[Bio] [Research] [Courses] [Publications] 

Research Overview

The emergence of subversive dispositions in men: A comparative study between Berkeley and Geneva

This study, following on from my previous research on women’s gender subversion, aims to analyze the emergence of dispositions to subvert gender over men’s life span. It is based on qualitative interviews held among 30 gender sensitive men in Berkeley and in Geneva. This research is being sponsored by a SNF Fellowship for advanced researchers (24 months).

Women’s relationship to emancipation. Sociology of dispositions toward gender transformation

This research analyzes the emergence of dispositions towards transforming or ‘undoing’ gender. In qualitative interviews with thirty subjects, we seek to understand what, during their life’s path, led interviewees to develop a critical position. Our plan was to grasp the various attitudes towards gender change as expressed in discourse and occasionally in shifts in thought or belief, as well as in practical forms or actions which may not be perceived as such.

This research follows on from my book, De l’argent à soi (Money of her own) (Bachmann, 2009), which shows that, within the context of the individualization of social relations, social issues are perceived in psychological or ethical form. The research examines the question of a shift from a perception in terms of individuals who do not share the same conditions to a perception that takes account of social relations. This fundamental question could be applied more widely to social relations other than gender, such as class or ethnic relations.

A Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) research project led by Laurence Bachmann, in collaboration with Mathieu Carnal.

Money of her own. Women’s social preoccupations as seen through their relationship to money

My doctoral thesis explores the question of women’s appropriation of the democratic ideal of autonomy and equality of women throughtheir relationship to money within a couple. In particular, It looks at the way women give meaning to money, within the context of an ideal of emancipation and also of objective inequalities between gender. The study shows that the democratic ideal is a matter of self-concern to women who are equipped to think about their emancipation. Their ethical requirements, revealed by their relationship to money, refer implicitly to the relations of domination between the sexes, certain aspects of which are no longer tolerated. By demonstrating that women are now working towards their emancipation individually rather than collectively, and without having recourse to criticism of the social relations between the sexes, this qualitative research takes a new look at the question of the legacy left by 1970s feminism.

As part of my research, I spent three years (2007-2009) working on an ATIP project entitled Sharing in couples: legal norms and social customs concerning money and goods (Quebec, Switzerland, France, USA), run by the CNRS and coordinated by Agnès Martial. The project brought together international researchers from various disciplines studying the issue of couples’ use of money.

Media coverage of Micheline Calmy-Rey’s and Ruth Dreifus’ years as president.

This research, co-directed by Laurence Bachmann and Sébastien Salerno, from the media and communication section of the sociology department at the University of Geneva, focused on the way in which the 2007 president of Switzerland, Micheline Calmy-Rey, used the media to modernize the image of Switzerland and women. The second part of the research project is currently studying Ruth Dreifus’ year as president (1999).

Other research

From private to public: the professionalization and social work of care

Collaboration as a scientific associate on the Fond Doré (FNS) project directed by Professor Marianne Modak of the Hets HES-SO in Lausanne (2005-2007).

Social consequences of fusion and restructuring in a large Swiss bank

Qualitative and quantitative research under the direction of Professor Franz Schultheis (1998-2000).

Paths taken by unemployed women in Switzerland

Qualitative and longitudinal research carried out in the Gender Studies Institute of the University of Geneva, directed by Professors Françoise Messant-Laurent and Josette Coenen-Huther, and financed by the rectorship of the University of Geneva as part of the interfaculty program on Social Exclusion (1997-2001).