Author: Rebecca J. Cook
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512823570
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 617
Book Description
In Frontiers of Gender Equality, editor Rebecca Cook enlarges the chorus of voices to introduce new and different discourses about the wrongs of gender discrimination and to explain the multiple dimensions of gender equality. This volume demonstrates that the wrongs of discrimination can best be understood from the perspective of the discriminated, and that gender discrimination persists and grows in new and different contexts, widening the gap between the principle of gender equality and its realization, particularly for subgroups of women and LGBTQ+ peoples. Frontiers of Gender Equality provides retrospective views of the struggles to eliminate gender discrimination in national courts and international human rights treaties. Focusing on gender equality enables comparisons and contrasts among these regimes to better understand how they reinforce gender equality norms. Different regional and international treaties are examined, those in the forefront of advancing gender equality, those that are promising but little known, and those whose focus includes economic, social, and cultural rights, to explore why some struggles were successful and others less so. The book illustrates how gender discrimination continues to be normalized and camouflaged, and how it intersects with other axes of subordination, such as indigeneity, religion, and poverty, to create new forms of intersectional discrimination. With the benefit of hindsight, the book's contributors reconstruct gender equalities in concrete situations. Given the increasingly porous exchanges between domestic and international law, various national, regional, and international decisions and texts are examined to determine how better to breathe life into equality from the perspectives, for instance, of Indigenous and Muslim women, those who were violated sexually and physically, and those needing access to necessary health care, including abortion. The conclusion suggests areas of future research, including how to translate the concept of intersectionality into normative and institutional settings, which will assist in promoting the goals of gender equality.
Frontiers of Gender Equality
Author: Rebecca J. Cook
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512823570
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 617
Book Description
In Frontiers of Gender Equality, editor Rebecca Cook enlarges the chorus of voices to introduce new and different discourses about the wrongs of gender discrimination and to explain the multiple dimensions of gender equality. This volume demonstrates that the wrongs of discrimination can best be understood from the perspective of the discriminated, and that gender discrimination persists and grows in new and different contexts, widening the gap between the principle of gender equality and its realization, particularly for subgroups of women and LGBTQ+ peoples. Frontiers of Gender Equality provides retrospective views of the struggles to eliminate gender discrimination in national courts and international human rights treaties. Focusing on gender equality enables comparisons and contrasts among these regimes to better understand how they reinforce gender equality norms. Different regional and international treaties are examined, those in the forefront of advancing gender equality, those that are promising but little known, and those whose focus includes economic, social, and cultural rights, to explore why some struggles were successful and others less so. The book illustrates how gender discrimination continues to be normalized and camouflaged, and how it intersects with other axes of subordination, such as indigeneity, religion, and poverty, to create new forms of intersectional discrimination. With the benefit of hindsight, the book's contributors reconstruct gender equalities in concrete situations. Given the increasingly porous exchanges between domestic and international law, various national, regional, and international decisions and texts are examined to determine how better to breathe life into equality from the perspectives, for instance, of Indigenous and Muslim women, those who were violated sexually and physically, and those needing access to necessary health care, including abortion. The conclusion suggests areas of future research, including how to translate the concept of intersectionality into normative and institutional settings, which will assist in promoting the goals of gender equality.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512823570
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 617
Book Description
In Frontiers of Gender Equality, editor Rebecca Cook enlarges the chorus of voices to introduce new and different discourses about the wrongs of gender discrimination and to explain the multiple dimensions of gender equality. This volume demonstrates that the wrongs of discrimination can best be understood from the perspective of the discriminated, and that gender discrimination persists and grows in new and different contexts, widening the gap between the principle of gender equality and its realization, particularly for subgroups of women and LGBTQ+ peoples. Frontiers of Gender Equality provides retrospective views of the struggles to eliminate gender discrimination in national courts and international human rights treaties. Focusing on gender equality enables comparisons and contrasts among these regimes to better understand how they reinforce gender equality norms. Different regional and international treaties are examined, those in the forefront of advancing gender equality, those that are promising but little known, and those whose focus includes economic, social, and cultural rights, to explore why some struggles were successful and others less so. The book illustrates how gender discrimination continues to be normalized and camouflaged, and how it intersects with other axes of subordination, such as indigeneity, religion, and poverty, to create new forms of intersectional discrimination. With the benefit of hindsight, the book's contributors reconstruct gender equalities in concrete situations. Given the increasingly porous exchanges between domestic and international law, various national, regional, and international decisions and texts are examined to determine how better to breathe life into equality from the perspectives, for instance, of Indigenous and Muslim women, those who were violated sexually and physically, and those needing access to necessary health care, including abortion. The conclusion suggests areas of future research, including how to translate the concept of intersectionality into normative and institutional settings, which will assist in promoting the goals of gender equality.
Revolutionary Struggles and Girls’ Education
Author: Thera Mjaaland
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498594662
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
Revolutionary Struggles and Girls' Education: At the Frontiers of Gender Norms in North-Ethiopia argues that at the base of girls’ poorer performance than boys at secondary school level when puberty has set in, is the “symbolic violence” entailed in sanctioned femaleness. Informed by the modesty of Virgin Mary in Orthodox Christian veneration, it instructs girls to internalize a “holding back” which impinges on her self-efficacy and ability to be an active learner. Neoliberally-informed educational policies and plans which have co-opted liberal feminism also in Ethiopia, do not address “hard-lived” gender norms and the power and domination dynamics entailed when parity between boys and girls in school continues to be the dominant measure for equity. Despite women’s courageous contribution at a literal “frontier” during the Tigrayan liberation struggle (1975-91) where they fought on equal terms with men, and despite the tendency that girls’ outnumber boys at secondary level in the present context, sanctioned femaleness constitutes a “frontier” for girls’ educational success and transition to higher education. In fact, when teaching-learning continues to be based on memorization rather than critical thinking, the very transformative potential of education is undermined - also in a gendered sense.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498594662
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
Revolutionary Struggles and Girls' Education: At the Frontiers of Gender Norms in North-Ethiopia argues that at the base of girls’ poorer performance than boys at secondary school level when puberty has set in, is the “symbolic violence” entailed in sanctioned femaleness. Informed by the modesty of Virgin Mary in Orthodox Christian veneration, it instructs girls to internalize a “holding back” which impinges on her self-efficacy and ability to be an active learner. Neoliberally-informed educational policies and plans which have co-opted liberal feminism also in Ethiopia, do not address “hard-lived” gender norms and the power and domination dynamics entailed when parity between boys and girls in school continues to be the dominant measure for equity. Despite women’s courageous contribution at a literal “frontier” during the Tigrayan liberation struggle (1975-91) where they fought on equal terms with men, and despite the tendency that girls’ outnumber boys at secondary level in the present context, sanctioned femaleness constitutes a “frontier” for girls’ educational success and transition to higher education. In fact, when teaching-learning continues to be based on memorization rather than critical thinking, the very transformative potential of education is undermined - also in a gendered sense.
Social Partners and Gender Equality
Author: Anna Elomäki
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030811786
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
This book breaks new ground in gender and politics research by studying the multiple ways in which gender and intersectional equalities shape and are shaped by social partners representing employers and employees in Europe, as well as the relationships between those social partners. Little critical attention has been paid to these organizations, yet, as this volume illustrates, social partners are important actors in relation to gender and other inequalities at the level of both individual European countries and the European Union. The chapters in this volume explore the impact of social partners on (in)equalities in a variety of 21st-century political contexts, taking into account phenomena such as neoliberalisation, austerity, and the COVID-19 crisis. This volume adds a crucial dimension to studies on gender inequalities in the labour market, contributing to research on issues such as domestic work, the gender pay gap, and the persistent undervaluation of women’s labour and feminized reproductive labour, in particular care work. It also represents a significant contribution to the literature on gender equality policy. The book’s focus on social partners provides important insights that help to explain the persistence of gender inequalities and the difficulties of adopting and implementing policies to combat them. This volume should appeal to students and researchers of gender studies, politics, European politics, employment relations, and international relations, as well as to policymakers engaged in addressing gender inequalities in the labour market.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030811786
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
This book breaks new ground in gender and politics research by studying the multiple ways in which gender and intersectional equalities shape and are shaped by social partners representing employers and employees in Europe, as well as the relationships between those social partners. Little critical attention has been paid to these organizations, yet, as this volume illustrates, social partners are important actors in relation to gender and other inequalities at the level of both individual European countries and the European Union. The chapters in this volume explore the impact of social partners on (in)equalities in a variety of 21st-century political contexts, taking into account phenomena such as neoliberalisation, austerity, and the COVID-19 crisis. This volume adds a crucial dimension to studies on gender inequalities in the labour market, contributing to research on issues such as domestic work, the gender pay gap, and the persistent undervaluation of women’s labour and feminized reproductive labour, in particular care work. It also represents a significant contribution to the literature on gender equality policy. The book’s focus on social partners provides important insights that help to explain the persistence of gender inequalities and the difficulties of adopting and implementing policies to combat them. This volume should appeal to students and researchers of gender studies, politics, European politics, employment relations, and international relations, as well as to policymakers engaged in addressing gender inequalities in the labour market.
Research Handbook on New Frontiers of Equality and Diversity at Work
Author: Klarsfeld, Alain
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1800888309
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Spanning five continents, this cutting-edge book provides a thorough international overview of equality, diversity and inclusion at work. Analysing the demographics of the workplace and the economic outcomes achieved by different segments of the population, it offers readers a better understanding of diverse work environments and how they are influenced by legislation and populations.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1800888309
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Spanning five continents, this cutting-edge book provides a thorough international overview of equality, diversity and inclusion at work. Analysing the demographics of the workplace and the economic outcomes achieved by different segments of the population, it offers readers a better understanding of diverse work environments and how they are influenced by legislation and populations.
Frontiers of Gender Equality
Author: Rebecca J. Cook
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781512823554
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
In Frontiers of Gender Equality, editor Rebecca Cook enlarges the chorus of voices to introduce new and different discourses about the wrongs of gender discrimination and to explain the multiple dimensions of gender equality. This volume demonstrates that the wrongs of discrimination can best be understood from the perspective of the discriminated, and that gender discrimination persists and grows in new and different contexts, widening the gap between the principle of gender equality and its realization, particularly for subgroups of women and LGBTQ+ peoples. Frontiers of Gender Equality provides retrospective views of the struggles to eliminate gender discrimination in national courts and international human rights treaties. Focusing on gender equality enables comparisons and contrasts among these regimes to better understand how they reinforce gender equality norms. Different regional and international treaties are examined, those in the forefront of advancing gender equality, those that are promising but little known, and those whose focus includes economic, social, and cultural rights, to explore why some struggles were successful and others less so. The book illustrates how gender discrimination continues to be normalized and camouflaged, and how it intersects with other axes of subordination, such as indigeneity, religion, and poverty, to create new forms of intersectional discrimination. With the benefit of hindsight, the book's contributors reconstruct gender equalities in concrete situations. Given the increasingly porous exchanges between domestic and international law, various national, regional, and international decisions and texts are examined to determine how better to breathe life into equality from the perspectives, for instance, of Indigenous and Muslim women, those who were violated sexually and physically, and those needing access to necessary health care, including abortion. The conclusion suggests areas of future research, including how to translate the concept of intersectionality into normative and institutional settings, which will assist in promoting the goals of gender equality.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781512823554
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
In Frontiers of Gender Equality, editor Rebecca Cook enlarges the chorus of voices to introduce new and different discourses about the wrongs of gender discrimination and to explain the multiple dimensions of gender equality. This volume demonstrates that the wrongs of discrimination can best be understood from the perspective of the discriminated, and that gender discrimination persists and grows in new and different contexts, widening the gap between the principle of gender equality and its realization, particularly for subgroups of women and LGBTQ+ peoples. Frontiers of Gender Equality provides retrospective views of the struggles to eliminate gender discrimination in national courts and international human rights treaties. Focusing on gender equality enables comparisons and contrasts among these regimes to better understand how they reinforce gender equality norms. Different regional and international treaties are examined, those in the forefront of advancing gender equality, those that are promising but little known, and those whose focus includes economic, social, and cultural rights, to explore why some struggles were successful and others less so. The book illustrates how gender discrimination continues to be normalized and camouflaged, and how it intersects with other axes of subordination, such as indigeneity, religion, and poverty, to create new forms of intersectional discrimination. With the benefit of hindsight, the book's contributors reconstruct gender equalities in concrete situations. Given the increasingly porous exchanges between domestic and international law, various national, regional, and international decisions and texts are examined to determine how better to breathe life into equality from the perspectives, for instance, of Indigenous and Muslim women, those who were violated sexually and physically, and those needing access to necessary health care, including abortion. The conclusion suggests areas of future research, including how to translate the concept of intersectionality into normative and institutional settings, which will assist in promoting the goals of gender equality.
Women in Science: Materials
Author: Maria Chiara Bignozzi
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889669513
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 445
Book Description
The Frontiers in Materials Editorial Office team are delighted to present the inaugural “Women in Science: Materials” article collection, showcasing the high-quality work of women in science across the breadth of materials science and engineering. All researchers featured within this collection were individually nominated by the Topic Editors in recognition of their status as leading academics who have great potential to influence the future directions of their respective fields. The work presented here highlights the diversity of research performed across the entire breadth of the materials science and engineering field and presents advances in theory, experimentation, and methodology with applications for solving compelling problems. This Editorial features the corresponding author(s) of each paper published within this important collection, ordered by section alphabetically, highlighting them as the great researchers of the future. The Frontiers in Materials Editorial Office team would like to thank each researcher who contributed their work to this collection. We would also like to personally thank the Topic Editors for their exemplary leadership of this article collection; their strong support and passion for this important, community-driven collection has ensured its success and global impact. Emily Young Journal Development Manager
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889669513
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 445
Book Description
The Frontiers in Materials Editorial Office team are delighted to present the inaugural “Women in Science: Materials” article collection, showcasing the high-quality work of women in science across the breadth of materials science and engineering. All researchers featured within this collection were individually nominated by the Topic Editors in recognition of their status as leading academics who have great potential to influence the future directions of their respective fields. The work presented here highlights the diversity of research performed across the entire breadth of the materials science and engineering field and presents advances in theory, experimentation, and methodology with applications for solving compelling problems. This Editorial features the corresponding author(s) of each paper published within this important collection, ordered by section alphabetically, highlighting them as the great researchers of the future. The Frontiers in Materials Editorial Office team would like to thank each researcher who contributed their work to this collection. We would also like to personally thank the Topic Editors for their exemplary leadership of this article collection; their strong support and passion for this important, community-driven collection has ensured its success and global impact. Emily Young Journal Development Manager
Gender Roles in the Future? Theoretical Foundations and Future Research Directions
Author: Alice H. Eagly
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889631400
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
The study of gender is deservedly a major focus of research in the discipline of psychology in general and social psychology in particular. Interest in the topic increased sharply in the 1970s with the flowering of the feminist movement, and research has continued to advance since that time. In 1987, Alice Eagly formulated Social Role Theory to explain the behavior of women and men as well as the stereotypes, attitudes, and ideologies that are relevant to sex and gender. Enhanced by several extensions over the intervening years, this theory became one of the pre-eminent, if not the central, theory of gender in social psychology. Also, over the last decades, social psychologists have developed a variety of related approaches to understanding gender, including, for instance, theories devoted to stereotyping, leadership, status, backlash, lack of fit to occupational roles, social identity, and categorization. Reflecting these elements, this e-Book includes articles that encompasses a wide range of themes pertaining to sex and gender. In these papers, the concept of social roles appears often as central integrative concept that links individuals with their social environment. These articles thereby complement social role theory as the authors reach out to build an extended theoretical foundation for gender research of the future.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889631400
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
The study of gender is deservedly a major focus of research in the discipline of psychology in general and social psychology in particular. Interest in the topic increased sharply in the 1970s with the flowering of the feminist movement, and research has continued to advance since that time. In 1987, Alice Eagly formulated Social Role Theory to explain the behavior of women and men as well as the stereotypes, attitudes, and ideologies that are relevant to sex and gender. Enhanced by several extensions over the intervening years, this theory became one of the pre-eminent, if not the central, theory of gender in social psychology. Also, over the last decades, social psychologists have developed a variety of related approaches to understanding gender, including, for instance, theories devoted to stereotyping, leadership, status, backlash, lack of fit to occupational roles, social identity, and categorization. Reflecting these elements, this e-Book includes articles that encompasses a wide range of themes pertaining to sex and gender. In these papers, the concept of social roles appears often as central integrative concept that links individuals with their social environment. These articles thereby complement social role theory as the authors reach out to build an extended theoretical foundation for gender research of the future.
Towards Gender Equity in Development
Author: Siwan Anderson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198829590
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 438
Book Description
As a result of widespread mistreatment and overt discrimination, women in the developing world often lack autonomy. This book explores key sources of female empowerment and discusses the current challenges and opportunities for the future.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198829590
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 438
Book Description
As a result of widespread mistreatment and overt discrimination, women in the developing world often lack autonomy. This book explores key sources of female empowerment and discusses the current challenges and opportunities for the future.
The Pink Line
Author: Mark Gevisser
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374713448
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
One of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Longlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize. "[Mark] Gevisser is clear-eyed and wise enough to have a sharp sense of how tough the struggle has been, and how hard it will be now for those who have not succeeded in finding shelter from prejudice." --Colm Tóibín, The Guardian A groundbreaking look at how the issues of sexuality and gender identity divide and unite the world today More than seven years in the making, Mark Gevisser’s The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers is an exploration of how the conversation around sexual orientation and gender identity has come to divide—and describe—the world in an entirely new way over the first two decades of the twenty-first century. No social movement has brought change so quickly and with such dramatically mixed results. While same-sex marriage and gender transition are celebrated in some parts of the world, laws are being strengthened to criminalize homosexuality and gender nonconformity in others. As new globalized queer identities are adopted by people across the world—thanks to the digital revolution—fresh culture wars have emerged. A new Pink Line, Gevisser argues, has been drawn across the globe, and he takes readers to its frontiers. Between sensitive and sometimes startling profiles of the queer folk he’s encountered along the Pink Line, Gevisser offers sharp analytical chapters exploring identity politics, religion, gender ideology, capitalism, human rights, moral panics, geopolitics, and what he calls “the new transgender culture wars.” His subjects include a Ugandan refugee in flight to Canada, a trans woman fighting for custody of her child in Moscow, a lesbian couple campaigning for marriage equality in Mexico, genderqueer high schoolers coming of age in Michigan, a gay Israeli-Palestinian couple searching for common ground, and a community of kothis—“women’s hearts in men’s bodies”—who run a temple in an Indian fishing village. What results is a moving and multifaceted picture of the world today, and the queer people defining it. Eye-opening, heartfelt, expertly researched, and compellingly narrated, The Pink Line is a monumental—and urgent—journey of unprecedented scope into twenty-first-century identity, seen through the border posts along the world’s new LGBTQ+ frontiers.
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374713448
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
One of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Longlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize. "[Mark] Gevisser is clear-eyed and wise enough to have a sharp sense of how tough the struggle has been, and how hard it will be now for those who have not succeeded in finding shelter from prejudice." --Colm Tóibín, The Guardian A groundbreaking look at how the issues of sexuality and gender identity divide and unite the world today More than seven years in the making, Mark Gevisser’s The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers is an exploration of how the conversation around sexual orientation and gender identity has come to divide—and describe—the world in an entirely new way over the first two decades of the twenty-first century. No social movement has brought change so quickly and with such dramatically mixed results. While same-sex marriage and gender transition are celebrated in some parts of the world, laws are being strengthened to criminalize homosexuality and gender nonconformity in others. As new globalized queer identities are adopted by people across the world—thanks to the digital revolution—fresh culture wars have emerged. A new Pink Line, Gevisser argues, has been drawn across the globe, and he takes readers to its frontiers. Between sensitive and sometimes startling profiles of the queer folk he’s encountered along the Pink Line, Gevisser offers sharp analytical chapters exploring identity politics, religion, gender ideology, capitalism, human rights, moral panics, geopolitics, and what he calls “the new transgender culture wars.” His subjects include a Ugandan refugee in flight to Canada, a trans woman fighting for custody of her child in Moscow, a lesbian couple campaigning for marriage equality in Mexico, genderqueer high schoolers coming of age in Michigan, a gay Israeli-Palestinian couple searching for common ground, and a community of kothis—“women’s hearts in men’s bodies”—who run a temple in an Indian fishing village. What results is a moving and multifaceted picture of the world today, and the queer people defining it. Eye-opening, heartfelt, expertly researched, and compellingly narrated, The Pink Line is a monumental—and urgent—journey of unprecedented scope into twenty-first-century identity, seen through the border posts along the world’s new LGBTQ+ frontiers.
Language, Cognition and Gender
Author: Alan Garnham
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889198928
Category : Science (General)
Languages : en
Pages : 203
Book Description
Gender inequality remains an issue of high relevance, and controversy, in society. Previous research shows that language contributes to gender inequality in various ways: Gender-related information is transmitted through formal and semantic features of language, such as the grammatical category of gender, through gender-related connotations of role names (e.g., manager, secretary), and through customs of denoting social groups with derogatory vs. neutral names. Both as a formal system and as a means of communication, language passively reflects culture-specific social conditions. In active use it can also be used to express and, potentially, perpetuate those conditions. The questions addressed in the contributions to this Frontiers Special Topic include: • how languages shape the cognitive representations of gender • how features of languages correspond with gender equality in different societies • how language contributes to social behaviour towards the sexes • how gender equality can be promoted through strategies for gender-fair language use These questions are explored both developmentally (across the life span from childhood to old age) and in adults. The contributions present work conducted across a wide range of languages, including some studies that make cross-linguistic comparisons. Among the contributors are both cognitive and social psychologists and linguists, all with an excellent research standing. The studies employ a wide range of empirical methods: from surveys to electro-physiology. The papers in the Special Topic present a wide range of complimentary studies, which will make a substantial contribution to understanding in this important area.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889198928
Category : Science (General)
Languages : en
Pages : 203
Book Description
Gender inequality remains an issue of high relevance, and controversy, in society. Previous research shows that language contributes to gender inequality in various ways: Gender-related information is transmitted through formal and semantic features of language, such as the grammatical category of gender, through gender-related connotations of role names (e.g., manager, secretary), and through customs of denoting social groups with derogatory vs. neutral names. Both as a formal system and as a means of communication, language passively reflects culture-specific social conditions. In active use it can also be used to express and, potentially, perpetuate those conditions. The questions addressed in the contributions to this Frontiers Special Topic include: • how languages shape the cognitive representations of gender • how features of languages correspond with gender equality in different societies • how language contributes to social behaviour towards the sexes • how gender equality can be promoted through strategies for gender-fair language use These questions are explored both developmentally (across the life span from childhood to old age) and in adults. The contributions present work conducted across a wide range of languages, including some studies that make cross-linguistic comparisons. Among the contributors are both cognitive and social psychologists and linguists, all with an excellent research standing. The studies employ a wide range of empirical methods: from surveys to electro-physiology. The papers in the Special Topic present a wide range of complimentary studies, which will make a substantial contribution to understanding in this important area.