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11 – 20 of over 3000
Article
Publication date: 26 September 2007

Bob Doherty and Sophi Tranchell

The purpose of this paper is to further develop the recent discourse surrounding the mainstreaming of fairtrade (FT) products, particularly the concepts of “radical mainstreaming

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to further develop the recent discourse surrounding the mainstreaming of fairtrade (FT) products, particularly the concepts of “radical mainstreaming”, “clean‐wash” and “the Alternative High Street”. The research investigates the pros and cons of mainstreaming FT in the concentrated UK retail sector via the exemplar of The Day Chocolate Company.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on a longitudinal case study of one of the original “trail blazers” for FT in the mainstream, the 100 per cent FT social enterprise, The Day Chocolate Company (Day). The authors possess special insight to this pioneering FT model due to their unique experience of working at Day and the lead author's research, which includes findings from a series of in depth semi‐structured interviews with key informants.

Findings

With particular reference to the concepts Clean‐wash/ “Fair Trade Lite” the paper critically analyses the advantages and disadvantages of mainstreaming FT. The paper demonstrates how radical mainstreaming by 100 per cent FT companies can actually strengthen the transformative message of FT and not undermine the original ethical interest. Their ability to communicate a more complex deep message to a wider audience via unique FT brands allows radical mainstreaming companies to raise the bar and avoid the dangers of Clean‐wash. Finally the paper illustrates the significance of the Alternative High Street for radical mainstreaming companies.

Research limitations/implications

The radical mainstreaming innovation in the paper demonstrates the value of intangibles such as relationships and networks. This means companies such as Day, could be better positioned than their private sector rivals to take advantage of the new dominant logic of marketing as it uses more operant resources to co‐create value between producers, retailers and consumers. Further research will investigate in more depth the nature of those operant resources.

Originality/value

This paper will be of interest to all key stakeholders within the FT movement including marketing professionals and other “values‐driven organisations” such as social enterprises. This research shows that sales in the UK mainstream retail market are not enough in maintaining the original ethical interests of FT; you need business models such as Day, that share power and value added between Southern and Northern partners. Further development of such radical mainstreaming business models is key to strengthening both sales and the original transformative message of FT.

Details

Equal Opportunities International, vol. 26 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0261-0159

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 July 2016

Kanchana Ginige, Dilanthi Amaratunga and Richard Haigh

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a guideline to mainstream women into disaster reduction in the built environment in Sri Lanka.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a guideline to mainstream women into disaster reduction in the built environment in Sri Lanka.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on ten in-depth interviews conducted with professionals engaged in disaster risk reduction in the built environment in Sri Lanka. The interviews are complemented by a comprehensive literature review conducted on the impacts of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on women in Sri Lanka, and the country’s status of mainstreaming women into disaster reduction in the built environment.

Findings

The paper presents a guideline for mainstreaming women into disaster reduction in the built environment in Sri Lanka which consists of factors influencing the process, main steps, parties responsible, required resources, required expertise, appropriate stages of development to conduct the process, barriers to the process and how to improve the process.

Originality/value

At present, there are no guidelines which specifically inform how to mainstream women into disaster reduction in the built environment in Sri Lanka. Such guideline is significant to reduce women’s vulnerability to natural disasters and also to tackle disaster vulnerabilities of the built environment in general.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 25 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 May 2015

Christian Guest and Tom A.C Chrisp

The purpose of this paper is to describe the delivery of a mainstreaming model within a public sector, mental health (National Health Service (NHS)) organisation. The model…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe the delivery of a mainstreaming model within a public sector, mental health (National Health Service (NHS)) organisation. The model promotes the inclusivity of a spectrum of presentations from co-existing moderate anxiety and depression to severe mental disorder (psychosis) and problematic substance and alcohol use.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper introduces the delivery of three collective approaches, termed the “three essential elements” to support a mainstreaming treatment model, facilitated by a “Dual Diagnosis Lead”. The model encompasses; a “direct access” referral pathway, joint collaboration with practitioners and the delivery of a “Dual Diagnosis” training programme. An independent evaluation was commissioned to explore eight mental health and substance misuse practitioners’ views and experiences in relation to the impact of the mainstreaming model. This paper also considers feedback from 230 course participants attending a one day “Dual Diagnosis” training programme.

Findings

This paper suggests that practitioners may benefit from the implementation of the mainstreaming approach and the delivery of this approach could be moving “Dual Diagnosis” interventions closer to mainstream practice.

Research limitations/implications

The limitations of the mainstreaming model are acknowledged in relation to the generalisation of practitioners’ views and reported experiences.

Originality/value

This paper offers a description of the delivery of a mainstreaming model involving the “three essential elements”. The model provides a useful insight and demonstrates the possibilities which may be achieved when attempting to implement a mainstreaming treatment approach within mainstream mental health and drug and alcohol services.

Details

Advances in Dual Diagnosis, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-0972

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 January 2021

Marte C.W. Solheim and Sigrun Marie Moss

The purpose of this paper is to explain how theories of inter-organizational learning can create new insights and nuances to how processes of intra-organizational learning come…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain how theories of inter-organizational learning can create new insights and nuances to how processes of intra-organizational learning come about in a single, complex and multi-sited organization.

Design/methodology/approach

A constructivist thematic analysis of the “Handbook of Feminist Foreign Policy” produced by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SMFA) is completed, exploring the organization’s own presentation of the complex learning processes that took place when implementing the new policy in 2014.

Findings

The literature on inter-organizational learning has a so far unexplored explanatory potential to understand learning processes that take place in complex, multi-sited organizations. This case demonstrates why and how this potential is relevant to exploit. Five themes are constructed from the analysis; four pointing out how gender mainstreaming is spread throughout the different parts of the organization and one detailing how the learning process has provided the SMFA knowledge exportable to other organizations.

Originality/value

Due to the complexity in large, multi-sited organizations today, this paper argues what is classically understood as solely inter-organizational processes could also apply to a single organization, as the learning processes this engages in, transitions intra- and inter-organizational learning. The study advances current understandings through exploring mechanisms of gender mainstreaming.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 21 August 2015

Kwadwo Adusei-Asante, Peter Hancock and Max Oliveira

This chapter critiques the forceful institutionalization of gender mainstreaming into development programs.

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter critiques the forceful institutionalization of gender mainstreaming into development programs.

Methodology/approach

The data was generated from literature review and a research-based case study of the World Bank’s Community-Based Rural Development Projects in a Ghanaian township using ethnographic research methods such as participant-observation, focus group discussion, and individual interviews.

Findings

Our study found that gender mainstreaming has become popular, with the majority of international development agencies, such as The World Bank, AusAID, USAID, and the UNDP, adopting it as an overarching framework for developing and delivering their programs and services. The concept has also made its way into government policies globally over the past decade and has a strong influence on aid projects, even on gender-neutral programs. Our ethnographic research revealed that it is problematic to simply use gender mainstreaming as a policy initiative. The research case study presented showed that, in their quest to involve women in decision-making processes in rural localities, officials who implemented the CBRDP targeted women, although improving gender equality (through the process of gender mainstreaming) was not an objective of the CBRDP project per se. As a result, the project was jeopardized, some local people misconceptualized the CBRDP as a “women’s empowerment initiative,” leading to apathy on the part of men, some of whom resented the CBRDP by preventing their wives and daughters from participating in it, ultimately causing a negative outcome.

Originality/value

We seek to alert international development organizations and practitioners that implementing gender mainstreaming programs and policies without considering local conditions and social relationships will fail to deliver the desired outcomes for the intended beneficiaries.

Details

At the Center: Feminism, Social Science and Knowledge
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-078-4

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2018

Elias Andersson, Maria Johansson, Gun Lidestav and Malin Lindberg

In Sweden, gender mainstreaming policies have a long political history. As part of the national gender equality strategy of the Swedish forest industry, the ten largest forestry…

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Abstract

Purpose

In Sweden, gender mainstreaming policies have a long political history. As part of the national gender equality strategy of the Swedish forest industry, the ten largest forestry companies committed themselves to gender mainstream their policies. Limiting the impact of policies and the agency of change, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the varied and conflicting meanings and constitution of the concepts, the problem and, in extent, the organisational realities of gender mainstreaming.

Design/methodology/approach

In both, implementation and practice, gender mainstreaming posse challenges on various levels and by analysing these documents as practical texts from the WPR-approach. This paper explores constructions of gender and gender equality and their implications on the practice and the political of gender mainstreaming in a male-dominated primary industry.

Findings

The results show that the organisations themselves were not constituted as the subject of the policy but instead some of the individuals (women). The subject position of women represented in company policy was one of lacking skills and competences and in the need of help. Not only men and the masculine norms but organisational processes and structures were also generally invisible in the material. Power and conflict were mainly absent from the understanding of gender equality. Instead, consenting ideas of gender equality were the focus. Such conceptualisations of gender equality are beneficial for all risk concealing power structures and thereby limit the political space for change.

Originality/value

By highlighting the scale of policy and the significance of organisational contexts, the results indicate how gender and gender equality are constitutive through the governing technologies of neoliberal and market-oriented ideologies in policy – emphasising the further limiting of space for structural change and politicalization within the male-dominated organisations of Swedish forest industry.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 37 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2021

Sizwile Khoza

This paper aims to explore the local conceptualisation of gender and framings of men and masculinities at the local level, which may be applied to improve gender mainstreaming in…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the local conceptualisation of gender and framings of men and masculinities at the local level, which may be applied to improve gender mainstreaming in smallholder farming.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative data were collected from a total of 70 key informants and community members knowledgeable about climate change and smallholder agriculture, disaster risks, gender and broader community issues in Malawi and Zambia. The thematic analysis was used to identify the themes emerging from the qualitative data.

Findings

Practitioners apply western framings of gender while communities consider their realities and contexts and emphasise that gender means men and women need to work together. Although institutional provisions are in place for gender mainstreaming, practitioners have cautioned against the influence of the global north in gender mainstreaming, which ignores local realities. Applying a masculinities lens at a local level established the existence of subordinate and marginalised men often excluded from interventions and how hierarchical relationships among men limited women's participation.

Research limitations/implications

Future research, practice and policy initiatives in disaster risk reduction and resilience-building need to engage with positive masculinities in gender mainstreaming. This work stimulates a broader framing of gender that builds on the core values and perspectives of communities.

Practical implications

Contemporary gender mainstreaming approaches need to consider local contextualisation of gender, emphasising the critical aspect of cooperation between women and men in overcoming climate-related hazards and risk reduction.

Originality/value

This work contributes to the nascent discourse on local gender perspectives and masculinities in disaster risk reduction and resilience in Southern Africa.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 October 2017

Qi Gao

In the face of climate change, environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are expected to translate global or national mitigation and…

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Abstract

Purpose

In the face of climate change, environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are expected to translate global or national mitigation and adaptation targets to project and plan levels of decision-making. This paper aims to examine how to transform China’s EIA procedures to accommodate consideration of climate change and what constraints might be for doing so.

Design/methodology/approach

The main methodology used in this paper is doctrinal research, which is the primary legal methodology to find the law and interpret and analyse the document. Theoretical research is applied to analyse the ideas and assumptions of the mainstreaming approach. Comparative research is done to consider relevant international experiences.

Findings

Despite well-founded rationale for the mainstreaming approach, entrenched institutional, legal and technical obstacles cannot be neglected in the context of China. Urgent needs to fix existing EIA/SEA loopholes and improve the general enabling environment are also highlighted as a fundamental aspect of mainstreaming.

Originality/value

The potential of mainstreaming climate change into China’s EIA procedures remains largely unexplored. As a ground-breaking work from China’s perspective, the findings of this paper can serve as an important foundation for future research from legal and other perspectives.

Details

International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-8692

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 September 2021

De-Graft Owusu-Manu, David Mensah Sackey, Dickson Osei-Asibey, Rachelle Kyerewah Agyapong and David John Edwards

The purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges in improving women's energy access, rights and equitable sustainable development from a Ghanaian perspective.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges in improving women's energy access, rights and equitable sustainable development from a Ghanaian perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The research utilizes a mixed method. A qualitative in-depth exploratory design was chosen to understand how gender is mainstreamed within Ghana's energy sector. This included semi-structured interviews with key managers, experience policy experts and focus groups. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic content analysis (TCA).

Findings

The study reveals that the National Energy Policy of 2010, as the main energy policy regulating the energy sector in Ghana, does make provision for gender equality, safety especially women, in line with Ghana's sustainable development goals. The energy policy aims to empower women and create gender parity in the sector. Nevertheless, the study also found major challenges to gender mainstreaming in the energy sector, including poor analysis in formulating energy policies, inadequate financial resources, and poor monitoring and evaluation.

Originality/value

The paper exposes gender equity challenges associated with the energy sector in Ghana. It also offers a new policy angle which connects gender mainstreaming to sustainable development. The research describes how women are included in developing energy policies and in addressing gender challenges in the energy sector.

Details

Ecofeminism and Climate Change, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2633-4062

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2019

Kristy Kelly

This chapter examines the role of gender training in the context of gender mainstreaming in Vietnam to illuminate how gender shapes and is shaped through development practice…

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of gender training in the context of gender mainstreaming in Vietnam to illuminate how gender shapes and is shaped through development practice. Through thick description of a week-long gender training designed to mainstream gender into a rural development project, the author examines the role gender and development practitioners play as teacher–trainers in moving gender-mainstreaming policies beyond national development planning and rhetoric to affect local and cultural change. As they teach their students how to “think gender” they transform abstract gender equality policy commitments to fit the needs of different local constituents, who are themselves embedded in a complexity of gender, class, ethnic, age, and urban–rural power relations. In the process, training becomes a key political space, place and process where development subjects are produced, and gender expertise is negotiated. It is where teacher–trainers and their students actively negotiate the meaning of gender, equality, and development. It is a place where power and knowledge are constructed (and contested), and where trainers and trainees make visible their own political commitments and intentions as “insiders” and “outsiders” to the development process. As a result, training serves as an important site of engagement and contestation over the cultural and political meaning of gender mainstreaming, gender equality, and development in Vietnam, and as such has become an important space for feminist activism.

Details

Gender and Practice: Insights from the Field
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-383-3

Keywords

11 – 20 of over 3000