Children and young people's meanings of self in relation to their ideas about health, bodies and weight
Families' ideas about health and food and the impact of these on their practices
Critical/sociological analysis of physical education and/or health education pedagogies and curriculum in schools and higher education
A critical analysis of health education policy and public pedagogies associated with health promotion and prevention
My research draws on feminist and post-structuralist theory to critically engage issues associated with the body, health and physical activity. In all my work there has been a close attention to the body as central to subjectivity and as necessary to an understanding of the self. This theme has been taken up in studies of movement-based pedagogies and published papers examining media constructions of gender and physical activity.
I am committed to making a difference to the ways the subject, physical and health education, is conceived in curriculum and policy and how it is taught in schools.
Microfinance and Women's Empowerment: Bringing Transformations Through Dialogic Accounting
<p><strong><em>Current research and multidisciplinary team:</em></strong> I am currently working as a chief investigator (CI) on a UOW Global Challenges Seed Funding project (GC), titled, ‘Microfinance and Women’s Empowerment: Bringing Transformations through Dialogic Accounting’. I am working with the following senior colleagues on this project: Vera Mackie, Senior Professor of Asian and International Studies, Faculty of Law Humanities and Arts; Professor Gordon Waitt, Head of School of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences; and, Professor Jan Wright, Faculty of Social Sciences, We also have the following external investigators: Professor Trevor Hopper, Sussex University (SU), UK; Professor Judy Brown, Victoria University of Wellington; and, Dr. Sendirella George, Victoria University of Wellington.</p><p><strong><em>Brief description of the project:</em></strong> Women’s empowerment is a key microfinance objective and is achieved by providing small loans to poor people mainly in developing countries. Notwithstanding highly publicised success stories, microfinance is controversial.<sup> </sup>Feminist and development scholars claim that promoters of microfinance often gloss over its ‘dark side’. Despite a rich academic and policy literature on microfinance, challenging questions remain – in particular, with regards to defining women’s empowerment, understanding how conventional accounting and accountability systems reinforce structural barriers that disempower women, and exploring how accounting can contribute to female empowerment. The study addresses these questions through a pilot case study with an NGO the CI has worked with for her PhD [ISDE, Bangladesh]. The study broadens the focus by working with poor women in receipt of microfinance loans and feminist activists working with ISDE’s NGO network on ‘gender mainstreaming’ and ‘non-formal education’ projects. The researchers have collaborated to develop an analytical framework drawing on insights from feminist and development studies to examine ways of transforming traditional accounting tools and the criteria for monitoring, evaluating and reporting on microfinance initiatives. We completed our data collection, and conducted thirty individual interviews, and four focus group sessions, using methods such as story-telling and video reflections. <br /><br /><strong><em>Expected Impacts:</em></strong> The research is designed to provide theoretical, empirical, methodological and policy contributions. Theoretically, it shows how feminist concepts can inform politicised understandings of accounting. Empirically, it develops accounting and accountability practices that help us understand the socio-political relations (e.g. gender, class and ethnicity) that produce disempowerment and poverty. Methodologically, it advances understanding of how to put dialogic accounting into practice. In terms of policy design, it stimulates discussions among academics, civil society groups, and policymakers regarding the potential roles of accounting in poverty reduction, good governance, and participatory development.<sup></sup></p>
<p>Women’s empowerment is a key policy objective of microfinance, the provision of small loans to poor people mainly in developing countries,and accounting has an important role to play in this process. Notwithstanding highly publicised success stories, microfinance initiatives have been controversial.<sup> </sup>As feminist and development scholars highlight, those promoting microfinance too often gloss over its ‘dark side’ – lenders, for example, often put intense pressure on borrowers to recover loans, leading to new forms of dominance over women. Although a rich academic and policy literature exists, challenging questions remain. What, specifically, is meant by women’s empowerment, how should it be pursued and on whose terms? How can accounting, traditionally (though questionably) seen as an apolitical, managerial tool<sup> </sup>contribute to the empowerment of women?</p><p>The microfinance NGO in Bangladesh [Integrated Social Development Effort (ISDE)] I worked with for my PhD (funded by a Marsden grant) conveyed a complex understanding of women’s empowerment in its policy documents, but its accounting practices were dominated by narrow economic logics. For example, internal accounting systems for client selection and loan collection were designed with the aim of ensuring 100% repayment rates, and fieldworkers focused on collecting loans rather than ways of addressing structural barriers in women’s lives (e.g. dowry and domestic violence). Our challenge in this project is to explore how ‘dialogic’ accountings, which provide multi-dimensional (not merely monetary) accounts and engage contested values and assumptions, can lead to the re-evaluation of taken-for-granted norms and institutional practices and thus offer possibilities for transformative change.</p><p>My PhD research was limited to a single organisation and constrained in terms of engagement with the broader institutional context. Our aim now is to considerably broaden the focus. We critically interrogate and advance understanding of the relations between (i) competing conceptualisations of women’s empowerment adopted – explicitly or implicitly – by those promoting or evaluating microfinance initiatives, (ii) broader political-economic discourses and theories of microfinance, and (iii) accounting and accountability systems. We compare neoliberal understandings of microfinance and empowerment promoted by the World Bank with the analyses of feminist and development scholars. We explore how neoliberal and feminist theories compete to shape microfinance thought and practice, how and why neoliberal policy discourses prevail, and how this might be changed.Lastly, We examine ways of transforming traditional accounting tools and neoliberal criteria for monitoring, evaluating and reporting on microfinance initiatives, drawing on insights from feminist and development studies. </p><p>Working with poor women and feminist activists within ISDE’s broader NGO network in projects such as ‘gender mainstreaming’ and ‘non-formal education’, we are developing a set of dialogic accounts of women's diverse experiences with microfinance that seek to increase their political agency. Through dialogic accounting, we are making the negative impacts of microfinance more visible to dominant elites (e.g. ISDE’s senior management and donor authorities such as the Bangladesh Bank and Microcredit Regulatory Authority) and attempting to bring women’s lived experiences into official accounts. Methods include photo-voice, story-telling and group interviews combined with political-economy analysis of the processes and social relations that perpetuate women’s disempowerment.</p><p>The research is designed to provide theoretical, empirical, methodological and policy contributions. Theoretically, it shows how feminist concepts can inform politicised understandings of accounting. Empirically, it develops accounting and accountability practices that help us understand the socio-political relations (e.g. gender, class and ethnicity) that produce disempowerment and poverty. Methodologically, it advances understanding of how to put dialogic accounting into practice. In terms of policy design, it stimulates discussions among academics, civil society groups, and policymakers regarding the potential roles of accounting in poverty reduction, good governance, and participatory development.</p>
Children and young people's meanings of self in relation to their ideas about health, bodies and weight
Families' ideas about health and food and the impact of these on their practices
Critical/sociological analysis of physical education and/or health education pedagogies and curriculum in schools and higher education
A critical analysis of health education policy and public pedagogies associated with health promotion and prevention
My research draws on feminist and post-structuralist theory to critically engage issues associated with the body, health and physical activity. In all my work there has been a close attention to the body as central to subjectivity and as necessary to an understanding of the self. This theme has been taken up in studies of movement-based pedagogies and published papers examining media constructions of gender and physical activity.
I am committed to making a difference to the ways the subject, physical and health education, is conceived in curriculum and policy and how it is taught in schools.
Microfinance and Women's Empowerment: Bringing Transformations Through Dialogic Accounting
<p><strong><em>Current research and multidisciplinary team:</em></strong> I am currently working as a chief investigator (CI) on a UOW Global Challenges Seed Funding project (GC), titled, ‘Microfinance and Women’s Empowerment: Bringing Transformations through Dialogic Accounting’. I am working with the following senior colleagues on this project: Vera Mackie, Senior Professor of Asian and International Studies, Faculty of Law Humanities and Arts; Professor Gordon Waitt, Head of School of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences; and, Professor Jan Wright, Faculty of Social Sciences, We also have the following external investigators: Professor Trevor Hopper, Sussex University (SU), UK; Professor Judy Brown, Victoria University of Wellington; and, Dr. Sendirella George, Victoria University of Wellington.</p><p><strong><em>Brief description of the project:</em></strong> Women’s empowerment is a key microfinance objective and is achieved by providing small loans to poor people mainly in developing countries. Notwithstanding highly publicised success stories, microfinance is controversial.<sup> </sup>Feminist and development scholars claim that promoters of microfinance often gloss over its ‘dark side’. Despite a rich academic and policy literature on microfinance, challenging questions remain – in particular, with regards to defining women’s empowerment, understanding how conventional accounting and accountability systems reinforce structural barriers that disempower women, and exploring how accounting can contribute to female empowerment. The study addresses these questions through a pilot case study with an NGO the CI has worked with for her PhD [ISDE, Bangladesh]. The study broadens the focus by working with poor women in receipt of microfinance loans and feminist activists working with ISDE’s NGO network on ‘gender mainstreaming’ and ‘non-formal education’ projects. The researchers have collaborated to develop an analytical framework drawing on insights from feminist and development studies to examine ways of transforming traditional accounting tools and the criteria for monitoring, evaluating and reporting on microfinance initiatives. We completed our data collection, and conducted thirty individual interviews, and four focus group sessions, using methods such as story-telling and video reflections. <br /><br /><strong><em>Expected Impacts:</em></strong> The research is designed to provide theoretical, empirical, methodological and policy contributions. Theoretically, it shows how feminist concepts can inform politicised understandings of accounting. Empirically, it develops accounting and accountability practices that help us understand the socio-political relations (e.g. gender, class and ethnicity) that produce disempowerment and poverty. Methodologically, it advances understanding of how to put dialogic accounting into practice. In terms of policy design, it stimulates discussions among academics, civil society groups, and policymakers regarding the potential roles of accounting in poverty reduction, good governance, and participatory development.<sup></sup></p>
<p>Women’s empowerment is a key policy objective of microfinance, the provision of small loans to poor people mainly in developing countries,and accounting has an important role to play in this process. Notwithstanding highly publicised success stories, microfinance initiatives have been controversial.<sup> </sup>As feminist and development scholars highlight, those promoting microfinance too often gloss over its ‘dark side’ – lenders, for example, often put intense pressure on borrowers to recover loans, leading to new forms of dominance over women. Although a rich academic and policy literature exists, challenging questions remain. What, specifically, is meant by women’s empowerment, how should it be pursued and on whose terms? How can accounting, traditionally (though questionably) seen as an apolitical, managerial tool<sup> </sup>contribute to the empowerment of women?</p><p>The microfinance NGO in Bangladesh [Integrated Social Development Effort (ISDE)] I worked with for my PhD (funded by a Marsden grant) conveyed a complex understanding of women’s empowerment in its policy documents, but its accounting practices were dominated by narrow economic logics. For example, internal accounting systems for client selection and loan collection were designed with the aim of ensuring 100% repayment rates, and fieldworkers focused on collecting loans rather than ways of addressing structural barriers in women’s lives (e.g. dowry and domestic violence). Our challenge in this project is to explore how ‘dialogic’ accountings, which provide multi-dimensional (not merely monetary) accounts and engage contested values and assumptions, can lead to the re-evaluation of taken-for-granted norms and institutional practices and thus offer possibilities for transformative change.</p><p>My PhD research was limited to a single organisation and constrained in terms of engagement with the broader institutional context. Our aim now is to considerably broaden the focus. We critically interrogate and advance understanding of the relations between (i) competing conceptualisations of women’s empowerment adopted – explicitly or implicitly – by those promoting or evaluating microfinance initiatives, (ii) broader political-economic discourses and theories of microfinance, and (iii) accounting and accountability systems. We compare neoliberal understandings of microfinance and empowerment promoted by the World Bank with the analyses of feminist and development scholars. We explore how neoliberal and feminist theories compete to shape microfinance thought and practice, how and why neoliberal policy discourses prevail, and how this might be changed.Lastly, We examine ways of transforming traditional accounting tools and neoliberal criteria for monitoring, evaluating and reporting on microfinance initiatives, drawing on insights from feminist and development studies. </p><p>Working with poor women and feminist activists within ISDE’s broader NGO network in projects such as ‘gender mainstreaming’ and ‘non-formal education’, we are developing a set of dialogic accounts of women's diverse experiences with microfinance that seek to increase their political agency. Through dialogic accounting, we are making the negative impacts of microfinance more visible to dominant elites (e.g. ISDE’s senior management and donor authorities such as the Bangladesh Bank and Microcredit Regulatory Authority) and attempting to bring women’s lived experiences into official accounts. Methods include photo-voice, story-telling and group interviews combined with political-economy analysis of the processes and social relations that perpetuate women’s disempowerment.</p><p>The research is designed to provide theoretical, empirical, methodological and policy contributions. Theoretically, it shows how feminist concepts can inform politicised understandings of accounting. Empirically, it develops accounting and accountability practices that help us understand the socio-political relations (e.g. gender, class and ethnicity) that produce disempowerment and poverty. Methodologically, it advances understanding of how to put dialogic accounting into practice. In terms of policy design, it stimulates discussions among academics, civil society groups, and policymakers regarding the potential roles of accounting in poverty reduction, good governance, and participatory development.</p>
