This book explores the role and place of feminist politics in the transformation of the former socialist world and points out the geopolitical mechanisms involved in the deployment of technocratic norms, expert discourses, activist repertoires and academic knowledge on women’s rights and gender equality in the 1990s-2000s. Based on an interdisciplinary approach and scrutinizing transnational flows of people, resources and ideas, the analysis brings together themes and spaces that have been disconnected in previous scholarship. It sheds light on the integration of feminist resources into contemporary governance through complex entanglements of international aid to democratization, “activism beyond borders” and systemic transformation of higher education.The book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology, political science, gender studies, and East-European studies.
Author(s): Ioana Cîrstocea
Series: Socio-Historical Studies of the Social and Human Sciences
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 418
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
1: (Re)Making “Gender”, (Un)Making “Eastern Europe”. Introduction
“Gender” and Feminism After State Socialism
Freeze-Frame: “Gender Experts” and “Gender Expertise”
The Global Call for “Gender”
Multiple Meanings of “Gender” in the 1990s
Brief Literature Overview
Generations of Research and Researchers
The Mixed Assessment of Gender Studies in the Eastern European Post-socialist Academia
Mapping the “East-West Misunderstanding” in Feminism
Matter-Of-Fact International Circulations of People and Ideas
Making and Unmaking “Eastern Europe”
“Gender” as a Socialisation Platform
Recovering the “Voice” of the Former “Second World”
A Transnational Space of Political Praxis and Knowledge Production
The Post-socialist Transformations Magnified by the Lenses of “Gender”
Doing the Sociology of a Transnational Melting Pot
“Locating the Fieldwork”
Sources and Data
Fieldwork as a Social Encounter
Unfolding the Argument—The Outline of the Book
Bibliography
Reports and Activist Publications
Press
General References
Part I: Transnational Mobilisations: From Discovering the “Post-socialist Other” to Professional Activism Beyond Borders
2: Reviving Feminist Internationalism After the Cold War
Transatlantic Conversations
A “Feminist Powerhouse”
“US Writers, Professors, Feminist Activists”
Eastern European Feminists “In-Between”
“Sisterhood” Versus “Difference”: An Iterative Debate, a Historically Situated Outcome
Bibliography
Reports and Activist Publications
Press
General References
3: The “NGO-isation of Feminism” in the Making
Feminism as a “Trademark”
Towards the “NGO Form”
Inventing and Practicing Lateral Solidarity at a Distance
An Expert Look and an Informal Habitus
Transnational and Trans-Sectorial Circulations
Bibliography
Reports and Activist Publications
General References
Part II: The Institutional Building of International Gender Expertise
4: A Democracy-Making Mission
A Young Philanthropic Foundation
Fighting Against Communism and Training the Post-Socialist Elites
“Expanding Rights-Based Education”
Bibliography
Press
General References
5: Aims and Scope of an International Gender-Studies Programme
Activist Origins
Structural Tensions
Critical Vocation and Expert Potential
Teaching and Research, International Transfers and Local Innovations
Bibliography
Press
General References
6: Gender, Feminism and Philanthropic Work
“Generating an Agenda”
Feminist Activists and Bureaucracy Employees
Learning “Gender” and Resisting International Pedagogy
Bibliography
Reports and Activist Publications
General References
Part III: A Sociography of Eastern European “Gender Pioneers”
7: Feminist Scholars, Activists and Experts
Shared Social Dispositions
Established Scholars and Newcomers to Academia
Professional Activists and Critical Bureaucrats
Historically “Rooted” Militancy
Bibliography
Press
General References
8: Gender Studies and the Higher Education Reform in Romania
Liberalising the Universities After State Socialism
A Small World of Activists and Reformers
Interwoven Academic and Expert Positions
Bibliography
Reports and Activist Publications
General References
9: A Counterpoint from the Former Yugoslavia
“Gender” and Feminism in Tension
The Ambiguous Paths of “Gender Expertise”
Legacy of State Socialism and Counter-Hegemonic Thinking
Bibliography
Reports and Activist Publications
General References
10: Going Global. Conclusion
“Sisters in Feminism”, Brokers of “Gender”, Actors of Globalisation
The End of the “Second World” and the Afterlife of the (Red) “Woman Question”
Bibliography
General References
Appendix
Methodological Note
About the Sociographic Approach
Bibliography
Sources
Archives
Open Society Archives (Budapest)
Network of East West Women (New York)
Inter-University Centre (Dubrovnik)
Interviews by the Author
Other Interviews
Reports and Activist Publications
Press
General References
Index
