Feminist Governance in Times of Crisis

Overview

The first two decades of the 21^st century have been shaped by seemingly unending crises. 9/11, the ’08 Financial Crisis, climate change, growing international hostilities and the COVID-19 pandemic have brought widespread attention to persistent and intersectional inequalities, leading to both growing demands for social justice and hard-right backlash. Moreover, democratic backsliding and post-truth pose significant threats to liberal democracies around the world. In short, the 21^st century is so far tumultuous, marked by increasing polarization, skepticism and mistrust. As a result, we are not only witnessing the exacerbation of existing inequalities, but also the erosion of hard-won gains for marginalized communities, notably queer, racialized and migrant communities. 

In response to these trends, every major international organization, including the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation, the World Bank, and the United Nations, as well as several governments around the world, such as Canada, Spain, Nicaragua and Namibia, are calling for intersectional approaches to public policy that centre the experiences of marginalized communities.

It is in this context that we created the Working Group on Feminist Governance in Times of Crisis. In association with the Feminist Policy Lab, the working group brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars seeking to understand the intersectional dimensions of policy processes and outcomes and to explore how policy can challenge and transform existing power relations across all social locations. Collectively, our membership, including both faculty and students, represents all four faculties at Concordia University and includes folks from across and outside of Canada. The working group will showcase cutting-edge feminist and anti-oppression research on all aspects of public governance, including policy institutions, processes, and outcomes, and specific policy sectors, such as the economy, health, technology and innovation, and social policy. To that end, our expertise spans politics and policy, economics, organizations and leadership, STEM, and communications.

Organizers

Francesca Scala, Professor
Department of Political Science

Stephanie Paterson, Professor
Department of Political Science

Student Coordinator:

Logan Bates, PhD candidate
Department of Political Science
Email: logan.bates@concordia.ca

Key questions

The work of the group is informed by the following questions:

1. How have governments around the world responded to persistent and growing inequality? How do these approaches differ, e.g., whole-of-government, sector-specific, deliberative/participatory vs. technocratic, etcetera. 
2. How does “crisis” shape interventions relating to inequality? e.g., Who is constructed to be “at risk?” Who is constructed to be “risky?"
3. How can feminist approaches to governance/public policy challenge and transform existing governance/policy institutions, processes, and outcomes?