Social Movements and Civil Society

Section Chairs:
Catherine Eschle (University of Strathclyde) Email
Kristin Goss (Duke University) Email

Description:
This section invites papers and panels organized around the intersection of gender, social movements, and civil society. We interpret this topic to include formal organizations, such as lobbying groups, as well as less formal modes of action performed through transnational networks or social media. Research could focus on the gendering of individuals’ roles within these different kinds of groups or networks; on how gendered concerns are represented or produced; and on the forces that shape the gendering of civil society. Going beyond an exclusive focus on women-only organizing, we are also interested in how women work within seemingly non-gendered organizations and movements of both the left and the right, and the extent to which feminist discourses and practices shape and are re-articulated in wider civil society.

Within this broad landscape, we especially encourage submissions that address contemporary trends and/or that push the theorization of gender, feminism, and social movements in new directions. Thus, we welcome papers and panels that address the role of men in representing feminist interests; the rise of campaigning around non-binary, queer, or trans gender identities and sexualities; the intersection between gender and other identities in social movement organizations and agendas; the activities of women’s and feminist movements in countries where civil society is under-researched; the co-optation of feminism in conditions of neoliberalism; and the gendered dimensions of current movements organizing around religious extremism, against austerity or for refugee rights. We particularly encourage contributions on the “so what?” question, examining the extent to which civil society groups and social movements have gendered impacts or affect outcomes of particular concern to women.