Subtext

Abstract: The paper offers a critical reading of Geert Hofstede's (1980) Culture's Consequences using an analytical strategy where the book is mirrored against itself and analyzed in terms of its own proposed value dimensions. “Mirroring” unravels the book's normative viewpoint and political subtext and exposes discursive interests in its research process. Making all this evident in the canonical book's own terms, this paper communicates critical concerns across paradigm boundaries. It indicates the need to reconsider concepts and convictions that predominate cross-cultural research and to adopt norms of reflexivity that transcend existing notions of “cultural relativism.”

Abstract: This paper describes the results of an empirical study of the gender subtext in organizations. We examine the divergence of practice and impression of gender distinctions: gender inequality is still persistent in organizational practices while a dominant perception of equality occurs at the same time. Our analysis focuses on the processes (re)producing this divergence. We argue that both the persistency of gender inequality and the perception of equality emerge from a so-called gender subtext: the set of often concealed, power-based gendering processes, i.e. organizational and individual arrangements (objectives, measures, habits), systematically (re)producing gender distinctions. These gendering processes are examined in five departments in the Dutch banking sector. We explore the gender subtext in three organizational settings: show pieces (the token position of the few women in top functions), the mommy track (the side track many women with young children are shunted to) and the importance of being ask...

Abstract: This article critically looks at the human rights project as a damning three-dimensional metaphor that exposes multiple complexes. It argues that the grand narrative of human rights contains a subtext which depicts an epochal contest pitting savages, on the one hand, against victims and saviors, on the other. The savages-victims-saviors (SVS) construction lays bare some of the hypocrisies of the human rights project and asks human rights thinkers and advocates to become more self-reflective. The piece questions the universality and cultural neutrality of the human rights project. It calls for the construction of a truly universal human rights corpus, one that is multicultural, inclusive, and deeply political.

Abstract: This paper describes the results of an empirical study of the gender subtext in organizations. We examine the divergence of practice and impression of gender distinctions: gender inequality is still persistent in organizational practices while a dominant perception of equality occurs at the same time. Our analysis focuses on the processes (re)producing this divergence. We argue that both the persistency of gender inequality and the perception of equality emerge from a so-called gender subtext: the set of often concealed, power-based gendering processes, i.e. organizational and individual arrangements (objectives, measures, habits), systematically (re)producing gender distinctions. These gendering processes are examined in five departments in the Dutch banking sector. We explore the gender subtext in three organizational settings: show pieces (the token position of the few women in top functions), the mommy track (the side track many women with young children are shunted to) and the importance of being ask...