Central Europe

Women Migrants from East to West: Gender, Mobility and Belonging in Contemporary Europe

Citation:

Passerini, Luisa, Dawn Lyon, Enrica Capussotti, and Ioanna Laliotou, eds. 2007. Women Migrants from East to West: Gender, Mobility and Belonging in Contemporary Europe. New York: Berghahn Books.

Authors: Luisa Passerini, Dawn Luon, Enrica Capussotti, Ioanna Laliotou

Annotation:

Summary:
Based on the oral histories of eighty migrant women and thirty additional interviews with ‘native’ women in the ‘receiving’ countries, this volume documents the contemporary phenomenon of the feminisation of migration through an exploration of the lives of women, who have moved from Bulgaria and Hungary to Italy and the Netherlands. It assumes migrants to be active subjects, creating possibilities and taking decisions in their own lives, as well as being subject to legal and political regulation, and the book analyses the new forms of subjectivity that come about through mobility.  Part I is a largely conceptual exploration of subjectivity, mobility and gender in Europe. The chapters in Part II focus on love, work, home, communication, and food, themes which emerged from the migrant women’s accounts. In Part III, based on the interviews with ‘native’ women – employers, friends, or in associations relevant to migrant women – the chapters analyse their representations of migrants, and the book goes on to explore forms of intersubjectivity between European women of different cultural origins. A major contribution of this book is to consider how the movement of people across Europe is changing the cultural and social landscape with implications for how we think about what Europe means. (Summary from Google Books)
 
Table of Contents:
On Becoming Europeans – Rosi Braidotti
‘I Want to See the World’: Mobility and Subjectivity in the European Context – Ioanna Laliotou
Transformations of Legal Subjectivity in Europe: From the Subjection of Women to Privileged Subjects – Hanne Petersen
‘A Dance through Life’: Narratives of Migrant Women – Nadejda Alexandrova and Anna Hortobagyi
Imaginary Geographies: Border-Places and ‘Home’ in the Narratives of Migrant Women – Nadejda Alexandrova and Dawn Lyon
‘My Hobby Is People’: Migration and Communication in the Light of Late Totalitarianism – Miglena Nikolchina
Migrant Women in Work – Enrica Capussotti, Ioanna Laliotou, and Dawn Lyon
The Topos of Love in the Life-Stories of Migrant Women – Nadejda Alexandrova
Food-Talk: Markers of Identity and Imaginary Belongings – Andrea Petö
Relationships in the Making: Accounts of Native Women – Enrica Capussotti and Esther Vonk
Migration, Integration and Emancipation: Women’s Positioning in the Debate in the Netherlands – Esther Vonk
Modernity versus Backwardness: Italian Women’s Perceptions of Self and Other – Enrica Capussotti
Moral and Cultural Boundaries in Representations of Migrants: Italy and the Netherlands in Comparative Perspective – Dawn Lyon
Changing Matrimonial Law in the Image of Immigration Law – Inger Marie Conradsen and Annette Kronborg
In Transit: Space, People, Identities – Andrea Petö
Gender, Subjectivity, Europe: A Constellation for the Future – Luisa Passerini

Topics: Migration, Gender, Women Regions: Europe, Balkans, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Western Europe Countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands

Year: 2007

Migration and Mobility in an Enlarged Europe: A Gender Perspective

Citation:

Metz-Göckel, Sigrid, Mirjana Morokvasic-Müller, and A. Senganata Münst, eds. 2008. Migration and Mobility in an Enlarged Europe: A Gender Perspective. Leverkusen, Germany: Verlag Barbara Budrich.

Authors: Sigrid Metz-Göckel, Mirjana Morokvasic-Müller, A. Senganata Münst

Annotation:

Summary:
The book investigates transnational migration and mobility of women from and within Central-Eastern European countries. It looks at women’s practices and experiences mostly in the service sector where they are in demand as substitutes in stereotypically “women’s work.” The book combines different perspectives: sociological and anthropological studies, comparative policy analysis and historical and statistical evidence and provides new insights into current theoretical debates in migration and gender studies. (Summary from Google Books)
 
Table of Contents:
Gendered Mobilities in an Enlarged Europe – Mirjana Morokvasic, A. Senganata Münst, and Sigrid Metz-Gökel
Female Migration from Central-Eastern Europe: Demographic and Sociological Aspects – Krystyna Slany
Migration Policy between Restrictive Purposes and Structural Demand: The Case of the Domestic Sector in Germany and in Italy – Claudia Finotelli
Whose Status Matters? An Analysis of Italian Couples’ Demand for Domestic Workers and Nannies – Ludovica Banfi
Turning Labour into Love: The Employment of Migrant Domestic Workers in Turkey – Ayse Akalin
Commuting between Private Lives – Dobrochna Kałwa
The Boundaries of Monetarizing Domestic Work: Au Pairs and the Moral Economy of Caring – Sabine Hess
Women’s ‘Just-in-Time’ Migration – David Karjanen
Managing a Mobile Life: Changing Attitudes among Illegally Employed Polish Household Workers in Berlin – Norbert Cyrus
Social Capital in Migration Processes of Polish Undocumented Care- and Household Workers – A. Senganata Münst
Circumventing Restrictions on Free Movement of Labour: Evidence from a Dutch-German Border Region – Roos Pijpers
Women at the Cross-Road: Poland and its Emigration and Immigration – Dorota Praszałowicz
Immigrants in Poland: Legal and Socio-Demographic Situation – Krystyna Slany and Magdalena Ślusarczyk

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Gender, Gender Roles, Women Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Germany, Italy, Poland

Year: 2008

Energy Consumption by Gender in Some European Countries

Citation:

Räty, R., and A. Carlsson-Kanyama. 2010. “Energy Consumption by Gender in Some European Countries.” Energy Policy 38 (1): 646–9. 

Authors: R. Räty, A. Carlsson-Kanyama

Abstract:

Household total energy use has been estimated in numerous studies in recent decades and differences have mainly been explained by levels of income/expenditure. Studies of gender consumption patterns show that men eat more meat than women and drive longer distances, potentially leading to higher total energy use by men. In this study we calculated the total energy use for male and female consumption patterns in four European countries (Germany, Norway, Greece and Sweden) by studying single households. Significant differences in total energy use were found in two countries, Greece and Sweden. The largest differences found between men and women were for travel and eating out, alcohol and tobacco, where men used much more energy than women. We suggest that these findings are policy relevant for the EU, which aims to mainstream gender issues into all activities and to lower its total energy use.

Keywords: energy, gender, consumption

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Germany, Greece, Norway, Sweden

Year: 2010

Sustainable Development, Energy Transition, and Climate Challenges in the Context of Gender: The Framework of Gender Determinants of Environmental Orientation in Poland

Citation:

Żuk, Piotr, and Anna Pacześniak. 2020. “Sustainable Development, Energy Transition, and Climate Challenges in the Context of Gender: The Framework of Gender Determinants of Environmental Orientation in Poland.” Sustainability 12 (21). doi:10.3390/su12219214.

Authors: Piotr Żuk, Anna Pacześniak

Abstract:

How does gender affect attitudes towards ecology? This question is of particular interest in a society where conservative and populist power elites perceive the concepts of “gender” and “ecology” as manifestations of “foreign” cultural influences. In turn, the dependence of the Polish energy system on coal forces us to look for various social factors that may support energy transition and the principles of sustainable development. The article outlines the results of computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) research on a representative sample of Polish society composed of 1.001 people and analyses the gender differentiation of attitudes towards the policy of sustainable development in Poland. The results presented in this article clearly show that women in Poland constitute an important support for ecological activities and energy transition. This is also the case with the entire progressive vision of politics: Women have become its main driver and an opportunity for change.

Keywords: climate change, development, ecology, energy transition, gender

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Europe, Central Europe Countries: Poland

Year: 2020

Securing the Nation through the Politics of Sexual Violence: Tracing Resonances between Delhi and Cologne

Citation:

Holzberg, Billy, and Priya Raghavan. 2020. “Securing the Nation through the Politics of Sexual Violence: Tracing Resonances between Delhi and Cologne.” International Affairs 96 (5): 1189–208.

Authors: Billy Holzberg, Priya Raghavan

Abstract:

Postcolonial and black feminist scholars have long cautioned against the dangerous proximity between the politics of sexual violence and the advancement of nationalist and imperial projects. In this article, we uncover what it is in particular about efforts to address sexual violence that makes them so amenable to exclusionary nationalist projects, by attending to the political aftermaths of the rape of Jyoti Singh in Delhi in 2012, and the cases of mass sexual abuse that took place during New Year's Eve in Cologne in 2015. Tracing the nationalist discourses and policies precipitated in their wake, we demonstrate how across both contexts, the response to sexual violence was ultimately to augment the securitizing power and remit of the state—albeit through different mechanisms, and while producing different subjects of/for surveillance, control and regulation. We highlight how in both cases it is through contemporary resonances of a persistent (post)colonial echo—which enmeshes the normative female body with the idea of the nation—that sexual abuse becomes an issue of national security and the politics of sexual violence becomes tethered to exclusionary nationalisms. Revealing the more general, shared, rationalities that bind the nation to the normative female body while attending to the located political reverberations that make this entanglement so affectively potent in the distinct contexts of India and Germany helps distinguish and amplify transnational and intersectional feminist approaches to sexual violence that do not so readily accommodate nationalist ambitions.

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Intersectionality, Nationalism, Security, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women Regions: Asia, South Asia, Europe, Central Europe Countries: Germany, India

Year: 2020

Gender and Energy: Domestic Inequities Reconsidered

Citation:

Petrova, Saska, and Neil Simcock. 2019. “Gender and Energy: Domestic Inequities Reconsidered.” Social & Cultural Geography. doi:10.1080/14649365.2019.1645200.

Authors: Saska Petrova, Neil Simcock

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
Energy poverty is widely recognized as a problem that affects millions of households globally. Particularly in the ‘Global North’ context, research into this phenomenon has tended to treat households as monolithic units, with little investigation into whether and how energy poverty is differentially experienced within homes. We address this research lacuna by scrutinizing the gender dimensions of domestic energy use and deprivation. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in Poland, Greece and Czechia, we identify two ways in which energy poverty is differentially experienced along gender lines: household practices of responding to and resisting energy poverty, and the emotional labour of living with energy poverty. We also demonstrate how the negotiation of domestic energy deprivation can unveil not only gendered vulnerabilities, but also agency and emancipatory mechanisms. The paper thus provides insights that set an agenda for further research on gendered energy injustices beyond a simplistic, dichotomized victimization discourse.

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
La pobreza energética es ampliamente reconocida como un problema que afecta a millones de hogares en todo el mundo. Particularmente en el contexto del ‘Norte Global’, la investigación sobre este fenómeno ha tendido a tratar a los hogares como unidades monolíticas, con poca investigación sobre cómo la pobreza energética se experimenta de manera diferente dentro de los hogares. Nos dirigimos a ese vacío en la investigación para analizar las dimensiones de género del uso y la privación de energía doméstica. Basándonos en una extensa investigación cualitativa en Polonia, Grecia y la República Checa, identificamos dos formas en que la pobreza energética se experimenta de manera diferente a lo largo del género: las prácticas domésticas de respuesta y resistencia a la pobreza energética, y el trabajo emocional de vivir con la pobreza energética. También demostramos cómo la negociación de la privación de energía doméstica puede revelar no solo vulnerabilidades de género, sino también agencia y mecanismos emancipadores. Por lo tanto, el documento proporciona información que establece una agenda para futuras investigaciones sobre las injusticias energéticas de género más allá de un discurso simplista y dicotomizado de victimización.

FRENCH ABSTRACT:
La pauvreté énergétique est largement reconnue comme un fléau qui impacte des millions de foyers dans le monde. Dans le contexte du ‘Nord global’ en particulier, les recherches sur ce phénomène ont tendance à aborder les foyers comme des unités monolithiques, avec peu d’attention portée aux différentes expériences de la pauvreté énergétique à l’intérieur des foyers. Afin de combler cette lacune, nous examinons ici la dimension du genre au sein de la consommation et de la précarité énergétique domestique. À partir d’études qualitatives approfondies en Pologne, en Grèce et en République Tchèque, nous identifions deux expériences distinctes de la pauvreté énergétique selon le genre : les pratiques domestiques en réponse et en résistance à la pauvreté énergétique, et le travail émotionnel de la vie quotidienne face à la pauvreté énergétique. Nous démontrons également comment la négociation de la précarité énergétique domestique peut certes révéler des vulnérabilités de genre, mais aussi des mécanismes d’action et d’émancipation. Les résultats de cet article ouvrent ainsi un programme de recherche sur les injustices énergétiques de genre par-delà le discours simpliste et dichotomique de la victimisation.

Keywords: gender, energy poverty, infrastructure, home, inequity, gênero, pobreza energética, infraestructura, hogar, inequidad, genre, pauvreté, énergétique, chez-soi, inégalité

Topics: Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Czech Republic, Greece, Poland

Year: 2019

Technology Change = Gender Change? Androcentric Construction of Engineering as Symbolic Resource in the German-Speaking Area of Renewable Energies

Citation:

Prietl, Bianca. 2017. “Technology Change = Gender Change? Androcentric Construction of Engineering as Symbolic Resource in the German-Speaking Area of Renewable Energies.” Engineering Studies 9 (1): 3–23.

Author: Bianca Prietl

Abstract:

This paper is concerned with how engineers working in renewable energies in Germany and Austria position themselves and their professional activity within this relatively new field of engineering occupation by mobilizing a specific androcentric construction of engineering as a symbolic resource. Drawing on qualitative interviews, the argument unfolds in three steps: First, the paper reconstructs how engineers draft an image of their professional activity by symbolically aligning it with established understandings of engineering in traditional areas of engineering occupation and by simultaneously distancing it from allegedly ‘other’ notions of engineering practice that are framed as ‘alternative’. The discursive distinction between professional engineering and its alleged ‘alternative’ counterpart constitutes the former as hard, sincere, structured, and reliable activity based on an instrumental rationality. Second, it is shown how the professional/alternative distinction is gendered with ‘the alternative’ being devaluated and feminized. Consequently, it is argued that there is an implicit association between the discursively constituted idea of professional engineering and masculinity. Third, this discursive construction of engineering is interpreted as a symbolic resource in the engineers’ claim to be recognized as professional actors within renewable energies and, thus, in their struggle for favourable positions within this social field of power.

Keywords: renewable energies, discursive struggle for power, implicit masculinity construction, engineering

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Western Europe Countries: Austria, Germany

Year: 2017

Do Welfare State Taxes and Transfers Reduce Gender Income Inequality? Evidence from Eight European Countries

Citation:

Avraam, Silvia and Daria Popova. 2020. “Do Welfare State Taxes and Transfers Reduce Gender Income Inequality? Evidence from Eight European Countries.” Working Paper EM 09/20, EuroMod at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Essex.

Authors: Silvia Avraam, Daria Popova

Abstract:

We complement the institutional literature on gender and the welfare state by examining how taxes and transfers affect the incomes of men and women. Using microsimulation and intra-household income splitting rules, we measure the differences in the level and composition of individual disposable incomes of men and women in eight European countries covering various welfare regime types. We quantify the extent to which taxes and transfers are able to close the gender gap in earnings, as well as which policy instruments contribute most to reducing the gap. We find that with the exception of old- age pensions, taxes and transfers – both contributory and means-tested – significantly reduce gender income inequality but cannot compensate for high gender earnings gaps. The equalizing effect of benefits is higher than that of taxes but varies significantly not only across countries but also across groups with different demographic characteristics. 

Keywords: gender inequality, income distribution, welfare state, social policy, Europe

Topics: Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Western Europe Countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom

Year: 2020

Lesbian Activism in the (Post-)Yugoslav Space: Sisterhood and Unity

Citation:

Bilić, Bojan, and Marija Radoman, eds. 2019. Lesbian Activism in the (Post-)Yugoslav Space: Sisterhood and Unity. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Bojan Bilić, Marija Radoman

Annotation:

Summary:
This book intertwines academic and activist voices to engage with more than three decades of lesbian activism in the Yugoslav space. The empirically rich contributions uncover a range of lesbian initiatives and the fundamental, but rarely acknowledged, role that lesbian alliances have played in articulating a feminist response to the upsurge of nationalism, widespread violence against women, and high levels of lesbophobia and homophobia in all of the post-Yugoslav states. By offering a distinctly intergenerational and transnational perspective, this collection does not only shed new light on a severely marginalised group of people, but constitutes a pioneering effort in accounting for the intricacies – solidarities, joys, and tensions – of lesbian activist organising in a post-conflict and post-socialist environment. With a plethora of authorial standpoints and innovative methodological approaches, the volume challenges the systematic absence of (post-)Yugoslav lesbian activist enterprises from recent social science scholarship. (Summary from Palgrave Macmillian)

Table of Contents:
1.Introduction: Recovering/Rethinking (Post-)Yugoslav Lesbian Activisms
Bojan Bilić

2.Yearning for Space, Pleasure, and Knowledge: Autonomous Lesbian and Queer Feminist Organising in Ljubljana
Teja Oblak and Maja Pan

3.Cartographies of Fear and Freedom: Lesbian Activists in the First Belgrade and Zagreb Pride Parades
Sanja Kajinić

4.Sisterhood Beyond Borders: Transnational Aspects of Post-Yugoslav Lesbian Activism
Irene Dioli

5.Breaking the Silence: Lesbian Activism in Macedonia
Irena Cvetkovic

6.Searching for a Lesbian Voice: Non-Heterosexual Women’s Activism in Montenegro
Marina Vuković and Paula Petričević

7.(In)Visible Presences: PitchWise Festival as a Space of Lesbian Belonging in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Adelita Selmić and Bojan Bilić

8.Conclusion: Discovering the Lesbian in Us—On Our Ongoing, Never-Ending Struggles
Marija Radoman

9.Epilogue: Collecting Fragments—Towards (Post-)Yugoslav Activist Archives
Bojan Bilić

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Governance, LGBTQ, Nationalism, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights Regions: Europe, Balkans, Central Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2019

Gender Matters: Women, Renewable Energy, and Citizen Participation in Germany

Citation:

Fraune, Cornelia. 2015. “Gender Matters: Women, Renewable Energy, and Citizen Participation in Germany.” Energy Research & Social Science 7: 55–65.

Author: Cornelia Fraune

Abstract:

This study investigates how the larger social, cultural, and political context fosters and constrains citizens’ agency to take part in citizen participation schemes in renewable electricity production (RES-E). Based on a comprehensive review of research on gender and energy, hypotheses about gender differences in involvement in citizen participation schemes in RES-E are derived. These are tested statistically on the basis of data gathered in the context of a pilot study. The results reveal differences between women and men in the average ownership rate of citizen participation schemes, the average investment sum and decision-making bodies. In contrast, findings on gender differences in the amount of capital assets invested per capita are inconclusive. This study gives an indication that beyond individual preferences and investment attitudes, cultural, social and political factors also influence an individual’s agency to participate in RES-E operated by citizens’ associations.

Keywords: energy transformation, citizen participation schemes, renewable energy, production, gender, social context

Topics: Gender, Governance, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Europe, Central Europe Countries: Germany

Year: 2015

Pages

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