WG1 meeting 2023-11-09

WG1 (Gender and Social Economy)

Core-group Meeting

Date: November 9, 2023

Participants: Derek Johnson, Kyoko Kusakabe, Tara Nair, Nikita Gopal, Nireka Weeratunge, Holly Hapke and Mahfuzar Rahman

Discussions and decisions:

Derek: My intention for this meeting is to identify the most promising directions and develop strategies for delivering important outcomes within our limited timeframe.

Kyoko: One of my proposals is to make a case book that includes happy and sad stories and real-life cases. The idea for the case book originated from the Kolkata meeting.

Derek: One of our major outputs could be a synthesis paper and a special issue focusing on the social economy through a gender lens.

Nireka: A synthesis paper is an excellent starting point with a strong theoretical foundation based on empirical data. The idea of a casebook is good. The special issue could be published in Maritime Studies or something like it.

The case book should include not only happy and sad stories but also challenges.

Kyoko: The case book is more informal; it could have different sections covering various themes – challenges, opportunities and best practices. The special issue papers might lean towards the theoretical side.  

Holly: Do we have sufficient resources to execute these ideas?

Nireka: Senior researchers could lead the synthesis paper, and the special issues can be handled differently.

Derek: regarding sequences, we can do the case book and synthesis paper simultaneously.

Kyoko: Case studies for the case book will come from the country teams, featuring exciting cases that have not yet been published. This will also provide opportunities for students to contribute their stories.

Tara: A synthesis should come from a robust empirical base. Do we have enough knowledge and evidence on gender from various regions?

Derek: I intended the synthesis paper to be more theoretical, and we can use available resources and illustrations from the teams to support it.  I can assign a research assistant to work on it.

Kyoko: The project offers a different perspective and depth, not just focusing on processing but other areas as well. We should highlight these aspects at the project’s end.

DJ:  We can target a conference. We have two upcoming conferences – IIFET and TBTI. The IIFET conference has passed, and for TBTI, we haven’t submitted any- we could push a panel proposal for the TBTI.

Holly: We (Kyoko and I) have already put a gender session at IIFET in July. This could be one option.

Nireka: If we look at the E-book, we have a lot of empirical gender things; we can go back to the authors and ask them what kind of theme and data they have; after publication, new things can come up. That might be an idea. If we, the seniors, the synthesis paper authors, can take the lead of a country and communicate with the E-book authors for themes and evidence, that will be very helpful. Each of the senior researchers can take responsibility for each country.

Holly: I can suggest something similar. Even if it doesn’t cover all DFM regions.

Derek: It is a good idea to use a combination of two approaches, as Nireka suggested. Also, we can use a template. Not only the E-book but there are also interesting gender data in the scoping reports we are expecting soon. Students are also doing really wonderful studies on gender. On the template, there could be issues like agency, patriarchy, and more theoretical kinds of things.

Nireka: The TBTI format does not support a special session on gender; all are plenary, 8-12-minute presentations, and April is too early for the paper.

Kyoko: The casebook idea would be very helpful for the synthesis paper; for the synthesis paper, we need to look at the main part of the research.

Nireka: What is the project’s end time? People are also planning new research.

Derek: It’s ending on March 31, 2026. We still have a decent amount of money to fund research. The case book is like it fell out of the table. The synthesis paper will be the core findings of the research.

Nireka: we can also call the case book margin of the margins.

Holly: It would be interesting to explore what each of us found personally around gender in the project. The Kerala report, for example, has shown significant variations in women’s involvement over time and space, which need to be theorized.

Nireka: Exploring themes like the involvement of younger generations and changes in family dynamics could be valuable. In Sri Lanka, younger generations don’t want to be involved in DF. Looking at all of these issues, space, and time, and theorizing them, will be a good contribution.

Holly: relatively young women, self-organized group, young women see it’s a viable thing,

Nireka: in Sri Lanka, it is a household, husband and wife, using modern methods

Derek: Through our discussion, we can map differences across regions and identify distinctive research aspects.  

Holly: The organizational forms and historical evolution of these aspects could be explored.

Derek: I would like to propose a follow-up meeting of these groups. Also, I would like to propose someone from this group lead and report this pathway to the plenary meeting. Is somebody willing to take the lead?

Nireka: I can summarize what we discussed regarding the two products and how we plan to communicate, and others could add if I missed anything.

Derek: After this focus group, I’d like to schedule the larger gender group meeting. Is that good enough?

Nireka: It would be helpful if we have something written.  

Derek: Let’s write something; it could be Google Docs. Even one paragraph should be helpful. I personally like to meet with the group before Christmas. The deadline for the written thoughts could be one week before the meeting. Each of us will write a paragraph to share with the group.

Thanks, everyone.