Abstract I argue that attempts to integrate marginalized epistemic standpoints into dominant frameworks risk treating them as resources for mainstream appropriation. Using a queer activist slogan from the AIDS crisis as a representative example, I warn that because knowledge forged in resistance is often oppositional and always situated, incorporating it into dominant frameworks can dilute its meaning or harm its creators. This points to a deeper tension within standpoint theory: emancipatory projects that seek to engage marginalized imaginaries can reproduce the very hierarchies they aim to dismantle when they fail to recognize these standpoints’ own priorities, limits, and forms of gatekeeping.

ABSTRACT This paper analyses some political and epistemological implications of the encounter between philosophy and anarchism. It sets out from Catherine Malabou’s observation that Reiner Schürmann’s philosophy of anarchy both lacks a clear political articulation and reproduces a questionable ethnocentric perspective. To assess those points of critique, the paper first compares Schürmann’s notion of ‘ontological anarchy’ to the homonymous concept at the centre of a recent debate in anthropology between Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and David Graeber. It is argued that Schürmann’s philosophy provides a viewpoint that can help situate both sides of the discussion within what he calls ‘our historical site’, in which the end of the world plays out as an ongoing and open-ended sequence of disintegration. The paper then turns to debates in standpoint theory, indicating that Schürmann’s topology of broken hegemonies can also offer a fresh approach to the dispute between particularist standpoints and universalist claims. Against the backdrop of these analyses, the paper argues that Schürmann’s philosophy of anarchy can contribute to the reconceptualization of an anarchist universalism.

BackgroundIn Australia, billions of dollars are spent on Indigenous programs, services, and initiatives annually; however, more evidence is needed regarding which modes of commissioning program evaluations best benefit Indigenous communities. The Australian Productivity Commission called for ‘more and better’ evaluations of Indigenous programs, and commissioning processes that engage Indigenous communities, organisations, and leaders. So, too, have Indigenous representative organisations, Indigenous services, and stakeholders. To date, few studies have sought to characterise the commissioning practices of government and non-government organisations surrounding Indigenous health and wellbeing programs. Fewer still have investigated the role of Indigenous engagement and leadership before, during and after the commissioning process.MethodsUsing Indigenous Standpoint Theory and a qualitative approach, this study illuminates the perceptions of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous commissioners, evaluators, and providers on the commissioning of evaluated Indigenous health and wellbeing programs.ResultsBuilding on a published scoping review by undertaking 23 qualitative interviews with 35 Australian-based participants about commissioning practices, this study verifies and canvases the strengths of individual commissioning models, and the interplay between power, cultural safety, and reciprocity in the commissioning space. The paper also considers the relationship between these three factors along a continuum of practice and posits a sliding scale across the five commissioning models.ConclusionsTo improve the quality of evaluations further attention needs to be paid to the commissioner’s cultural capability. Additionally, Commissioners need to develop their understanding of the relationship between Commissioner and Indigenous people’s power and the utility of evaluations.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-025-02675-0.

Abstract This paper explores the differences and similarities between Foucault’s genealogical method and feminist standpoint theories. Both approaches rely on the marginalized position of subjugated knowledges to challenge dominant regimes of power. However, standpoint theory and Foucauldian genealogical critique engage with the interrelatedness of power, knowledge, and resistance on a different level. Standpoint theories take a situated, first-person perspective to further knowledge claims which are based on situated knowledge claims. Foucauldian genealogy, on the other hand, delves into subjugated knowledge claims from an outsider or third-person perspective, mobilizing subjugated forms of knowledge to genealogically critique dominant regimes of power-knowledge. Despite this difference, this paper suggests that both approaches are invested in problematizing dominant regimes of power-knowledge by looking at subversive and marginalized knowledge practices that contest dominant regimes of power and knowledge.

ABSTRACT Indigenous students in Australia continue to experience significant educational disparities compared to their non-Aboriginal peers despite numerous policy initiatives aimed at closing the achievement gap. Personalised Learning Pathways (PLPs), implemented in New South Wales schools, represent a targeted approach to supporting Aboriginal student success through culturally responsive education. Drawing from a study conducted across six New South Wales government high schools, this paper analyses teachers’ and Aboriginal parents’ perspectives on PLP implementation and effectiveness through Indigenous Standpoint Theory. Findings reveal discrepancies between teachers’ perceptions and parents’ experiences of PLPs, highlighting gaps in cultural alignment, genuine engagement, and communication. While teachers viewed PLPs as valuable tools for understanding students and goal-setting, parents reported minimal evidence of tangible benefits and inadequate involvement. This study identifies systemic barriers preventing meaningful use of PLPs, including dominant models of personalised support, teacher training, and community engagement. Findings emphasise the need for more consistent implementation, culturally informed teacher professional preparation, deeper community partnerships, and authentic integration of Aboriginal perspectives to enhance PLP effectiveness.

We discuss the standpoint theory of Indigenism and introduce its principles as relevant to the philosophy of research with, by, and for, Indigenous people. This philosophy is a pillar of Indigenist archaeology since it is a core basis of theorising methods of Indigenous epistemology. We introduce the concept of a ‘third space’ and discuss its purpose as the critique of scientism, a discourse claiming epistemological supremacy for Western science in archaeological research. We defend pluralism in archaeology and provide an example of ‘epistemic disconcertment’ to illustrate the complexity of inclusive archaeology.

Puerto Rico imports most of its food. In 2017, it was estimated the archipelago imported 90 to 95 percent of its food (Carro-Figueroa 2002; Robles and Ferré-Sadurní 2017). As a result, the few urban farms (huertos urbanos) provide some of the only locally produced fresh produce for Puerto Ricans. In 2017, Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico and devastated agricultural production, including urban farms. In this article, urban farms are conceptualized as social infrastructure to analyze their significance in communities. This research, conducted in July 2019, investigates how women experienced the impacts of Hurricane Maria on their urban farms. Social infrastructure theory influenced the way we analyzed data and feminist standpoint theory informed the methodology used in our research. The findings demonstrate that many women enjoy urban farming and that it provides fresh and healthy produce for their families and communities. Almost all the women farmers experienced a decline in participation of volunteers a few years after the establishment of the huertos urbanos and even more after Hurricane Maria. Many women, however, described the huertos urbanos as very important for the community—as a space for food cultivation and production as well as community gathering.

This study, grounded in Feminist Standpoint Theory (FST), investigates how pregnant individuals discuss Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) in online and in-person communities. Recognizing that social location shapes understanding, the research centers their lived experiences to illuminate perceptions, emotions, and decision-making about NIPT. By analyzing shared themes within these communities, the study uncovers situated knowledge and potential challenges to dominant reproductive health narratives. The analysis considers how power dynamics and societal expectations shape information access and interpretation. Ultimately, this research provides a nuanced understanding of the social and ethical complexities of NIPT as communicated within these community spaces.

Despite the widespread use of community-engaged research (CEnR) in public health, there is a lack of practical guidance for ensuring research transparency while fostering collaboration between researchers and patient communities. In this article, we propose the Five Nested Dolls Community-Engaged Research Framework (Five Dolls CEnR) as a tool to assist researchers in enhancing the transparency of CEnR and fostering collaboration between researchers and patient communities throughout all phases of CEnR. Each of the five dolls represents a meaningful aspect of CEnR, such as patient engagement in research, conceptual framework, research design, findings and researchers' positionality. In alignment with feminist standpoint theory, Five Dolls CEnR is based on a nesting design principle to demonstrate the influence of researchers' experiences, perspectives, values, beliefs and assumptions on a research process.To ensure transparency of the research process and foster collaboration in CEnR, the authors have described self-reflexivity and self-disclosure, two multidisciplinary concepts, as strategies. This framework consists of a series of steps and questions to promote self-reflexivity and self-disclosure of researchers at each doll level. As a multidisciplinary framework, Five Dolls CEnR can be used across disciplines and throughout the planning, implementation and dissemination phases of a study.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently made an announcement that there will be major changes to his company’s content moderation policies. As part of this move, Meta is eliminating its third-party fact-checking program, and replacing it with a community based program called Community Notes as well as making changes to the “Hateful Conduct” policy document of Meta. Under conditions of rising anti-gender backlash and the emergence of post-truth societies transnationally with distorted notions of truth, these changes are deeply concerning for social media researchers, media studies researchers, gender studies researchers and policy scholars as well, as not only CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg but also, politicians like vice-president JD Vance, can be seen as launching a brutal ideological assault on Europe. Taking into account these political dynamics, in this article, I investigated (i) how are the proposed policy changes of Meta discursively constructed in major European online news outlets; (ii) what are the actual policy changes, taking into account women and LGBTIQ+ identities? (iii) what should/ could be the European level response to this situation considering policy and civil society level discussions? I carried out an exploratory reflexive thematic-discursive analysis of 14 articles from major European news sources published online between 7 January to 7 March 2025 related to the announcements of Mark Zuckerberg as well as responses to these announcements and Meta’s official “Hateful Conduct” policy document and the official statement. Adopting an intersectional feminist standpoint theory, strong objectivity and group oppression theory, the exploratory reflexive thematic-discursive analysis was carried out through the lens of hateful speech. The emerging themes of this research are (i) retreat on human rights, LGBTIQ+ rights and freedom of expression, (ii) frightening developments for the rise of misinformation/ disinformation, (iii) Zuckerberg as “re-setting relations with Europe, ignoring Digital Services Act of EU and the need to debunk ´institutionalization of censorship claims.”

Florence Nightingale's mid-19th-century reforms-especially her emphasis on sanitation, holistic patient care, and empirical data-catalyzed the transformation of nursing from an unregulated, low-status occupation into a respected, professional field. American institutions rapidly adopted her model, establishing standardized training programs followed by state licensure. Yet, by framing nursing around traits traditionally coded as feminine (compassion, nurturing, moral duty), these reforms inadvertently excluded men, who had historically provided significant direct patient care in military, psychiatric, and community settings. This article employs a critical gender-theoretical lens-integrating feminist standpoint theory and Foucauldian analyses of power/knowledge-to explore how Nightingale's legacy simultaneously elevated the nursing profession and entrenched enduring gendered hierarchies. The article examines specific policies shaped by Nightingale's model, such as state nurse-registration laws, military nursing corps restrictions, and early American Nurses Association (ANA) bylaws, demonstrating how institutionalized gender norms marginalized male practitioners. It asserts that while Nightingale deserves acclaim for professionalizing nursing, the discipline must also reckon with her legacy's exclusionary effects. Finally, the article proposes concrete strategies to deconstruct persistent gender biases and foster a more inclusive nursing profession.

On August 30, 2023, the Nebraska women’s volleyball team played in front of 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, breaking a record for the highest-attended women’s sporting event. Using hegemony and feminist standpoint theory, this study offers a feminist critical discourse analysis of 1,079 X posts published before, during, and after the game and addresses how fans discussed this landmark moment in women’s sports. This paper also identifies moments of feminist empowerment limited within a sporting system built around male athletes. The findings from this study contribute to understandings of women’s college sports fandom in the digital age.

Abstract Original accounts of feminist standpoint theory emphasize its fundamentally critical stance toward situated knowledge (Smith 1974; Hartsock 1983; Collins 1986). The function of a critical standpoint is not to carelessly accept the beliefs of marginalized people, but instead to interpret those beliefs in light of thoroughgoing and pervasive ideological distortions. Some formulations of standpoint theory capture this critical function in the achievement thesis. It claims that a standpoint is not obtained automatically but must be achieved through a struggle against a dominant ideology. Contrary to the standard acceptance of the achievement thesis, Bright has recently argued that the requirement of achievement can warrant the dogmatic exclusion of some perspectives from becoming standpoints. In turn, he advances an account of standpoint theory which abandons the achievement thesis. Against Bright’s non-achievement account of standpoint theory, I argue that doing away with the achievement thesis abandons standpoint theory’s original aim of being critical of the social structures which construct and legitimize situated knowledge. Further, I argue that Bright’s concern with the possible dogmatism of the achievement thesis is better addressed by a commitment to the classic account of standpoint theory rather than a revision of it.

This essay discusses some key themes in gender and environmental education research that form the basis for my recent book, Gender and Environmental Education: Feminist and Other(ed) Perspectives, including how these themes have changed over time. These themes are: putting women on the environmental education research agenda, feminisms and nature in environmental education, and moving beyond feminisms and gender. The theoretical underpinnings of each of these themes are also discussed including Schuster and Van Dyne’s stages of curriculum change, ecofeminisms, Sandra Harding’s standpoint theory, Carolyn Merchant’s partnership ethic, and more recent work on materialisms and intersectionality.

Understanding the intricacies of masculinity in sports like football is crucial for examining women’s history in sports and sport psychology. Female practitioners bring unique perspectives, challenging traditional norms and advocating for inclusivity. However, football, deeply rooted in hegemonic masculinity, continues to present significant challenges. This case study chronicles the experience of a female counseling and sport psychology trainee navigating gender dynamics in a high school football team. Employing standpoint theory, this account provides invaluable insight into the pervasive gender barriers that persist. The first author’s integration into the team highlights the resilience required to succeed in such environments and underscores the importance of training programs that offer supervision and cultural humility exploration to prepare trainees. Examining this case provides insights into the history and ongoing challenges faced by women in sport psychology, emphasizing the need for systemic changes to foster greater access to opportunities.

ABSTRACTAdvance statements are instruments under the Mental Health Act (2014) (Vic) (the Act) in Victoria, Australia that support advance care planning, should a person become a compulsory patient under the Act. Advance care planning supports consumers to have their values and preferences known to the service and other decision makers. Uptake of advance statements in mental health has been poor, and minimal literature is available that explores direct experiences of these instruments by consumers. Feminist Standpoint theory was used in this study as it centres the experience of the marginalised person within the study. This study comprised four in‐depth interviews and a survey with 59 responses that explored consumers' direct experiences of using advance statements in Victoria. Results are consistent with past research identifying that many mental health advance statements were consenting documents, although some issues remained with locating the advance statement and identifying the most beneficial staff members to notify. Analysis of the interviews identified four main themes in people's experiences: not being read, working/not working, the use of advocacy and adjusting expectations. Consumers suggested how advance statements could be improved. Specific examples of advocacy by nurses were identified, and as the largest body of mental health workers, nurses have a key role in supporting consumers throughout their journey. Nurses are best placed to enact supported decision making, a key factor in advance care planning. With greater understanding of advance statements, and better resourcing of supported decision‐making mechanisms, there is potential for advance statements to contribute to an improved experience for consumers in mental health services.

This paper examines the critical role of women as healthcare gatekeepers within tribal communities in Northeast India, with a specific focus on Tripura. Through a comprehensive mixed-methods research design incorporating sophisticated statistical modeling, we analyze how women's decision-making authority in family healthcare creates measurable positive health outcomes despite structural limitations. Data from 427 households across 12 tribal villages reveals that households where women have primary healthcare decision-making authority demonstrate significantly better health indicators, including higher vaccination rates (OR=2.37, p<0.001), improved maternal health outcomes (β=0.41, p<0.01), and more consistent utilization of available healthcare services (χ²=18.42, p<0.001). Our hierarchical regression and structural equation models indicate that women's education level and economic empowerment serve as significant mediating factors in this relationship. Applying multiple theoretical frameworks including feminist standpoint theory, capabilities approach, and social ecological models, we demonstrate how women's healthcare gatekeeping represents a domain-specific exercise of agency within traditionally constrained gender systems. These findings suggest that targeted policy interventions should focus on enhancing women's decision-making authority while simultaneously addressing broader socioeconomic factors to improve community health outcomes in resource-limited settings.

This comprehensive review paper presents a groundbreaking analytical framework for understanding the extraordinary political career of Sushma Swaraj (1952-2019) through the integrated lens of women's empowerment theory. By synthesizing seven distinct theoretical traditions; transformational leadership theory, feminist standpoint theory, capability approach, adaptive leadership, policy entrepreneurship, collaborative governance, and integrative public leadership; we develop a multidimensional paradigm that transcends conventional unidimensional approaches to female political leadership. This integrative framework reveals how Swaraj's exceptional four-decade career systematically dismantled gendered barriers while simultaneously constructing new pathways for women's participation in governance. Through qualitative analysis of her pioneering achievements, diplomatic innovations, and leadership style, we demonstrate that Swaraj embodied a uniquely transformative approach to political leadership that addressed structural constraints while expanding capabilities for women across socioeconomic strata. The paper concludes that Swaraj's legacy represents a paradigm-shifting case study in how women leaders can transform institutional structures, policy frameworks, and cultural narratives simultaneously, offering crucial insights for theorizing women's empowerment beyond binary frameworks of agency versus structure. These findings establish a new theoretical foundation for understanding the multidimensional nature of women's empowerment in political leadership, with significant implications for both scholarly research and practical leadership development.

Toxic masculinity is a form of gender injustice reflected through labeling and stereotypes toward men, especially when they attempt to express emotional vulnerability. This study explores how toxic masculinity is manifested in the sadfishing phenomenon on TikTok, particularly through the hashtag #LakiLakiTidakBercerita and user comments on the account @bimbluess. The phenomenon highlights a paradox in which men’s emotional openness is often met with responses that reinforce hegemonic masculinity norms. Using a qualitative approach through netnographic methods, this research analyzes digital user interactions as part of participatory media culture. The study is framed by standpoint theory and the concept of hegemonic masculinity to understand how gendered power structures operate in digital spaces. The findings reveal five key themes: (1) toxic masculinity as a generational emotional wound, (2) internalized masculine values as social consciousness, (3) fear of vulnerability and masculine performativity, (4) emotional self-sabotage, and (5) the burden of productivity seen as male destiny. These dynamics show how digital platforms can both challenge and reproduce gender norms.

Backgruond: The X social media account @detikcom posted a news report about a sexual harassment case experienced by a woman at Al-Ikhsan Mosque in Gorontalo. The post sparked various responses from netizens, ranging from support for the victim to comments blaming women. Purpose: This study aims to understand how misogynistic discourse is formed and develops in digital spaces, particularly on X, when discussing cases of sexual harassment in public domains. Methods: This research adopts a qualitative approach using the netnographic method. Data were collected from netizen comments on @detikcom’s X post published on March 1, 2024, as well as interviews with a gender expert and netizens who commented. Results: In this study, these comments were analyzed through the lens of feminist standpoint theory to uncover patriarchal perspectives reflected in responses toward female victims to highlight the social positioning of women as subjects often subordinated within societal structures. These comments not only shift the focus from the perpetrators, but also have implications for strengthening social norms that restrict women’s freedom to practice their religion and participate in the public sphere. Nonetheless, the study also found comments expressing empathy and defending the victim, rejecting misogynistic narratives. This research demonstrates that social media serves as a critical arena for reinforcing and challenging patriarchal values. The findings underscore the importance of critical awareness in addressing gender-based violence discourse online, as well as the need for educational interventions and platform policies that foster safer, more equitable spaces for victims.