Organizations, Knowledge Production and Work

Gender, Work and Organizations is a wide-ranging and expanding research strand studying gender relations and gender dynamics in work, careers, professions, leadership, different types of organisations and organising, working life and labour market are a wide-ranging and expanding research area. At a time of rapid and extensive global, economic, technological and organisational changes, more knowledge is needed and called for regarding the meanings and impacts of these changes for gender relations at workplaces and in other organisations.

How gender and intersecting social divisions are forming and formed by work, professions, workplaces and organisations in different societal, political, economic and legislative contexts is a key question in this research area. This includes the relations between employees and organisations, employee relations, relations between workers and publics, and the relation of work, caring responsibilities and private life, as well as the public-private dynamics and its gendered dimensions, especially focusing the Nordic context.

Different organisational forms, and old and new strategies to govern and implement public policy, through equality policies (such as gender mainstreaming, equal employment opportunity and affirmative action), are examined partly through interactive and participatory approaches to studying organizations and organizational change. Gender theoretical knowledge on leadership is explored, for example, by studying how different gatekeepers, leaders and key actors contribute to the production, reproduction or challenging of gender relations within organisations.

Gender and Knowledge Production focuses on gender dynamics of know¬¬ledge production within different societal, economic, legislative, cultural, scientific, and educational settings, natio¬¬nally, transnationally and globally. Gender paradoxes in how academic, educational and scientific organisations are changing and being changed are interrogated. One of the starting points is the notion of persistent gender inequalities characterising the major institutions shaping knowledge production.

Many of the changes in knowledge production, both long-term macro trends such as internationalisation, technological change including virtualization, as well as policies for change, such as emphasis on excellence, innovation, top performance and competition, or researcher mobility, appear seemingly non-gendered, or are often represented as such.

Multiple arenas and actors are of interest, from academia, research and research funding organisations to schools and educational institutions, from policy makers and institutional leaders shaping the conditions of knowledge production, to research groups, researchers, engineers, teachers and administrators, as well as lay people building epistemic communities online and recipients of education and training.

Furthermore, the research area analyses the interconnections of gendered structures and cultures of knowledge production organisations and organising to research agendas, curricula, careers, conceptualisations, knowledge transfer and translation. The gender dynamics of national, regional and international research and education policy are explored, through the analysis of policy-making, policy stakeholder organisations, and policy-makers and gatekeepers. The research strands also addresses fundamental philosophical issues relating to gender, power and knowledge, conceptually contributing to longstanding feminist epistemological debates.