Helene Pristed Nielsen

Women, Participation and the European Parliament

This chapter inscribes itself in the debate in this book about women’s participation in an emergent European Public Sphere (EPS) (see Chapter 1). In this connection, the European Parliament (EP) as an institution can be understood as having the potential to become ‘a strong public’ which is undergoing a process of building a wider general public: ‘The EP can be conceived of as an incipient transnational public sphere’ (Liebert 2007: 268). This makes the EP an apt institutional setting for analysing both women’s descriptive representation within it, as well as analysing the debates about women’s representation, in politics and business, which are taking place in the EP. Therefore, we will conduct a two-pronged analysis of the who of public sphere participation (Ferree et al. 2002) by looking both at the gender composition of the EP and the framing of debates about women’s representation in the EP and its Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) during the period 2000–11. Without implying any causality between the two dimensions, we do consider both questions important elements in the overall assessment of women’s participation in an emergent EPS, which might in future increase its importance as a locus of opinion-formation in a democratising EU.

Joint purpose?: Intersectionality in the hands of anti-racist and gender equality activists in Europe

Taking as a start Crenshaw’s point that anti-racism often fails to interrogate patriarchy and that feminism often reproduces racist practices (1991: 1252), this paper asks what are the theoretical reasons for believing that feminism and anti-racism can be regarded as fighting for the joint purpose of anti-discrimination in Europe today? And what empirical evidence may be found for such a joint approach? The paper discusses how the contemporary EU context differs from the American context, which is what prompted Crenshaw to raise the point about intersectionality, and it analyses documents and interviews from each of the two European umbrella organisations (the European Women’s Lobby and the European Network against Racism), as well as a number of their national member organisations from across Europe, within both EU and non-EU member states.

Place, (In)Equality and Gender

This mapping presents a selected overview of existing research on gender, education and population flows in the Nordic peripheral areas. These areas are faced with a series of challenges that cannot be analyzed nor solved without taking a gender perspective into account. The challenges relate to, for instance, altered living conditions caused by global changes, stagnated or negative economic development, decrease in the amount of workplaces (particularly in the traditionally male-dominated professions) as well as, not least, migration and depopulation which is partly due to the fact that the young people of the area (especially the women) move to bigger cities to educate themselves. The challenges in question are not only significant in relation to the viability and cohesion of the areas, but also for the men and women who live there and their mutual social relations.

Studying place practices and consumption through volunteer-employed photography

This article argues that taking a practice theoretical approach is useful for obtaining a nuanced understanding of transnationally mobile persons’ development of place affiliation through their adoption or rejection of locally available consumption practices. In this way, we engage in the ongoing discussion about practice theory and in how to understand the co-constellation of things, bodies and mental activities in relation to consumption. Focusing on newcomers to a particular geographic setting highlights possibilities and constraints for practice retention and adaptation, as well as reflection upon such choices. Additionally, we argue that the employed data collection techniques, involving a combination of volunteer-employed photography with participants’ comments on their own photos and information about their socio-demographic profile, constitute a particularly apt approach for shedding light on evolving consumption practices in the face of geographic mobility, and how such practices may lead to the development of place affiliation.

Sted, (u)lighed og køn: En kortlægning af udfordringer og best practices i relation til køn, uddannelse og befolkningsstrømme i Nordens yderområder

Denne kortlaegning praesenterer en selekteret oversigt over eksisterende forskning og faglitteratur om kon, uddannelse og befolkningsstromme i yderomraderne i de nordiske lande. De nordiske lande sta ...

A strange familiarity? Place perceptions among the globally mobile

How do globally mobile people perceive and make sense of a new place in which they have to create an everyday life for themselves? And how may their place perception be communicated through photographs? These are the questions around which this article revolves. The visual material discussed in the article stems from a participatory research project, in which North Denmark functions as a setting for studying local particularities and global convergences. Analysing part of this material, the article explores the perception of – and affiliation with – places and localities, pointing to how perceptions of strangeness and familiarity occur along unexpected lines of difference and similarity depending on the embodied positionality of the involved participants.How do globally mobile people perceive and make sense of a new place in which they have to create an everyday life for themselves? And how may their place perception be communicated through photographs? These are the questions around which this article revolves. The visual material discussed in the article stems from a participatory research project, in which North Denmark functions as a setting for studying local particularities and global convergences. Analysing part of this material, the article explores the perception of – and affiliation with – places and localities, pointing to how perceptions of strangeness and familiarity occur along unexpected lines of difference and similarity depending on the embodied positionality of the involved participants.

No place for their children: negotiating gender, place and generation in a flexible work context

Abstract Drawing on a combination of theories on gender and place and work after globalisation, this article addresses how gender, place, employment-related mobility and flexible work conditions affect generational ties to place. Interviews with persons whose working life histories (by choice or circumstance) include flexible hours and high levels of mobility reveal explicit hopes that their children will have more stable working lives – and expectations that this will mean that they shall have to leave the local area. The article documents how the local place is an important component in the construction of employment-related mobilities, expectations for the future, valorisation of education, inter-generational relations and ties to places.AbstractDrawing on a combination of theories on gender and place and work after globalisation, this article addresses how gender, place, employment-related mobility and flexible work conditions affect generational ties to place. Interviews with persons whose working life histories (by choice or circumstance) include flexible hours and high levels of mobility reveal explicit hopes that their children will have more stable working lives – and expectations that this will mean that they shall have to leave the local area. The article documents how the local place is an important component in the construction of employment-related mobilities, expectations for the future, valorisation of education, inter-generational relations and ties to places.

Køn, uddannelse og befolkningsstrømme

Under det danske formandskab for Nordisk Ministerrad blev der i 2015 sat fokus pa udfordringer og gode praksiseksempler i relation til kon, uddannelse og befolkningsstromme i yderomraderne i hele N ...

Gender, Education and Population Flows

During the Danish Presidency for the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2015, attention was drawn towards challenges and best practice examples in relation to gender, education and population flows in peripheral areas throughout the Nordic countries - Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the autonomous countries, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Aland. The present report summarises the findings and conclusions which are covered in the existing Nordic research and literature within the field, as well as the experience and professional responses, which were presented during the course of the common dialogue and exchange of experience.

Offshore but on track? Hypermobile and hyperflexible working lives

ABSTRACTIn the spring 2011, and again during summer 2012, the small coastal town of Hirtshals (approx. 6000 inhabitants) on the north-western shore of Denmark was home to two spectacular symbols of the success of an emergent offshore sector in the region, namely the upgrading and overhauling of two gigantic oil rigs. Providing temporary work for an estimated 800 persons who literally worked day and night for the 100 days each rig was at dock, these events affected the entire community. The paper presents evidence from seven biographical interviews with local men whose working lives were directly or indirectly affected by these events. As the interviews illuminate, respondents are often extremely mobile and flexible in terms of their jobs, in some cases ‘bungy jumping’ through working life in an apparent effort to retain local ties while pursuing global opportunities. The paper contributes to qualifying more general sociological discussions about the push for increased mobility and flexibility in a presuma...ABSTRACT In the spring 2011, and again during summer 2012, the small coastal town of Hirtshals (approx. 6000 inhabitants) on the north-western shore of Denmark was home to two spectacular symbols of the success of an emergent offshore sector in the region, namely the upgrading and overhauling of two gigantic oil rigs. Providing temporary work for an estimated 800 persons who literally worked day and night for the 100 days each rig was at dock, these events affected the entire community. The paper presents evidence from seven biographical interviews with local men whose working lives were directly or indirectly affected by these events. As the interviews illuminate, respondents are often extremely mobile and flexible in terms of their jobs, in some cases ‘bungy jumping’ through working life in an apparent effort to retain local ties while pursuing global opportunities. The paper contributes to qualifying more general sociological discussions about the push for increased mobility and flexibility in a presumably increasingly globalising labour market reality. Ultimately, it seems that the multiple ways in which Hirtshals is marked as marginal – in terms of geography, socio-economic profile and discourse – may serve to normalise demands for flexibility and mobility, at least amongst parts of the local working population.