Raewyn Connell, born in Sydney on the 3rd January 1944, is an Australian sociologist who focuses her studies and teaching on education, gender studies, political science and history which is clearly shown through the content of her books and journals, these include; Southern Theory, Gender and power, Masculinities and schools and social justice. Connell has common themes that live throughout her writing which portrays her ideologies of social life. In her early writing, she focuses on issues relating to gender but throughout the 90s her attention goes to criticising the northern bias of mainstream social science and the colonial’s structures of knowledge (n.d, 2017). Raewyn Connell is also a transsexual woman who made her official transition late in her life; a lot of her early writings are about transsexuality. Because of this she has a keen interest in gender studies and equality. ‘She has been involved in other political causes: the peace movement, feminist groups such as Sydney Action for Juárez, and support of public education’ as well as being ‘an advisor to United Nations initiatives on gender equality and peace making’ (Connell, n.d).
Connell has a keen interest in the role that gender plays in sociology. She speaks about biological essentialism in her article ‘Gender: Biology, Roles and Activism’ (Connell, n.d), which is the idea that an individual’s personality is based on human nature rather than upbringing and surrounding cultures; for example, homosexuality is an ‘innate and natural essence, rather than a product of circumstances’ (Chandler, 2011). She believes that the theory of biological essentialism evolved throughout the years, it started as a way to describe how men supposedly had a biological hostility advantage; as it developed ‘different reproductive strategies were emphasised’ (Connell, n.d); some of these ideas were used to justify rape in the 1990s. This type of power through gender is still prevailing in today’s society; female genital mutilation, foot binding and Breast ironing are all things that’s use biological essentialism to justify their uses (Moagan, 2010). This ties in with her book gender and power which looks at the relationship between social hierarchy and gender (Connell, 1987).
In the journal ‘The shape of sociology for the 21st century’ (2012), Connell states that
debating sociological knowledge and what makes this; along with other forms of knowledge. Connell then moves on to discuss how the kind of knowledge produced by sociologists is affected by the location that the sociologists dominate. Connell consistently talks about how place and history are key to having shaped sociology’s narratives of global social change; she refers to this as the ‘geopolitical’ dimension of knowledge. Geopolitics is the effect of geography on your political stance; an example of this would be through trade, if America trades with the UK, they will be likely to understand and participate in the UK’s politics due to different factors possibly affecting their trade.
The North Atlantic Society is the inclusive name for all of the societies within North West Europe and North America. These societies have faced many social changes within the last few hundred years, this includes things such as: ‘an industrial revolution, a democratic revolution and an urban revolution. New social forms arose: capitalism, bureaucracy, mass society. Along with them came individualism, class struggle, the nuclear family, gender politics, sexuality, mass communications, adolescence’ (Connell, 2012).
Connell speaks about two contrasting narratives concerning history and social change within the north Atlantic societies, some of the changes include; Mast communication and international trade which has developed modernised societies around the world therefore creating globalisation where the results generate an increased united worldwide society creating things such as cosmopolitanism and global citizenship. The word globalisation, or globalization, ‘refers to the emerging of an international network, belonging to an economical and social system’ (Albrow, 1990). Raewyn Connell lives in Australia and write that she lives ‘in a rich country in the global periphery, located a far from the North Atlantic as it is possible to go while still keeping feet on the planet’ (2012); this suggests that her home land is far away from being a part of the North Atlantic Society group which is a juxtaposition because Australia and Europe have a lot in common when it comes to hierarchies, economy, trade, lifestyle etc. Connell suggests that through globalisation and colonialism Britain has changed Australia from its original traditions where the indigenous people were foragers and hunter gatherers to societies that have been tainted and moulded with British ways. Evidence has shown that Australian civilians were fishermen who would trade with countries such as Indonesia which indicated a certain amount of sophistication when it comes to economics (Macknight, 1986); this raises the question of if they hadn’t of been invaded and concerned by Europeans would they still have developed into the rich, first world country they are today? Although in contrast while they were trading European countries were taking over the world. This however, proves Connells point that she makes in Southern Theory (2007) that Eurocentrism is seen to be how Europe aid countries to make them civilised, cultured and prosperous. This is interesting because of her ideologies around the location of sociology and how those in North Atlantic Societies have creditable work; Connell states that ‘colonies represented data mines, with information extracted in a variety of was and shipped to the metropole. There the data (is) assembled, …, by institutions, such as ethnographic museums, sociological societies, journals and university departments. Data analysis and theory production took place in the metropole’, this is saying that information is brought to countries within the metropole to be examined and analysed because that’s where they have the sociologists and institutions which allows them to create journals and hypotheses. This says that although Australia is not in the correct geographical metropole to be a part of the North Atlantic Society however due to colonialism and the development that Britain brought its now a credible country when it comes to sociological work.
The rise of the North Atlantic Society has brought worldwide imperium through impowering and advancing countries globally to join and compete in the capitalist society; which in turn increases the capitalism. This transformed all walks of life within the communities of practically every country. ‘Post-Industrial society, second modernity, post-modernity, risk society, network society’ (Connell, 2012) are all notable effects of change that are recognised within the two narratives of change. I believe that the most significant transformation that Connell mentions Is colonialism and how it brought a lot of power to Europe and created a very Eurocentric global society. Colonialism destroyed countries by enslaving their populations, dethroning their rulers and creating racism as a way to statute over countries that were considered to be uncivilised; ‘North Atlantic societies and their cultures were transformed as they became imperial power centers, importers of raw materials, food and luxuries, and exporters of armies, governors, settlers, capital, religion, machinery’ (Connell, 2012). Quijano (2007) says that ‘A relation of direct, political, social and cultural domination’ was created by Europeans over all countries they had seized; he stated that this form of domination is called Eurocentered Colonialism, ‘In its political, above all the formal and explicit aspect, this colonial domination has been defeated in the large majority of the cases’.
All of the sociology products that were made within the North Atlantic Society was also consumed within the metropole because ‘new reading pupils including bodies of students in the sociology courses that multiplied in the 1890s’, however a lot of the products were also sent to different colonies ‘in the form of theories of social evolution and racial hierarchy’, the people who choose to read these journals were usually those who were ‘settlers and modernizing elites in the global periphery’ (Connell, 2012) this highlights that those within the metropole were influenced by the readings and works of those who were local, promoting ideology’s they would believe as a nation as well as influencing the minds of those within the colonised areas therefore making everyone believe eurocentrism views. This could be and is considered propaganda and many people critique this. Kraehe (2018) says that ‘the complex of white visuality retains these norms, reproducing and transferring their power from one generation to the next, from one medium to another. Moreover, the empire of whiteness, reinforced by perpetuating such as imagery, maintains its essential boundary walls by perpetually counterpoising European norms against non-European alterity. Thus, within the iconographic matrix of Eurocentric propaganda, ‘the management of impressions and images’ remains vital to the ongoing politics of preserving a western empire’, this states that this sort of propaganda is used to ensure that Eurocentric views are preserved and still enforced.
After the evolutionary crisis in sociology during 1910-1920, sociologist began creating ways to open up within the metropole. A lot of the ideas were shut down by ‘fascism, Stalinism or academic conversation’, however ‘one place where sociology continued to flourish as a collective enterprise was the USA, the new world of power’; this suggests that not only is America part of the North Atlantic Society they’re also globalised and able to be a part of the ever growing globalisation (Connell, 2012).