FEMITURES: Feminist Politics and the (Re)structuring of European Equality Architectures (2015-2020)

FEMITURES, organised within the GEXcel International Collegium for Advanced Transdiscplinary Gender Studies, analyses the on-going restructuring of the European equality architecture, at state and EU levels, and its implication for the theory and practice of feminist politics. It is a broad, empirically oriented, research area cutting across disciplinary boundaries, including but not limited to gender studies, politics, sociology, economics and law. It investigates equality, institutions and political processes: from initiation to post implementation. Feminist politics is confronted and challenged by the restructuring of European equality architectures both theoretically and empirically. It is confronted by restructured institutional and ideological (e.g. neoliberal) conditions for policymaking and challenged by theoretical developments related to intersectionality and diversity. The concept of the equality architecture draws on a long tradition within the social and political sciences describing and conceptualising the various political (governmental/non-governmental) institutions that regulate (by promoting or obstructing) equality. It is not limited to institutions regulating gender inequalities but include institutions regulating e.g. class relations. FEMITURES examines how the challenges of intersectionality are reflected and dealt with “on the ground”, in practical equality architectures on national and European levels. It takes the merger of various European equality institutions as case studies and analyses the implications of the mergers for the theory and practice of feminist politics.