R. W. Connell – författare

Hur etableras och skapas manlighet? Hur skiljer sig olika typer av manlighet åt? Varför förändras föreställningarna om manlighet och hur hanterar männen dessa förändringar? I studien Maskuliniteter diskuterar R W Connell dessa och besläktade frågor. Han redogör för nittonhundratalets olika försök att förstå det maskulina, att via psykoanalys och samhällsvetenskaplig forskning skapa en vetenskap om det manliga. Connell utforskar vidare maskulinitetens globala historia under de senaste fyrahundra åren och de specifika manlighetsformer som existerar i västvärlden i dag. Så diskuteras exempelvis samtidens mansrörelser och medias stora intresse för maskulinitet. Maskuliniteter bygger delvis på intervjuer med grupper av män som brottas med genusrelationernas förändringar. Syftet är att på ett systematiskt sätt sammankoppla personligt liv och social struktur, samt att visa både på komplexiteten och de många möjligheter som ligger i en förändring. R W Connell är professor i sociologi vid University of California, Santa Cruz.

This is a study of the Australian ruling class - the main companies, the leading political groups and the links and conflicts among them. The author also analyses class inequalities in education, the development of children's ideas about class, the role of the mass media and the way class relations are cemented culturally and psychologically. He introduces his book with a brief discussion of the literature on class theory, and a critical evaluation of Australian writing on class. Professor Connell's major aims are to describe and analyse Australia in the 1970s, to show how class theory is a useful tool in understanding the situation and to develop the theory by working through some practical cases. Apart from its obvious importance for Australian readers, this book should be of interest in other countries, both for comparison and for its original ideas on a number of important issues, such as conflict in the ruling class, and class consciousness in young people.

Sexual politics—from economic equality to anti-gay violence—is a vast area of debate. This exceptional book seeks to integrate gender and sexuality into the mainstream of social and political theory with the aim of challenging and transforming these traditional areas.The book is an original contribution to the theory, setting out for the first time a systematic framework for the social analysis of gender and sexuality. It is written with a clarity and scope that also make it useful as an introductory textbook sexual politics.The book reviews theories of gender from feminism to psychoanalysis, sex role theory, and sociobiology. It maps the structure of gender relations in contemporary life and in history; proposes a new approach to femininity and masculinity; and offers a wide-ranging analysis of sexual politics and the dynamics of change, from working-class feminism to the dilemmas of the "men's movement."Connell has produced a major work of synthesis and scholarship which will be of unique value to students and professionals in sociology, politics, psychology, women's studies, gay studies, and to anyone interested in sexual politics.

First published in 1983 Which Way is Up presents a selection of Bob Connell’s writings on three key issues of modern social analysis- sex and gender, class and power, and culture. The essays range from psychoanalysis and contemporary feminism to the role theory, from the analysis of class and culture to the debate about intellectuals and the ‘new class’. In critically reviewing contemporary thought on these issues, the author has developed a perspective centred on the analysis of social practice. Easy to read, often witty, the essays represent an attempt to shift social theory into the real world of the late twentieth century, to go beyond the limits of orthodox sociology and radical dogmas, to think through theoretical questions without losing touch with practical politics. This is a must read for students and scholars of sociology.