Gender and Cosmopolitanism in Europe: A Feminist Perspective

Gender and Cosmopolitanism in Europe combines a feminist critique of contemporary and prominent approaches to cosmopolitanism with an in-depth analysis of historical cosmopolitanism and the manner in which gendered symbolic boundaries of national political communities in two European countries are drawn. Exploring the work of prominent scholars of new cosmopolitanism in Britain and Germany, including Held, Habermas, Beck and Bhabha, it delivers a timely intervention into current debates on globalisation, Europeanisation and social processes of transformation in and beyond specific national societies.

A rigorous examination of the emancipatory potential of current debates surrounding cosmopolitanism in Europe, this book will be of interest to sociologist and political scientists working on questions of identity, inclusion, citizenship, globalisation, cosmopolitanism and gender.
Contents: Introduction: gendered cosmopolitanism: the scope of this book; Who belongs? Who is the Other?; Recognition, social equality and the current EU anti-discrimination policy; Kulturnation and the homogenised notion of community belonging: Jürgen Habermas's and Ulrich Beck's approaches to 'European' cosmopolitanism; Global trade, the city and commercial cosmopolitanism: David Held's and Homi K. Bhabha's approaches to new cosmopolitanism; About dead-ends, one-way streets and critical crossroads; Transversal conversations on the scope of new cosmopolitanism beyond the Eurocentric framework; Bibliography; Index.

Understanding the help seeking behaviour of teenagers who experience relationship abuse (dating violence) from a feminist intersectional approach.

This presentation aims to raise issues related to teenage relationship abuse (TRA-dating violence) and help seeking behaviour from an intersectional approach. Even though teenage relationship abuse has been raised as an issue since the 80’s there is still an absence of an intersectional theoretical conceptualization of TRA. Existing conceptualizations are based on incorrect assumptions of sameness of teenagers experiences of TRA which ignore the unique developmental stages of teenagers as well as youth’s diverse lived experiences due to their sexual orientation, ethnicity, class, disability as well as other structural divisions. TRA exists in a social context of inequalities. For the individual survivor, this social context is created not only through romantic relationships, but also through relationships with families, peers, friends, classmates and others. Their experiences are constructed through these relationships which form part of the social context into which TRA needs to be analysed. The analytical framework of intersectionality can provide a framework of understanding how these lived experiences are enacted and negotiated contextually. Emphasis will be given to the help seeking behaviour of diverse youths. This presentation will explore the diverse lived experiences contextually. Methods and Findings: This presentation is based on a research project in Northern Ireland currently underway, thus, it will offer a preliminary conceptualisation of TRA from an intersectional approach. The findings will be contextualized taking into account the high rate of homophobia that exists in Northern Ireland amongst other things. Conclusion/Recommendation: Intersectionality needs to be the analytical framework through which teenagers’ relationship’s experience are analysed since the lived experiences of LGTB, BME and disabled youth cannot be analysed apart from the structural divisions, social location and the context they are experienced. This presentation argues that the intersectional approach of theorizing is congruent and contributes to anti-oppressive social work practice.

Feminist Genealogies in the Writing of the Self

Maria Tamboukou links Foucauldian ideas to feminism and education. Its central argument is that the Foucauldian notion of 'technologies of the self' needs to be gendered and contextualized. This argument is pursued through a genealogical analysis of auto/biographical narratives of women educators at the turn of the nineteenth century. This is a new theoretical approach, since Foucault's work has proved to be of great interest to feminist scholars, but as yet, his theroies have only intermittently been used in educational feminist work. The genealogical analysis of situated female sujectivities has highlighted the importance of space in the 'technologies of the female self' and has reconsidered the private/public couplet. It has acted as a continuous source of uncertainty, experimenting with Foucauldian questions of what we are, of how we have become what we are, but also and perhaps most importantly of how we can become other than what we are already.