A feminist exploration #9 | Discourses on demography in the EU institutions

Watch the event recording.

Join us for a feminist exploration of discourses on demography in the EU institutions! The EU is currently facing substantial demographic challenges and will continue to do so in the coming decades. The authors will present their key findings of the report ‘Discourses on Demography in the EU Institutions’ - the first quantitative analysis of historical Twitter data in the field of demographic discourses. They will demonstrate how discourses have been hijacked by illiberal, right-wing and conservative forces. Liberals and progressives, on the other hand, tend to skirt the issue. This, too, creates a vacuum that is filled by the right and the far right.

During the discussion, we will explore how anti-migration discourses creep into the debate around demographic challenges framed by the European Commission and what progressive forces can do about this. We want to stimulate a joint reflection on how progressive, and thus feminist, positions on demography can be strengthened.

A feminist perspective is required to reveal the gender politics engrained in demographic-political discourses to provide equality-oriented answers to the challenges of demography and the instrumentalised discourses around it.

Join us for a discussion on Wednesday, 16 March 2022. This European Feminist Platform discussion series is powered by, and created for, feminist scholars, activists and policy-makers – in Europe and beyond.

AGENDA

17:00 – 17:05 Welcome and moderation by Zora Siebert, Head of Programme - EU Democracy and Digital Policy, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union

17:05 – 17:10 Input by Terry Reintke, Member of the European Parliament (The Greens /EFA), Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

17:10 – 17:25 Key findings of the report ‘Discourses on Demography in the EU Institutions’, with:

• Swantje Höft, Master’s student of Gender Studies, Central European University, Vienna
• Judith Goetz, literary scholar, political scientist and member of the research group Ideologies and Politics of Inequality, as well as the research network Women and Right-Wing Extremism
• Livia Sz. Oláh, Associate Professor of Demography (PhD, Stockholm University) at the Department of Sociology, Stockholm University
• Andrea Pető, historian and a Professor at the Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Vienna

17:25 – 17:35 Reflections on the report by Shalini Randeria, President and Rector, Central European University, Vienna

17:35 – 18:00 Debate and Q&A with the audience

Check out the page of the European Feminist Platform.

If you have any questions, please contact Anna.Trzcinska@eu.boell.org.

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