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The State of the European Union

European Union
Gender
Institutions
Integration
Social Movements
Race
S20
Edma Ajanovic
University for Continuing Education Krems
Stefanie Wöhl
University of Vienna
Muireann O'Dwyer
University of St Andrews


Abstract

The last decade has been particularly challenging for the European Union. It has been a decade marked by austerity, by the increased securitization and criminalization of migration, a rise in far right movements and illiberal politics, and, most recently, a global pandemic. The economic and financial crises of 2008 onwards led to the development of significant governance reforms, which reshaped conflicts both between and within member states, between the EU and prospective member states and transformed the dynamic between member states and the supranational institutions. Similarly, the crises of the border have shaped inter-state bargaining, and have accompanied a broader politicisation of the EU, exemplified by but not limited to Brexit. These reforms and transformations have had consequences for a broad range of policy fields in member states, including social, gender, human rights and health policies. In many cases, these have become especially acute during the Covid-19 pandemic. The EU institutions are faced with an array of policy problems concerning budgets, asylum policies, economic recovery, human rights, environmental issues and future gender policies to name but a few. Moreover, the past decade of crises and crisis led reform has also had significant implications for the institutional dynamics of the EU, many of which played out in the appointment process for the various presidencies and high offices in 2019. The experience of the pandemic has further highlighted the contestations over leadership and agenda setting within the EU. The opportunity for the EU to demonstrate its worth to citizens and member states is tempered by the challenges of intervening on questions of health, borders, and the economy often prized by national governments. This section invites panels which reflect the increasing plurality of feminist EU studies. Panels from across the wide field of European Integration research are invited, including but not limited to research on: • Gender, intersectionality, sexual politics, or LGBTQI rights; • The politics of gender mainstreaming, gender equality policy, and gender budgeting; • The gendered and racialized consequences of EU politics and policies; • Human rights, environmental policy, financialization and social policy; • The various ways in which social movements evolve in this setting; • The changing dynamics of representation; • The behavior of the EU as a gendered global actor, both within and beyond other international organizations; • The experience of, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic within the EU. This section aims to be thoroughly pluralist and aims to reflect a wide range of theoretical approaches and subject focus including policies, parties, social movements, institutions, and voters. We welcome different theoretical, normative or empirical panels and papers focusing not exclusively on the above topics and incorporate the wide field of gendered and intersectional European integration research. This section also explicitly encourages panels that take an intersectional approach, and research that centers racialized as well as gendered aspects in EU politics, EU expansion and European integration. We encourage proposals from scholars from a variety of different backgrounds, career stages, and geographic location.
Code Title Details
P015 Citizenship, Democracy and the Future of Europe View Panel Details
P027 Fighting over Gender and Equality in the EU View Panel Details
P038 Gender Equality in the European Mainstream? View Panel Details
P051 Gendering the inner life of the European Parliament: Policies, practices, and equality norms of the political groups View Panel Details
P085 Socio-Economic Governance from a Gender+ Perspective View Panel Details
P102 Where are the women and why (not)? Descriptive Representation, Committee Allocation, and Quotas in the European Parliament View Panel Details