Strand 6: Revisiting ‘Equality vs. Difference’: Feminism in the 21st Century

Strand 6: Revisiting ‘Equality vs. Difference’: Feminism in the 21st Century

For this strand we seek papers that address feminist struggles for justice at the crossroads of multiple locations within and across axes of signification and relations of power, and/or against the background of the inter-disciplinary debates around equality and difference in feminist scholarship and activism.

How have these debates transformed feminist thinking and what challenges and promises do they raise for feminism’s potential to bring about emancipation and social change? How do feminist scholars and activists engage with the complexities that arise in the field in-between struggles for equality and politics of difference? What does equality mean at the beginning of the 21st century?

How can feminists think and use solidarity and new strategic alliances with other progressive movements, when locations are shifting, complex and paradoxical? And what is the role of identity politics and representation? We are also interested in careful and contextualized reflections on the implications of power and privilege within feminist scholarship.

The theme of this strand raises questions of immediate importance for feminist scholarship, especially in relation to the current European political, social and cultural climate, where structures of inequality and forms of discrimination are persisting, if not increasing.

The strand is coordinated by Mia Liinason (mia.liinason@genus.lu.se), Eike Marten and Jelisaveta Blagojevic. Please contact us with questions or ideas.

Note that the deadline for the call for papers is August 15, 2011.