Gendered incorporations: Critically embodied reflections on the gender divide in organisation studies

Knights, David; Thanem, Torkild

Abstract

Challenging yet extending extant efforts in organisation studies to disrupt the gender divide, we develop an embodied account to more fundamentally dissolve the binaries that divide conventional forms of female and male embodiment. Despite a proliferation of literature on the body and emotion in sociology and organisation studies, it is our view that much of it remains deeply disembodied, treating the body pretty much like any other sociological phenomenon, i.e., as a mere object of study. In seeking to dissolve the gender divide, we incorporate a number of vignettes in an attempt to write our own bodies into the text. While reflecting about our own masculine (David and Torkild) and transgender (Torkild) embodiment, we critically discuss how transgender, in particular, may constitute a vehicle for challenging and disrupting the gender divide. © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2011
• Journal: International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion
• Print ISSN: 1740-8938
• Electronic ISSN: 1740-8946
• Publisher: Inderscience
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 217-235
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1504/IJWOE.2011.045963
• Keywords: binaries, female embodiment, male embodiment, emotion, masculinity, transgender, gender divide, organisation studies
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/969703
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJWOE.2011.045963