Feminist Movements as Democratic Innovators in Times of Backlash

Gender Studies Seminar with Susi Meret (Aalborg University, Denmark)

Feminist Movements as Democratic Innovators in Times of Backlash

Abstract

The presentation examines feminist movements across Europe as sites of democratic innovation under conditions of democratic erosion, drawing on the research findings of the project FIERCE (Feminist Movements Revitalizing Democracy in Europe, fierce-project.eu). 

Feminist movements are actors that both resist anti-gender and anti-feminist mobilizations and enact democratic norms through prefigurative practices that reshape democratic participation, deliberation, and decision-making. The analysis identifies five forms of feminist democratic innovation: advance political rights and participation; create subaltern counter-publics; embed intersectional approaches; produce feminist knowledge and promote forms of hybrid activism, which combines institutional and grassroots strategies with rational and affective modes of political communication. 

Overall, the FIERCE findings show that feminist movements across Europe do more than reacting to anti-gender backlash. They actively rework democratic practice by developing innovative strategies that sustain and reconfigure democratic engagement under conditions of political hostility and growing far-right activity.

Bio

Susi Meret is Associate Professor at the Department of Society and Politics (SOCIET) at Aalborg University. Her research focuses on the far right, populism, and challenges to democratic governance in Europe, with particular attention to gender and migration.

Chair: Ov Cristian Norocel, Associate Professor in Gender Studies, Department of Sociology, Lund University

The Seminar Series

The Gender Studies Seminar Series invites researchers to share their insight on key issues for gendered and sexualized lives and knowledges, and to engage in critical discussions about the development of gender studies as an interdisciplinary and intersectional research field. Bringing together scholars from various research fields and theoretical traditions, this seminar series offers a platform for critical reflexions and new insights.

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