Hegemony, Transnationalisation and Virtualisation: MNCs and ICTs

Abstract

This paper is part of a joint GEXcel workshop session on the diverse implications of transnationalisation and virtualisation for critical studies on men and masculinities. GEXcel is organized through a number of research themes, in this case, Theme 2 ‘Deconstructing the hegemony of men and masculinities: contradictions of absence’ (http://www.genderexcel.org/node/101). Transnationalisation and virtualisation take many forms and have many implications for men and gender relations. They comprise acutely contradictory processes, with multiple forms of difference, presence and absence for men in power and men dispossessed through, for example, forced migration. Different transnationalisations problematise taken-for-granted national, organisational and local contexts, and men and masculinities there in many ways. This paper builds on critical debates on the concept of patriarchy in relation to intersectionalities and transnationalisations. It uses the concept of transpatriarchies to speak of the structural tendency and individualised propensity for men’s transnational gender domination. It focuses on non-determined structures, forces and processes, not comprehensive unity or fixity. This is illustrated by consideration of multinational corporations (MNCs), and information and communication technologies (ICTs), sex trade and virtualisation.