Mainstreaming Initiatives Research Articles

The mainstreaming of disability cricket in England and Wales: Integration ‘One Game’ at a time

Disability sport in Great Britain has, since its genesis over sixty years ago, gained greater public profile with each passing decade. Arguably, this is a result of a more direct, interventionist approach from the British government and the Sport Councils into the field of disability sport over the past twenty years. In this paper we highlight a case of integration within sport by examining the process of mainstreaming disability cricket within England and Wales. Following a review of the extant literature in this area we will draw upon Bourdieu's practice theory in order to examine the impact of the implementation of policy on the management of issues of disability in mainstream cricket. Longitudinal ethnographic data (including participant observation and semi-structured interviews) was collected on the organizations involved in this mainstreaming process. Informants were either involved in the delivery of disability cricket or in the management of disability sports partnerships. Preliminary findings suggest that true integration is still unrealized. Whether the policy seeks true integration or whether mainstreaming is simply another modernizing process seeking greater efficiencies from sport organizations is unclear. Nevertheless a number of institutional pressures from the proximal and distal external environments have provided support for generating mainstreaming initiatives at management levels. In addition to these findings we argue that an additional outcome of this research is to demonstrate the suitability of a relational approach for conceptualizing policy, its interpretation by sport managers and the implementation strategies that follow.

Emerging strategic corporate social responsibility partnership initiatives in agribusiness: the case of the sustainable agriculture initiative

Abstract Over the past 20 years the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained momentum in business practices and strategies. In the agribusiness sector, the need for CSR integration has recently triggered a number of private sector led initiatives that should contribute to sustainable agricultural practices. Consequently we emphasize that for managing innovation processes for sustainability and their institutional context, the food sustainability discourse also needs to investigate the state of the art of CSR in agribusiness. Based on a model to compare and contrast accountability standards we analyse the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) platform and its principles. We conclude that over the past 5 years agribusiness corporations have become more pro-active in addressing sustainability concerns, and mainstream initiatives start to compete with the traditional niche markets. The SAI was founded by three big players in the food industry, and represents a global initiative among a number of private-sector driven institutional innovations for the sustainability transformation of the mainstream parts of the sector. In order to evaluate and exploit their potential for sustainable development, we advise scholars, policy makers, and managers to not only address questions about legitimacy and stakeholder involvement, but also take strategic objectives into account.

Toward a Feminist Para-Ethnography: On Gender Equality Policy Making in Business

Toward a Feminist Para-Ethnography:On Gender Equality Policy Making in Business Melissa S. Fisher (bio) Corporations have wrestled since the 1960s with creating equal opportunities for their employees, in the context of shifting ideas in the larger society about discrimination (Kessler-Harris 2001; Kwolek-Folland 1998; Laird 2006). From setting up affirmative action plans in the seventies to managing diversity in the eighties and placing gender discrimination at the center stage of policy making in the 1990s, businesses have developed wave upon wave of programs to improve the numbers of women and people of color in their internal ranks, especially at the most senior echelons (Dobbin 2009). More recently, however, we have seen corporations turning to address gender inequality in the global economy and developing new partnerships. Increasingly they have had to respond to stakeholder pressure—from institutional investors and others—regarding concerns about the negative effects of their activities on the status of women throughout and beyond the workplace, concerns that have only accelerated in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Small but growing numbers of institutional investors are engaging in what is commonly referred to as social or sustainable investing—adding the assessment of a corporation's social (e.g., human rights, women's rights), environmental, and governance performance to their traditional and exclusive focus on financial performance (Langley 2008). In 2004 Calvert Investments, a sustainable and socially responsible investing firm, in partnership with the United National Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), launched the ground-breaking Calvert Women's Principles®: the First Global Code of Corporate Conduct; it focused exclusively on empowering, advancing, and investing [End Page 1] in women worldwide. Today the Calvert Women's Principles form the foundation of two key initiatives that are affecting women around the world: the Gender Equalities Principles (GEP) and the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP).1 Both the WEP and GEP provide tools and assessment practices for corporations to evaluate and implement gender equality principles in key areas, including employment and compensation; health, safety, and freedom from violence; and civic and community engagement. Several hundred top executives of major companies have now signed a CEO statement in support of the WEP. Once a year corporate leaders, consultants, and academics as well as representatives of NGOS, state, agencies, and international organizations convene in New York City to discuss how corporate behavior and practices are being transformed to align with the Women's Empowerment Principles. In doing so these companies are engaging in what is commonly referred to as "gender mainstreaming"—putting gender and the goal of gender equality in the center of all of their policy areas (Page 2011). Leaders of these initiatives contend that adopting these policies is good for corporations' "bottom line." Here they seek to enact a form of market feminism, aligning liberal feminist ideals about gender equity with the logic of the market (Fisher 2012; Kantola and Squires, forthcoming). Drawing on nearly two decades of research—fieldwork with the first generation of women on Wall Street, consulting work as a business anthropologist, and participation in conferences on the WEP—I have come to identify gender equality initiatives, such as the WEP and GEP, as key sites within a new global policymaking arena.2 Specifically, I am arguing that we are witnessing the emergence of a global gender mainstreaming policy field, composed of sometimes overlapping assemblages of local, national, and transnational organizations, partnerships, and subjects. Gender equity initiatives like the WEP and GEP are thus an ethos and set of social and technological practices embedded in an intricate network of institutions, investments, and people. They are a kind of "social imaginary" of the relationships among institutions, structures of meaning, gender, and power, and practices in the global economy. As such I see gender mainstreaming initiatives not only as part of the broader corporate social and sustainability movement but also as an important part of the larger global women's movement, which is itself an "expansive, polycentric, heterogeneous discursive [End Page 2] field of action" composed of national and transnational feminist networks (sometimes aligned though often fragmented) that drive forward gender equality demands (Kantola and Squires, forthcoming: 8). In this article I discuss the challenges of studying...

Mainstreaming climate adaptation into development assistance: rationale, institutional barriers and opportunities in Mozambique

In Mozambique, weather extremes threaten development progress, while pronounced poverty aggravates the climate vulnerability of the population. With the country being a major recipient of official development assistance, Mozambique's development strongly depends on donor investments. Against this background, we aim to encourage the mainstreaming of climate adaptation into development assistance. An analysis of donor investments at a sub-national level showed that a significant proportion of development assistance was invested in climate-sensitive sectors in regions highly exposed to extreme weather conditions. Major damage caused by weather extremes motivates a stronger integration of climate policies into development assistance. Although Mozambique has a supportive legislative environment and climate awareness among donors was found to be high, the limited institutional capacity restricted mainstreaming initiatives. Given major barriers at the national level, bilateral and multilateral donors are able to play a key role in fostering mainstreaming in Mozambique.

Gender mainstreaming: myths and measurement in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania

This article critically examines the concept of gender mainstreaming and raises questions about a series of category slippages in debates and discussions. Some key concerns are the way in which women are constructed as a unified analytical category, and how gender equality is frequently reduced to issues of representation. It also critically interrogates how gender mainstreaming initiatives can be undermined by sexist practices such as sexual harassment. Focusing on higher education, it draws on empirical data from the research project ‘Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard’ (sussex.ac.uk/wphegt). Central arguments relate to the call for intersectional analyses and how GM needs to go beyond access and representation and address feminist concerns with the way in which gendered power and privilege are enacted in everyday social relations in higher education institutions.

Refugee Women: Twenty Years On

Twenty years ago, refugee women were seldom consulted and their specific needs rarely identified or taken into account. Considerable progress has been made in the interim, although policy developments have far outstripped progress in practice. Over the past twenty years reproductive health services have become part of key global standards and increasingly practice, refugee women are usually individually registered, they generally receive the food rations, and innumerable programmes have been designed and implemented to empower and protect them. Gender-based violence has gone from an invisible issue to multi-faceted prevention and response initiatives. Policy development includes the High Commissioner’s Five Commitments to Refugee Women, the rollout of UNHCR’s age, gender and diversity mainstreaming initiative, the Executive Committee Conclusion on Women at Risk and the recent UNHCR Handbook on the Protection of Women and Girls. As the humanitarian community has broadened its depth of understanding and learning, new needs and issues have arisen. Issues currently on the international agenda to further protection refugee women include: how to effectively engage men, how to operationalize the prevention of genderbased violence; how to tackle the availability of safe access to cooking fuel in humanitarian settings; and how to effectively and safely economically empower refugee women. This paper will provide a brief overview of progress over the past twenty years and outline current issues that require further attention.

Beyond Cloak Words, Toolkits, and Gender Myths

“Gender, Environment and Development” (GED) as a new subspecialization within the master’s program of Gender and Development Studies (GDS) at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) was an experiment that sought (a) to link a higher education teaching and research program more purposively with development through an integrative learning approach, and (b) to evolve critical perspectives towards how “women, gender and environment” has been conceptualized and practiced by “development.” With the explosion of gender mainstreaming initiatives, the challenge in GED’s teaching program lay ever more in enabling students to unmask assumptions behind the development cloak words of the day: “gender mainstreaming,” “women’s participation,” and “women’s empowerment.” The other challenge was to go beyond the culture of simplification in popularized gender analysis toolkits that prescribes one-size-fits-all action agendas. The messier alternative was to explore how women, men, and natural resource use and management are socially embedded in complex contexts and webs of power and negotiation. In short, GED took the road less traveled. As an experiment, it demonstrates that GED in higher education has the potential to engage development thinking and practice in ways that come to terms with gender and its workings in environment, natural resources, and society.

The Politics of Race and Gender in the South African Armed Forces: Issues, Challenges, Lessons

This article examines the politics of race and gender in the South African armed forces since 1994. The first section provides an overview of the changing racial profile of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). Thereafter the challenges which the integration of former enemy forces and affirmative action have posed in terms of changing power relations, professionalism, efficiency and effectiveness are discussed, before providing a brief overview of the different approaches to diversity management. The focus then shifts to gender and the debates on gender equality. The implications of the changed gender/racial profile are sketched, before moving on to some of the more contentious issues of sexuality, authority relations, leadership, sexual harassment and gender-based violence. The final section examines some of the difficulties women face whilst deployed on peacekeeping missions and how the unique needs of women in this patriarchal environment continue to be overlooked. The final section looks at how gender mainstreaming initiatives are being managed. For the SANDF finding the right balance between demographic representivity for the sake of redress and political expedience, and efficiency for the sake of military effectiveness continues to be an ongoing challenge.

Responsible investing in South Africa: Drivers, barriers and enablers

Given growing interest in the phenomenon of responsible investing (RI) in South Africa, this study set out to identify and empirically evaluate the most pertinent drivers, barriers and enablers of RI locally. Telephone interviews were conducted with a sample of pension funds, asset managers and advisory service providers during 2007. All three groups of respondents viewed fiduciary responsibility as one of the most important barriers to RI in South Africa. More legislation/regulation and evidence for increased risk-adjusted returns from local RIs were identified as key drivers of RI in South Africa, whereas the two most important enablers were seen as mainstream RI benchmarks and co-operative initiatives.

Application of a systems approach to sustainable development performance measurement

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a systems approach can be used to facilitate the development of an organizational performance measurement system.Design/methodology/approachBased on a review of the literature, the paper introduces the implications for applying a systems approach to organizational performance measurement. To demonstrate the transition from theory to practice, a case study is provided to show how a sustainable development performance measurement system was developed at a Canadian electric utility. The case study involved extensive consultation with over 25 experts.FindingsThe paper finds that a systems approach is useful in developing the process and that a set of formal systems criteria is useful in developing the structure and content of a performance measurement system. These concepts are highlighted throughout the case study example.Research limitations/implicationsThe case study section was based on findings from a single organization. Further work is required to validate the findings within other organizations.Practical implicationsThe paper shows how a robust sustainable development performance measurement system may be developed at an electric utility. The overarching emphasis on integration of the system with the case utility's mainstream initiatives demonstrates that a performance measurement system must build on what the organization already has in place. The systems‐based approach and formal systems criteria used in the paper may be transferable to other organizations.Originality/valueThe paper shows that a systems approach provides both the structure and flexibility needed to guide the design, implementation, and evolution of a sustainable development performance measurement system within existing organizational infrastructure.

Integrating Gender Interests into Health Policy

This article reviews current initiatives to integrate gender interests into health policy in Chile. The analysis outlines the debates that have arisen around the questions of mainstreaming gender in relation to state institutions NGOs and grassroots organizations. The discussion highlights both the constraints and opportunities identified in the literature. The study locates the Chilean case study within these broader debates and draws some overall conclusions. Despite the limitations posed by the broader context of neo-liberal health sector reforms the experience of the Chilean gender mainstreaming initiative does suggest that there is some cause for optimism. (authors)

Re-thinking gender mainstreaming in African NGOs and communities

This article examines research on gender mainstreaming initiatives, undertaken by a sample of localNGOs in four African countries. This research explores where resistance to gender equality comes fromin some African organisations and communities. It shows that for gender mainstreaming processes tobe effective they need to address the complex realities of people, and be sensitive to the values ofcommunities in their implementation. The more successful gender mainstreaming initiatives haveworked with local people's beliefs and realities, and allowed sufficient time for attitudinal change in bothlocal people and NGO staff.

What's New about Gender Mainstreaming? Three Decades of Policy Creation and Development Strategies

ABSTRACT After three decades of gender and development approaches, and a more recent emphasis on gender mainstreaming, it is timely to reflect on the challenges and opportunities development agencies face as they attempt to translate gender mainstreaming policies into practice. Research on development agencies and their gender main-streaming strategies uncovered an overwhelming reliance on technical solutions (or operational procedures). Technical solutions (e.g., appointing a person to oversee gender-related activities or offering gender training sessions for staff members) are unlikely to transform the mainstream, have had a limited impact within organizations, and have led to minimal changes to gender inequitable relations. Case study analysis and grounded field research also revealed alternative gender mainstreaming initiatives including “subtle strategies” (e.g., resistance or subversion) and networking: two strategies with the potential to challenge mainstream and patriarchal norms. This article uses a feminist lens to examine these approaches and concludes with an analysis of their contributions to gender main-streaming.

Canadian Foreign Policy: Does gender matter?

The Department of Foreign Affairs has had a longstanding commitment to advance gender equality and women's human rights. This article looks first at the challenges facing women within the foreign affairs bureaucracy, and then examines Canada's support and encouragement of gender mainstreaming initiatives internationally. In comparing the Canadian commitment to gender mainstreaming abroad with its attempts to integrate women into the foreign policy establishment at home, the article points to some of the limits of the current efforts to include women and gender in foreign policy processes and policies. It suggests that these processes and policies cannot respond meaningfully to concerns about the place of women and gender in foreign policy, without first understanding the extent to which they reflect profoundly gendered premises about the nature of foreign service, on the one hand, and the structure of global order, on the other.

Re‐inventing the Gendered Organization: Staff Attitudes towards Women and Gender Mainstreaming in NGOs in Malawi

Gender inequality within non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) is constructed on a daily basis through the gendered norms, attitudes and practices of individuals within them. The continual re‐invention of a gendered organization ensures the maintenance of the status quo and therefore the privileging of male/masculine interests over female/feminine interests. Gender mainstreaming is an approach designed to alter the status quo and facilitate women's empowerment. In Malawi, many NGOs have adopted gender mainstreaming as a strategy to address gender inequality both within their organizations and with the communities where they work. Gender mainstreaming initiatives involve a variety of activities including hiring more women staff members, designing policies within the organization to promote gender equality and educating staff members about gender issues through training workshops. While these strategies represent important steps forward for gender equality, it is not clear to what extent these policies and initiatives are translating into meaningful change within the organization.

Educational Reform and the Delivery of Transition Services in South Africa: Vision, Reform, and Change

This paper presents a description of the problems that individuals with disabilities in South Africa have experienced in accessing educational and support services in the transition from school to work. A majority of individuals with disabilities have been excluded from educational provision, and support services have been inadequate, inappropriately focused, and isolated from other mainstream transition initiatives. In redressing the inequalities of the past through a framework for equalizing opportunities, attention needs to be paid to overcoming previous imbalances and in redefining the discourse that has shaped the nature of service delivery for individuals with disabilities. This paper outlines the key changes that need to occur to create equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities to effectively transition from school to the world of work.

Critical Perspectives on Educational Evaluation

Abstract: This article examines what a critically informed orientation to evaluation in formal and non-formal education settings entails. A substantial critique of the technical rationality pervading conventional approaches to evaluation in education is illuminated by comparing functionalist models (exemplified in competencybased education and behaviourist variations on that theme) with participatory approaches, and through a corollary account of the way system imperatives intrude on lifeworld values. However, the author argues that a commitment to critical evaluation in education calls for systematic engagement with conventional, mainstream initiatives as well as with alternative approaches. Some guiding principles, consistent with the emancipatory aims of a critical orientation, are identified in making the case for the feasibility and necessity of critical evaluation in education. Questions are raised about the efficacy of the continuing debate on quantitative versus qualitative methods and the effects on critical evaluation of postmodern discourse.

Flexible Working and Equal Opportunities in the United Kingdom: A Case Study from Retail

Flexible working has been widely advocated as a social panacea, capable of resolving unemployment, maintaining economic competitiveness, and enhancing equal opportunities between women and men. Flexibility has neutral or even positive connotations for both employers and employees. These meanings are differentiated, and empirically explored, by reference to the British component of a qualitative, comparative six-country European study of flexible working in the retail sector. Specific attention is paid to the determination of flexibility; for example whether it is employer led, employee chosen, or a complementary combination, and whether flexible working facilitates equal opportunities, both within the workplace and in the wider sense of promoting long-lasting changes in parental roles and responsibilities as specified under the European Union's mainstreaming initiative. It is concluded that the introduction of flexible working has opened up a whole range of possibilities for differential engagement in the workplace. However, these arrangements need to apply to all levels of the occupational hierarchy and similar arrangements need to be introduced in relation to caring if the officially stated objectives for greater equality of opportunity are to be realised. To bring about gender equity it is necessary to consider social reproduction as a whole and modify the division of labour between women and men within, and between, paid and unpaid work.

An evaluation ofthe teaching of reading to pupils with hearing impairment in mainstream schools

AbstractRecently in the UK there have been a number of developments within early literacy education; for instance, the institution of a compulsory Literacy Hour in schools. Such general mainstream initiatives have implications for hearing-impaired children. At the same time, concern is repeatedly expressed about the reading standards achieved by hearing-impaired children, with many suggesting that these have not improved significantly over the years. The timely report produced by OFSTED is here summarized and evaluated.

A total system approach to sustainable pest management.

A fundamental shift to a total system approach for crop protection is urgently needed to resolve escalating economic and environmental consequences of combating agricultural pests. Pest management strategies have long been dominated by quests for "silver bullet" products to control pest outbreaks. However, managing undesired variables in ecosystems is similar to that for other systems, including the human body and social orders. Experience in these fields substantiates the fact that therapeutic interventions into any system are effective only for short term relief because these externalities are soon "neutralized" by countermoves within the system. Long term resolutions can be achieved only by restructuring and managing these systems in ways that maximize the array of "built-in" preventive strengths, with therapeutic tactics serving strictly as backups to these natural regulators. To date, we have failed to incorporate this basic principle into the mainstream of pest management science and continue to regress into a foot race with nature. In this report, we establish why a total system approach is essential as the guiding premise of pest management and provide arguments as to how earlier attempts for change and current mainstream initiatives generally fail to follow this principle. We then draw on emerging knowledge about multitrophic level interactions and other specific findings about management of ecosystems to propose a pivotal redirection of pest management strategies that would honor this principle and, thus, be sustainable. Finally, we discuss the potential immense benefits of such a central shift in pest management philosophy.