It has been noticed that different member states within the EU have chosen different ways of designing institutional “support structures” for the gender equality (GE) objectives within the European Social Fund (ESF). However, these bureaucratic organizations, emerging within the context of the national public administration, have to a small extent been studied. The conceivable reasons for and consequences of the variations of organizing the policy objectives remains unexplored. Drawing on a theoretical framework combining critical policy analysis and (critical) management studies I argue that these variations in designing “support structures” needs to be understood as a case of the interrelation between the act of organizing politics and ideas/interpretations of politics.
Based on a comparative case study of the Swedish and Spanish management of the GE objectives within the organizational model of the national ESF council, this paper will address the following key questions:
i. What kind of ideas and assumptions influence the member states ways of organizing a bureaucracy for the GE objectives within the ESF?
ii. In turn, what implications have this act of organizing for the re/production of ideas and assumptions during the further implementation process?
One result is that the act of organizing is reflecting value conflicts and is highly limiting the frameworks of how it is possible to think and act within a specific (national) context. In the Swedish example, assumptions about the nation as already gendered equal affects the organizing process in a way that in turn works negatively for the GE objectives. The paper will also discuss this issue in the light of the Europeanization process.
