Structural Change for Gender Equality

in Research and Innovation: Contextual factors 

Important dates:

Deadline for CfP: 31 March 2017

Workshop date: 19 May 2017

Notification of acceptance: 7 April 2017

Call for Papers

Since 2009 the European Commission and a growing number of EU Member States have supported structural change as the approach to advance gender equality in research. The approach entails three priority areas: gender balance in decision-making, gender balance in research careers, and the gendering of the content of research and innovation. In 2012, a widely disseminated expert report was published which outlined the basic elements and prerequisites of the structural change approach in institutions. Since then, there has been a drive from the European Commission to capitalize on the experience built and to provide instruments for further uptake of this approach. The most recent of these is the launch of the EIGE online tool which builds on experience from various FP and Horizon 2020 projects.

The adoption of this approach at policy level and its recognition as an instrument in building the European Research Area fosters the perception that this approach is universally applicable and implementable and that there are steps in the process which, if followed, will lead to successful implementation and eventually to gender equality.

The experience from the field, however, suggests that the implementation is messier than may be gleaned from expert and policy documents, with historical, cultural, socio-economic, political, institutional, disciplinary and other factors contributing to the types of enactments the structural change can take in particular settings. Structural change is a recursive process which requires a high degree of flexibility, readiness to use arising opportunities on the go and, most importantly, constant negotiation at multiple levels (symbolic/discursive, institutional…). Also, it is increasingly evident that the implementation process is further contingent upon general geopolitical divisions and continuities. All these contexts and factors then also play out in the types of challenges and resistances the change process faces, the ways various actors can be engaged and various resources mobilized.

The workshop aims to examine precisely such contexts and factors, specifically:

• Gender cultures of society, including the role of NGOs and cooperation with femocrats in institutions
• Socioeconomic history and politics of a respective country
• Effects/impact of EU membership
• National gender equality legislation, policies and programmes, including specific strategic documents on gender equality in research and higher education
• The organization of higher education and research assessment and the place of gender equality in this assessment
• The degree of institutional autonomy of HEI and research organizations
• The degree of internationalization of the research system
• The role of disciplinary cultures
• The acceptance of gender/feminist/social science expertise by stakeholders in the institutions implementing structural changes
• Stakeholder engagement, the role of change agents and ambassadors
• Governance regimes, including institutional accountability procedures and processes and transparency

Registration and submission of abstracts:

Please register for the conference and/or submit your abstract here: http://1url.cz/Jtaoz

The participation in the workshop is free of charge.

Scientific Committee:

• Marina Cacace (ASDO)
• Lut Mergaert (Yellow Window)
• Marcela Linkova (Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Science)
• Blanka Nyklová (Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Science)

Contact:

Marcela Linkova, Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Jilska 1, 110 00 Prague 1, email: marcela.linkova@soc.cas.cz, tel: +420 210 310 322