The Gender and ICT (GenTIC) Research Group of the IN3 organises a research seminar by Darren Thomas Baker, on-going visiting fellow at Cranfield University School of Management (UK) and IN3 Visiting Scholar until next August.
The speaker has recently completed a collaboratively funded research project by the ESRC and ACCA exploring the career trajectories of men and women in finance and accounting in the UK. It is based on psychoanalytically informed interview methods to understand the challenges faced by women and men in the sector, and the impacts this has on their identity construction.
Darren is currently preparing his next research project exploring issues regarding developing leadership and improving the social mobility of women and men in low-skilled work in the UK.
The seminar, that will be held in English, will be broadcasted via live streaming.
Venue
Room -1A, UOC Castelldefels building (Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia, B3 building)
Av. Carl Friedrich Gauss, 5
08860 Castelldefels
Espanya
When
04/07/2017 11.00h
Organized by
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Gender and ICT Research Group of the IN3
Program
During the seminar the speaker will explain to us his article that explores the lived experiences of women in accounting and finance under neoliberalism using a psycho-analytically informed perspective. He has identified two psychosocial dynamics at play. Firstly, perseverance refers to the recognition by women that the workplace is stacked against them but how one must push through any barriers one encounters to be successful. Secondly, those who fail to persevere and overcome the higher barriers put in their way only have themselves to blame, which renders individuals responsible for their lack of success. He explores how this is achieved through splitting: the negative experiences, which are saturated with anxiety and discomfort, are ignored or blamed on others who are unable to unfold their idealized individual agency to be successful. This article contributes to postfeminist debates on women and neoliberalism by integrating psycho-dynamics in the study of subjectivities under neoliberalism. He shows the psychic processes present in the formation of the neoliberal subject, which enable women to justify gender inequality in the workplace.
Bio
Darren Thomas Baker is a researcher interested in applying psychosocial principles to the study of gender relations, class and leadership. He draws on psychoanalytical theory for epistemological, methodological and ontological inspiration. His research focuses on Finance and Accounting as well as low-skilled service sector occupations, and includes: (1) gender and diversity in organisations (2) leadership and ethics, including capacities for care and responsibility at work, and (3) social mobility and precarity in organisations and wider society.
Darren holds an MA from the University of Oxford where he conducted research on masculinities, and studied for his PhD at the School of Business and Management, King’s College London. Darren has taught at Queen Mary University and King’s College London.
Before entering academia, Darren was a Management Consultant in Deloitte in Human Capital and Accenture. Darren has experience designing and delivering projects for FTSE 250 companies, including work on diversity, inclusion and behaviour change. He continues to advise both private and public sector clients on issues of CSR, Equality and Leadership Development.