Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1981697
Ana López Ricoy
ABSTRACT Studies on transnational social movements rarely acknowledge mobilising that is not polity-centred and that does not target policy change. This article draws attention to rising forms of transnational feminist movements in Latin America that represent an alternative to traditional institution-centred activism. In contrast, symbolic transnationalism arises as non-traditional forms of transnational mobilisation that focus on conveying symbolic political messages through performances, among other strategies. The spread of the performance ‘A Rapist in Your Path’ is analysed as an instance that showcases this novel type of symbolic transnationalism in Latin America. The widespread representation of this performance reflects how feminist groups share a struggle in which the fight against gender violence is one of the most prominent grievances. This viral phenomenon also reflects a growing sense of collective transnational identity based on a shared critical stance towards dominant power structures that reproduce gender violence: mainly the state, but also the church and the family, among others.
{"title":"South–South symbolic transnationalism: echoing the performance ‘A Rapist in Your Path’ in Latin America","authors":"Ana López Ricoy","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.1981697","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.1981697","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Studies on transnational social movements rarely acknowledge mobilising that is not polity-centred and that does not target policy change. This article draws attention to rising forms of transnational feminist movements in Latin America that represent an alternative to traditional institution-centred activism. In contrast, symbolic transnationalism arises as non-traditional forms of transnational mobilisation that focus on conveying symbolic political messages through performances, among other strategies. The spread of the performance ‘A Rapist in Your Path’ is analysed as an instance that showcases this novel type of symbolic transnationalism in Latin America. The widespread representation of this performance reflects how feminist groups share a struggle in which the fight against gender violence is one of the most prominent grievances. This viral phenomenon also reflects a growing sense of collective transnational identity based on a shared critical stance towards dominant power structures that reproduce gender violence: mainly the state, but also the church and the family, among others.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45757425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1981623
Ayesha Khan, Asiya Jawed, Komal Qidwai
ABSTRACT This article draws on qualitative research on five different gendered contentions in Pakistan: a feminist mobilisation, a protest against child sexual abuse, a workers’ mobilisation for greater employment benefits, an ethno-religious minority community’s demand for protection from sectarian attacks, and an ethno-nationalist mobilisation for post-conflict security and greater rights. All our cases of contention are based on claims the state has repeatedly failed to address. The article asks how fragility and conflict shape contentious politics and create opportunities for women’s social and political action. Why do women act collectively and engage in protests and what are their leadership strategies? What do these strategies tell us about the goals of these contentions and the women who lead them? We argue protests function as part of a broader repertoire of strategies to maximise women’s voice and impact in a constrained context. Protest strategies are complemented by advocacy with government, court petitions, engagement with formal politics, and alliance with feminist leaders. Some women leaders strategically traverse the divide between contentious and formal politics, and use their feminist voices to amplifying protest claims and mobilise support. Leaders generate support for each other’s contentions, believing their goals are linked. The positive impacts include the enhanced effectiveness of some protest leaders, improvements in state accountability, widening of feminist discourse, and activists’ empowerment as actors in the public domain. Gains remain uncertain in the long term due to shrinking civic spaces, gendered barriers to political inclusion, and increasing backlash.
{"title":"Women and protest politics in Pakistan","authors":"Ayesha Khan, Asiya Jawed, Komal Qidwai","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.1981623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.1981623","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article draws on qualitative research on five different gendered contentions in Pakistan: a feminist mobilisation, a protest against child sexual abuse, a workers’ mobilisation for greater employment benefits, an ethno-religious minority community’s demand for protection from sectarian attacks, and an ethno-nationalist mobilisation for post-conflict security and greater rights. All our cases of contention are based on claims the state has repeatedly failed to address. The article asks how fragility and conflict shape contentious politics and create opportunities for women’s social and political action. Why do women act collectively and engage in protests and what are their leadership strategies? What do these strategies tell us about the goals of these contentions and the women who lead them? We argue protests function as part of a broader repertoire of strategies to maximise women’s voice and impact in a constrained context. Protest strategies are complemented by advocacy with government, court petitions, engagement with formal politics, and alliance with feminist leaders. Some women leaders strategically traverse the divide between contentious and formal politics, and use their feminist voices to amplifying protest claims and mobilise support. Leaders generate support for each other’s contentions, believing their goals are linked. The positive impacts include the enhanced effectiveness of some protest leaders, improvements in state accountability, widening of feminist discourse, and activists’ empowerment as actors in the public domain. Gains remain uncertain in the long term due to shrinking civic spaces, gendered barriers to political inclusion, and increasing backlash.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45104083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1981703
Nedha de Silva
were hidden in part by those trained in EU countries for whom, thanks to the hostile Brexit environment and even having to pay for their own health care in the hospitals where they work, 1 per cent was the final straw. But then, ‘[n]eoliberal policies have taken care work for granted, reassured by its longstanding provision through patriarchal channels’ (pp. 208–9). Worse, many who didn’t even qualify as ‘frontline staff’, and were not entitled to furlough pay, were exposed to a far higher risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19: bus and taxi drivers, supermarket workers, those delivering groceries or Amazon packages to online consumers, refuse collectors, ‘suffered from poor protections against infection and lack of hazard pay’ (p. 222), if indeed they had any personal protection at all. In the end, Nancy Folbre sees cause for hope, but never for complacency. So many derive benefit from the status quo of layered systems of exploitation, or can be convinced they do, and will defend these to the hilt. They are in a position to shape ideas and aspirations: for the UK government, sciences are ‘in’, the arts (anthropology, archaeology, history, languages ancient and modern, literature, philosophy, political science, the performing arts, and even economics) are ‘out’. They can deflect blame for the harmful consequences of such choices on whatever scapegoat comes to mind. The post-pandemic world will not usher in a new and compassionate normal unless enough of us believe ‘that political rights must be accompanied not only by economic rights but also by obligations to care for one another and for the generations to come’ (p. 229). Count me in.
{"title":"Women’s Economic Empowerment: Insights from Africa and South Asia","authors":"Nedha de Silva","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.1981703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.1981703","url":null,"abstract":"were hidden in part by those trained in EU countries for whom, thanks to the hostile Brexit environment and even having to pay for their own health care in the hospitals where they work, 1 per cent was the final straw. But then, ‘[n]eoliberal policies have taken care work for granted, reassured by its longstanding provision through patriarchal channels’ (pp. 208–9). Worse, many who didn’t even qualify as ‘frontline staff’, and were not entitled to furlough pay, were exposed to a far higher risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19: bus and taxi drivers, supermarket workers, those delivering groceries or Amazon packages to online consumers, refuse collectors, ‘suffered from poor protections against infection and lack of hazard pay’ (p. 222), if indeed they had any personal protection at all. In the end, Nancy Folbre sees cause for hope, but never for complacency. So many derive benefit from the status quo of layered systems of exploitation, or can be convinced they do, and will defend these to the hilt. They are in a position to shape ideas and aspirations: for the UK government, sciences are ‘in’, the arts (anthropology, archaeology, history, languages ancient and modern, literature, philosophy, political science, the performing arts, and even economics) are ‘out’. They can deflect blame for the harmful consequences of such choices on whatever scapegoat comes to mind. The post-pandemic world will not usher in a new and compassionate normal unless enough of us believe ‘that political rights must be accompanied not only by economic rights but also by obligations to care for one another and for the generations to come’ (p. 229). Count me in.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47580040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1978718
madeleine kennedy-macfoy, Tamara Gausi, C. King
ABSTRACT Trade unions exist to harness workers’ collective action as a means of challenging the dominant power structures that seek to exploit their labour. This article highlights the experiences of Black women trade unionists in different parts of the world who were motivated to join trade unions in order to defend workers’ rights and to advance the interests of women workers – especially Black and racialised women workers. The lived experiences of the women interviewed for this article show how the intersection of gender, race, social class, migration status, and age exposes Black women workers to the specific harms of racist, capitalist patriarchy. The women have all faced strong opposition to change both within and outside their own organisations and have had to resist considerable pressure to ‘fall in line’. Yet through this resistance, they have managed to drive progress and transformational change within unions, thereby making a significant contribution to advancing the aims of women’s and feminist movements globally.
{"title":"When a movement moves within a movement: Black women’s feminist activism within trade unions","authors":"madeleine kennedy-macfoy, Tamara Gausi, C. King","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.1978718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.1978718","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Trade unions exist to harness workers’ collective action as a means of challenging the dominant power structures that seek to exploit their labour. This article highlights the experiences of Black women trade unionists in different parts of the world who were motivated to join trade unions in order to defend workers’ rights and to advance the interests of women workers – especially Black and racialised women workers. The lived experiences of the women interviewed for this article show how the intersection of gender, race, social class, migration status, and age exposes Black women workers to the specific harms of racist, capitalist patriarchy. The women have all faced strong opposition to change both within and outside their own organisations and have had to resist considerable pressure to ‘fall in line’. Yet through this resistance, they have managed to drive progress and transformational change within unions, thereby making a significant contribution to advancing the aims of women’s and feminist movements globally.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48418661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1979798
Julia Hartviksen
ABSTRACT This article explores the relationships between violences against women (VAW) and rural development in the context of postwar Guatemala’s Northern Transversal Strip region (FTN). How might we understand the relationships between postwar development, its gendered implications, and VAW in this context? What are the implications of these entanglements for feminist activism? The article explores this question in a twofold way. First, drawing on decolonial and feminist political economic critiques, it broadens the understanding of VAW in relation to development, informed by decolonial, communitarian, and territorial perspectives of bodies, land, and territory. Second, in contending that colonial and neocolonial dispossessions linked to development are linked with VAW, it suggests that these relationships shape women’s defence of land and territories as well as the strategies women community leaders pursue in resisting VAW. Focusing on the impacts of palm oil cultivation in Maya Q’eqchi’ communities in the FTN, it highlights the overlapping interests and strategies for feminist activism, highlighting the webbed interconnections between struggles for land and territory and struggles for justice and an end to VAW as they manifested empirically through the research.
{"title":"Gendered violences and resistances to development: body, land, territory, and violences against women in postwar Guatemala","authors":"Julia Hartviksen","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.1979798","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.1979798","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the relationships between violences against women (VAW) and rural development in the context of postwar Guatemala’s Northern Transversal Strip region (FTN). How might we understand the relationships between postwar development, its gendered implications, and VAW in this context? What are the implications of these entanglements for feminist activism? The article explores this question in a twofold way. First, drawing on decolonial and feminist political economic critiques, it broadens the understanding of VAW in relation to development, informed by decolonial, communitarian, and territorial perspectives of bodies, land, and territory. Second, in contending that colonial and neocolonial dispossessions linked to development are linked with VAW, it suggests that these relationships shape women’s defence of land and territories as well as the strategies women community leaders pursue in resisting VAW. Focusing on the impacts of palm oil cultivation in Maya Q’eqchi’ communities in the FTN, it highlights the overlapping interests and strategies for feminist activism, highlighting the webbed interconnections between struggles for land and territory and struggles for justice and an end to VAW as they manifested empirically through the research.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44233684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1982481
Jennifer M. Piscopo, Malliga Och
ABSTRACT This article analyses how women governors, mayors, and local elected officials promoted public health and social protection in countries where men chief executives failed to take steps to contain the virus. We focus on adverse circumstances in six cases: Brazil, the United States, the Philippines, Japan, Mexico, and India. While individual women may not see their leadership in feminist terms, their pandemic response contrasted with men chief executives’ hypermasculine bravado and slapdash decision-making. Women leaders relied on science, co-ordinated community outreach, and attended to the needs of marginalised groups. Their stories reveal women’s resiliency, resourcefulness, and resolve at the local level.
{"title":"Protecting public health in adverse circumstances: subnational women leaders and feminist policymaking during COVID-19","authors":"Jennifer M. Piscopo, Malliga Och","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.1982481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.1982481","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyses how women governors, mayors, and local elected officials promoted public health and social protection in countries where men chief executives failed to take steps to contain the virus. We focus on adverse circumstances in six cases: Brazil, the United States, the Philippines, Japan, Mexico, and India. While individual women may not see their leadership in feminist terms, their pandemic response contrasted with men chief executives’ hypermasculine bravado and slapdash decision-making. Women leaders relied on science, co-ordinated community outreach, and attended to the needs of marginalised groups. Their stories reveal women’s resiliency, resourcefulness, and resolve at the local level.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59899198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1982179
Juliet Gudhlanga, S. Spiegel
ABSTRACT Although it is increasingly well-known that mining generates a vast array of gendered impacts, less studied is how women in mining zones have turned to online social media to articulate concerns and mobilise for collective action. This article explores how gendered social media communication has conveyed injustices experienced by women in Zimbabwe’s diamond-mining areas and produced spaces of feminist solidarity in navigating structural violence, offering mutual support, and sharing daily developments and strategic initiatives. While Zimbabwe’s diamond-mining controversies have transformed over the years, communication online has continued to occur under the gaze of online state surveillance, and online spaces are never risk-free spaces. Seeking equitable development and inserting into politically sensitive topics, sensibilities of ‘online’ community-building have been different across a range of contexts and for different people. We explore communication online, bringing together discussions of gender-focused critiques of mining megaprojects, state violence, and feminist research in online spaces.
{"title":"Gendered social media communication around mining: patriarchy, diamonds, and seeking feminist solidarity online","authors":"Juliet Gudhlanga, S. Spiegel","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.1982179","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.1982179","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Although it is increasingly well-known that mining generates a vast array of gendered impacts, less studied is how women in mining zones have turned to online social media to articulate concerns and mobilise for collective action. This article explores how gendered social media communication has conveyed injustices experienced by women in Zimbabwe’s diamond-mining areas and produced spaces of feminist solidarity in navigating structural violence, offering mutual support, and sharing daily developments and strategic initiatives. While Zimbabwe’s diamond-mining controversies have transformed over the years, communication online has continued to occur under the gaze of online state surveillance, and online spaces are never risk-free spaces. Seeking equitable development and inserting into politically sensitive topics, sensibilities of ‘online’ community-building have been different across a range of contexts and for different people. We explore communication online, bringing together discussions of gender-focused critiques of mining megaprojects, state violence, and feminist research in online spaces.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45649097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1978749
Daria Colella
ABSTRACT In the context of the current escalation of anti-gender backlash, this article analyses the instrumental use of gender equality by nationalist forces and unpacks the ways in which the latter dynamic threatens feminist politics and gender justice. I study the intersection of gender and sexuality issues with the co-option of selected aspects of the feminist project by right-wing parties and I reflect on the ways in which femonationalist actors enable and fuel the attacks on women and LGBTQI+ people. In particular, I investigate the instrumental use of gender equality to vilify Black and People of Colour migrants and promote anti-immigration sentiments, with a focus on the framing of gender-based violence in racialised terms. By applying a postcolonial lens, I analyse the redeployment of the gendered colonial narrative in the context of contemporary metropolis focusing on the discourse of the far-right Italian party Fratelli d’Italia. I demonstrate that femonationalist discourses (1) reinforce gendered and racialised power structures, hence patriarchal and heteronormative values; and (2) reshape the understanding of gender equality issues, diluting the meaning of activists’ demands. Unpacking the convergence between femonationalism and anti-gender backlash, the paper provides insights on the complexity of the latter phenomenon and contributes to an understanding of the necessity of challenging the narratives promoted by nationalist discourses to dismantle unequal power relations and all hierarchies of dominations. I conclude by discussing the need for feminists to form intersectional alliances among the oppressed to remain true to their emancipatory and transformative political project and build sustainable, equitable, and inclusive movements.
{"title":"Femonationalism and anti-gender backlash: the instrumental use of gender equality in the nationalist discourse of the Fratelli d’Italia party","authors":"Daria Colella","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.1978749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.1978749","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the context of the current escalation of anti-gender backlash, this article analyses the instrumental use of gender equality by nationalist forces and unpacks the ways in which the latter dynamic threatens feminist politics and gender justice. I study the intersection of gender and sexuality issues with the co-option of selected aspects of the feminist project by right-wing parties and I reflect on the ways in which femonationalist actors enable and fuel the attacks on women and LGBTQI+ people. In particular, I investigate the instrumental use of gender equality to vilify Black and People of Colour migrants and promote anti-immigration sentiments, with a focus on the framing of gender-based violence in racialised terms. By applying a postcolonial lens, I analyse the redeployment of the gendered colonial narrative in the context of contemporary metropolis focusing on the discourse of the far-right Italian party Fratelli d’Italia. I demonstrate that femonationalist discourses (1) reinforce gendered and racialised power structures, hence patriarchal and heteronormative values; and (2) reshape the understanding of gender equality issues, diluting the meaning of activists’ demands. Unpacking the convergence between femonationalism and anti-gender backlash, the paper provides insights on the complexity of the latter phenomenon and contributes to an understanding of the necessity of challenging the narratives promoted by nationalist discourses to dismantle unequal power relations and all hierarchies of dominations. I conclude by discussing the need for feminists to form intersectional alliances among the oppressed to remain true to their emancipatory and transformative political project and build sustainable, equitable, and inclusive movements.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43534378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.2005358
Sohela Nazneen, A. Okech
Welcome to Gender & Development’s special double issue on Feminist Protests and Politics in a World in Crisis. This double issue was produced during a global pandemic that has triggered a deep economic crisis and an unprecedented public health emergency worldwide. When we were approached to co-edit this issue, we thought the focus on feminist protest and politics could not be more timely. The multiple and interconnected crises we are living through have adversely impacted women’s, trans and non-binary people’s rights, and gender equality gains made in policy, discourse and practice. We were keen to explore the rapidly evolving terrain of gender justice and feminist organising, and identify where the new energies within feminism were located, and what may be the ways forward for building a feminist future. Our lives are overshadowed by a man-made climate crisis, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting millions and decimating livelihoods and economies. Violent conflicts have become more prolonged, and reflect an unequal global economic and political order that sustains proxy wars with sophisticated technology that allows warfare to be fought remotely, with limited casualties to aggressors. All the while, countries in the global North which benefit from these military interventions and conflicts for natural resource extraction are strengthening anti-immigration laws and heightening border control measures to keep refugees and migrants out. These laws are accompanied by extremist discourses that mobilise Islamophobia and different forms of religious fundamentalisms that rely on conservative interpretations of gender, race and class to define citizenship and belonging. The issues that animate contemporary feminist and gender justice struggles are diverse. In the last decade, new challenges to feminist organising have emerged. These include the rise of conservative populist forces that have co-opted feminist agendas and brought together a diverse set of actors to dismantle gender equality gains. This rise is accompanied by democratic backsliding, and growth in authoritarianism, racism and xenophobia and austerity in many countries. These trends have led governments to increasingly limit freedom of speech and expression, association, and freedom of peaceful assembly. In limiting civil liberties, we observe political regimes re-writing the contours of political organising and citizen engagement, thus reshaping citizenship. Civic space, which is linked to written and unwritten rules that shape the ability of citizens to influence the socio-political and economic context in which they operate, is being
{"title":"Introduction: feminist protests and politics in a world in crisis","authors":"Sohela Nazneen, A. Okech","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2021.2005358","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2021.2005358","url":null,"abstract":"Welcome to Gender & Development’s special double issue on Feminist Protests and Politics in a World in Crisis. This double issue was produced during a global pandemic that has triggered a deep economic crisis and an unprecedented public health emergency worldwide. When we were approached to co-edit this issue, we thought the focus on feminist protest and politics could not be more timely. The multiple and interconnected crises we are living through have adversely impacted women’s, trans and non-binary people’s rights, and gender equality gains made in policy, discourse and practice. We were keen to explore the rapidly evolving terrain of gender justice and feminist organising, and identify where the new energies within feminism were located, and what may be the ways forward for building a feminist future. Our lives are overshadowed by a man-made climate crisis, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting millions and decimating livelihoods and economies. Violent conflicts have become more prolonged, and reflect an unequal global economic and political order that sustains proxy wars with sophisticated technology that allows warfare to be fought remotely, with limited casualties to aggressors. All the while, countries in the global North which benefit from these military interventions and conflicts for natural resource extraction are strengthening anti-immigration laws and heightening border control measures to keep refugees and migrants out. These laws are accompanied by extremist discourses that mobilise Islamophobia and different forms of religious fundamentalisms that rely on conservative interpretations of gender, race and class to define citizenship and belonging. The issues that animate contemporary feminist and gender justice struggles are diverse. In the last decade, new challenges to feminist organising have emerged. These include the rise of conservative populist forces that have co-opted feminist agendas and brought together a diverse set of actors to dismantle gender equality gains. This rise is accompanied by democratic backsliding, and growth in authoritarianism, racism and xenophobia and austerity in many countries. These trends have led governments to increasingly limit freedom of speech and expression, association, and freedom of peaceful assembly. In limiting civil liberties, we observe political regimes re-writing the contours of political organising and citizen engagement, thus reshaping citizenship. Civic space, which is linked to written and unwritten rules that shape the ability of citizens to influence the socio-political and economic context in which they operate, is being","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48495140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1979323
M. Atela, A. Ojebode, Racheal Makokha, M. Otieno, Tade Akin Aina
ABSTRACT Public protests, including women-led struggles, are increasingly gaining a foothold in many parts of the world in response to multiple crises and growing exclusion, in a context of fragility. In the global South, most public protests involve temporary, informal coalitions where people come together and participate in a one-off event. The fluid nature of political space makes sustaining protests elusive because of protest fatigue. Yet, the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG), a women-led movement, headed a long-term protest that focused on the rights of the girl child to education – a direct response to Boko Haram’s gendered terror tactics, in which girls were abducted, forced to abandon school, and get married. This article examines when and how movements crystallise into long-term programmes of action in fragile and conflict-affected societies where state–society relations are weak and government is considered to be unresponsive. We use the case of the #BBOG movement, one of Nigeria’s intense social media-driven and women-led action, to examine the mix of pressures it faced, its characteristics, and strategies in situations of fragility, conflict, and closed political spaces. We identify four key strategies that the #BBOG has deployed to keep members coming, garner international support and sympathy, keep pressure on the elite in a safe manner for the movement members, and ensure an independent funding regime for durability and impact. This article finds that #BBOG was able to navigate fragility and the closing civic space in Nigeria by challenging the failure of government to address insecurity in the country, transcending societal barriers including gender, religion, and political class, transnationalising their movement, self-funding, and using social media strategically.
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