel, their rights and duties vis-à-vis heads of diplomatic missions. Accordingly, the Russian Foreign Ministry became responsible for their operation and financing while in ecclesiastical matters they were to answer to the Holy Synod. Foreign Ministry and personally Alexander Gorchakov, as demonstrated in the article, played a leading role in the reform preparation and implementation conducted on an inter-agency basis with the Holy Synod, Ministry of the Court and Finance Ministry taking part. The heads of diplomatic missions and of the affiliated churches were also consulted in the process. The authors trace all stages of these complex negotiations that resulted in achieving a balance of interests between all the actors involved. The newly created system proved to be quite efficient and lasted till the end of the Russian empire. The reorganization revealed a state of the churches abroad and their clergy that was a crème of Russian Orthodox Church. The reform experience is also instructive as a case study of Russian government apparatus in action.

Archives as Fields of Heritage-Making in Istanbul's Historic Peninsula

Abstract Heritage-making is a process of valorization carried out using complex exchanges, contestations, and negotiations between various actors. State actors attempt, through various strategies, to employ heritage-making in order to construct a unified heritage discourse and avoid multivocality. One of these strategies is the control of state archives, an approach that seeks to dictate what is accessible and inaccessible and thus to dominate conceptualizations of heritage. This paper discusses how research in state archives sheds light on heritage-making in Istanbul's historic peninsula and how the state's tendency to restrain access reflects the contested nature of Istanbul's heritage. The restriction or denial of archival access becomes a significant component of heritage-making in Turkey, shaped not only by the past but also by the present. Therefore, archives and the practice of archival research become both a tool for the researcher and at the same time a subject worthy of research in and of itself. This paper argues that the attitudes of state institutions and the discourses they adopt in restraining access to archives are in fact objects of enquiry in the understanding of the precise boundaries of their scope of authority and, as such, can provide further insight into the fragmented nature of the state and state archives.

Scottish Internationalisms at the 1938 Empire Exhibition: Between Britain, Europe, and Empire

The 1938 British Empire Exhibition held in Glasgow was the last of its kind, a spectacular event that celebrated the British Empire and sought to bring global attention to Scotland. The exhibition was a celebration of empire at a time when anti-imperial movements were growing in strength across the globe, and a hopeful expression of peaceful world unity at a time when war seemed increasingly inevitable. This essay considers the ambivalences at the heart of this exhibition through readings of various literary responses to it in contemporary journals, the popular press, and ephemera. It argues for the particular significance of the location for the exhibition, positing the 1938 British Empire Exhibition as a cultural event that suggests Scotland’s complex negotiation of various international networks and identities as well as its ambivalent place in Britain, Europe. Glasgow, 1938 becomes a significant place and time to view the emergence of modern Britain.Publisher’s Note: This article was originally published with an incorrect peer review statement, which said that this article was an internally reviewed editorial. This has now been amended to reflect the fact that this is a piece of research that underwent double blind peer review by two external reviewers.

‘Everybody needs to post a selfie every once in a while’: exploring the politics of Instagram curation in young women’s self-representational practices

ABSTRACT Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide, reaching (as of 2018) over 1 billion monthly active users. One of the major affordances of Instagram is the creation and posting of pictures. This allows for the production of photographic self-representations – one of the central aspects of contemporary everyday social media practices. Yet, these practices, deeply intertwined with the politics of gender representation, are often dismissed as trivial. Following a feminist media studies approach, grounded in the tradition of cultural studies, this research seeks to provide a critical and qualitative exploration of how young women using Instagram understand gendered self-representational practices. To do so, we conducted 13 in-depth interviews with ‘ordinary’ female Instagram users (i.e., not celebrities, influencers, or ‘Insta-famous’ users) aged 18–35 years. Our findings illustrate how these understandings are rooted in complex negotiations and can combine contradictory discourses. They emphasize the importance of attentive curation in self-representational practices, acknowledging the influence of social and aesthetic conventions of photographable and Instagrammable. These findings highlight the tensions surrounding the idea of self-representation, acknowledging its potential as an empowering practice, while simultaneously recognizing the users’ need to negotiate the culturally prevalent negative and gendered stereotypes about selfie-taking. Furthermore, it also explores the existing negotiations between the desires to engage with popular Instagrammable aesthetics, while still grounding these practices on a sense of authenticity.

Recovering the body in grief: Physical absence and embodied presence.

This paper addresses the complex issue of the embodiment of grief. It explores how a theoretical shift to the body has influenced scholarly literature about grief and bereavement. Despite this shift, we argue that bodily interpretations and experiences are undertheorised in western psychological literature on bereavement. Specifically, we argue that linear stage models of grief have encouraged the view that grief needs ‘working through’ in the mind, and not necessarily the body. We draw on empirical data from interviews with bereaved people undertaken in England to illustrate aspects of the embodied experience of grief that differ from how psychological grief theories conceive of the bereaved person’s body. Findings highlight the role of the bereaved person’s body in managing grief and how the absence and continuing presence of the deceased person is managed through embodied practices. We conclude that understanding grief as an embodied experience can enable the development of grief theories that better capture the complex negotiation between the psychological processes of grief and the materiality of bodies.

The public is personal: reflections on the ethical dimensions of selfie research

Derived from the standards of feminist qualitative research, this methodological reflection develops ‘the public is personal’ as a mode of critical awareness for visual culture researchers working with social media data such as the selfie. Against the prevalent logic of ‘but the data is already public’, this paper draws on empirical and theoretical insights to argue that the publicness of digital data is no indication of an individual’s consent to its use in contexts beyond how they originally intended. Rather than treating digital data as purely metric or divorcing it from its creator, researchers must be cognisant of the complex negotiations of privacy, agency, and subjectivity such artefacts represent. By centring the person behind the data, ‘the public is personal’ asserts the qualitative dimensions of publicly available digital data as key ethical considerations which defy generalities and require adaptive, reflexive responses.

Interrogating culture: Anthropology, social work, and the concept trade

SummaryInterdisciplinary contributions to social work have supported the profession’s development as a helping profession. Indeed, drawing from other disciplines has been a way to hone intervention approaches. This article analyzes the history of social work’s use of anthropological theory about “culture” in order to critically examine the profession’s positioning as a “recipient” of theories. At a time when evidence-based practice is a dominant ideal, this paper offers an opportunity to step back and interrogate a key concept, culture, that is often evoked as interventions are tailored for various populations.FindingsWhile social work has substantially debated and revised how it approaches culture difference, the core conceptualization of culture as a relatively static set of shared values and traits remains ill-suited to the complex negotiation of diversity in social work practice. The limitations of the culture concept are symptomatic of an exchange relationship with anthropology that positions social work practitioners primarily as recipients of concepts, rather than as interlocutors.ApplicationBy treating intervention as an opportunity for theory revision, anthropologists and social workers can better account for the hybridity, change, and contestation of difference in social work practice. As the social work profession expands globally, a more dialogical engagement with anthropological theories about culture and other key concepts may prove fruitful.

Conjugal Relations and Stepchildren’s Well-being: Exploring the Experiences of Remarried Women in Bangladesh

Drawing on qualitative research in Sylhet, Bangladesh, this article explores the patterns of conjugal relations of remarried women who have children from previous marriage(s). We are primarily concerned here with the potential impacts of remarriage for women and children’s well-being. Regardless of gendered identity, it continues to be the case that the majority of Bangladeshi people are married only once. However, remarriage and polygamy are not uncommon, and this tends to be particularly the case among people living in poverty. This study is based on ethnographic observation and life history interviews with 12 remarried women from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Drawing on this data, we argue that remarriage can render custodian mothers’ lives more difficult through the complex negotiation between the needs and desires of their new husbands versus the well-being of their children. The sociocultural structure of Bangladesh continues to be framed by specifically located patriarchy. In this context, women’s remarriage challenges normative conjugal relations, and the resulting intrafamilial negotiations can adversely affect both mothers’ and children’s well-being.

La Brexit nei rapporti tra banca e clientela: garanzia del mercato e tutela dell’investitore

This article examines the regulatory framework of banking and financial services after Brexit and discusses the potential scenarios in case of “no-deal” between the European Union and the United Kingdom. It provides an analysis of the implications of Brexit in the bank-customer relationship and investor protection: the risk of losing the EU passport regime represents the main issue for the mutual recognition among credit institutions. In this context, it is observed that the MiFID II directive and the principle of equivalence are suitable options to avoid practices of regulatory arbitrage and inconsistency in the implementation of regulatory actions. However, the complex negotiation of Brexit agreement determines a grey area for the governance of UK-EU financial services. This can leave room for discretion of supervisory authorities and can exacerbate the problems of different regulations.

Contested memory amidst rapid urban transition: The cultural politics of urban regeneration in Guangzhou, China

As an important socio-economic development strategy around the world, urban regeneration has been gradually shifting from a focus on large-scale and modernized physical transformations to addressing diversity, sustainability, equality and liveability in the city. With large-scale urban sprawl slowing down, culture-based urban regeneration is being increasingly undertaken by the local governments of China. Drawing on detailed fieldwork in the two selected culture-based urban regeneration projects in Guangzhou, a capital city in South China, this article aims to present the subtle cultural politics embedded in the processes of urban regeneration. The findings of this article include that 1) the two culture-based urban regeneration projects in Guangzhou are intertwined with complex power relations, discourses and cultural negotiations; 2) the projects might bring the opportunity for revitalization of local culture, but simultaneously create cultural tension among different social groups; 3) the roles performed by the actors involved are flexible, fluid and highly situated. By presenting the nuanced cultural politics within culture-based urban regeneration projects, this article forms part of the literature on the interrelationship between government, developer, and resident/individual in the context of culture-led urban regeneration.

An attributional account of power in multi-party negotiations

PurposeMulti-party systems (MPS) comprise interdependent stakeholders (teams, organizations) that engage in complex interactions and negotiations. Building on the approach/inhibition theory of power, the self-enhancement strategy and on social interdependence theory, this study aims to understand the mediating role of attributions (i.e. perception of who/what is responsible for a certain outcome) in the relation between perceptions of the stakeholders’ power (i.e. self-perceptions of power, power ascribed to others and others’ perception of one’s own power) and their perceptions of intergroup climate and future collaborative intentions.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 30 groups (113 participants) that took part in five multi-party simulations concerning the negotiation of funds allocation among six stakeholders. The authors have evaluated attributions, intergroup climate and future collaborative intentions using questionnaires and different facets of systemic power were derived from a round-robin procedure.FindingsMixed models and multi-level mediation analyses were carried out, and the results show that self-attributed power and power attributed by others predict internal attributions, while power attributed to others predicts external attributions. Moreover, attributions mediate the relationship between perceived power and future collaborative intention, as well as between power and perceptions of intergroup climate.Practical implicationsManaging the multi-party systems is a complex endeavor, and the results point toward ways in which power dynamics in multi-party systems can be addressed.Originality/valueTo the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first empirical attempts to explore the association between the perceptions of power and attributions in multi-party systems engaged in negotiation tasks.

How Power Dresses: The Gendered Aesthetics of Uniform A Comparative Case Study of Contemporary Women Heads of State and/or Government in Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines

The clothed body, whether dressed thoughtfully or not, performs a social narrative of gender, wealth, status, nationality, and occupation embedded within a larger network of intersectional positionalities. Clothing conveys a set of values of not only the individual but also of the cultural politics of their milieu. For women Heads of State and/or Government, who are uniquely situated to project a diverse intersection of identities as well as access clothing choices socially unavailable to their male counterparts, a nuanced analysis of the garment choices of these professionals on the international stage yields significant findings about how women negotiate their roles as politicians, national figures, religious or areligious representatives, and as individuals. Three contemporary case studies of women Heads of State and/or Government in office between 2000 and 2013 from Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines interrogate these strategic choices of clothing by holistically cataloging and then analyzing the style, color, and pattern of the attire of each figure. Contextualized within their respective cultures and histories, the ways in which their clothing serve to mimic masculine color coding as seen by Australia’s Prime Minister, re-entrench religion within politics as seen by Indonesia’s President, and ‘self-Orientalize’ the national, post-colonial identity as seen by the Philippine’s President, each woman’s clothing informed her leadership and vice versa. This thesis analyzes the complex negotiations between identity, power, and politics through clothing for women political leaders. How do women Heads of State and/or Government visually communicate national narratives of identity and express political authority through their aesthetic wardrobe choices? How do these clothes project inscriptions of femininity, modesty, religiosity, development, and the national self? Discovering these strategies can provide a foundation for future study of the occupational uniform of women in historically masculine roles as well as the power of the national body as represented by women to reflect but also perpetuate particular socially normative ideals of the modern empowered woman across cultures.