Post-national challenges to Citizenship
Research: Gender Equality, Diversity &
National belongings
Birte Siim, Aalborg University
Beyond Citizenship: Feminism and the
Transformation of Belonging, London
30 June – 2 July, 2010
The post-national challenge to
move beyond the nation state
 Cosmopolitan citizenship: Add human rights to
citizenship rights & global governance to tackle
poverty, inequality, the environment (Linklater)
 Transnational identities & translocal loyalities:
EU, transnat. civil society, transborder migration
networks, global solidarity
 EU - a test case for approaches pro and against
expanding rights, responsibilities and belonging
beyond the nation state
Gendering European Citizenship
Critique of the EP models (U.Liebert):
1. The liberal market model is exclusionary
2. The republican citizenship model – is
homogenizing
3. The cosmopolitan model – is built ’from
above’
4. Only the deliberative model is able
empower women as social & political
actors
Democratic citizenship: Diversity
in the Public Sphere
Dimensions of the public sphere, Ferree 2002:
1. Who should participate, on what
occations?
2. What should be the form of content of their
contribution to the public discourse?
3. How should the actors communicate with
one another?
4. What are the desired outcome of the
process?
Eurosphere: Diversity and the EPS
http://www.eurosphere.uib.no/
 What are social & pol. actors views about
diversity & EPS? What models do organizations
believe in - a centralized or fragmented (or another
model of) European Polity? Organizations’ views
on EU polity/policies: views on the development of
EU-polity; and views concerning EU's involvement
and power in policy-making
 Do actors/organizations communicate/
participate in EURO-networks spaces?
 What are their perceptions of diversity, PS & EPS
Methodological Reflections
 Multi-level model – macro-meso & micro
 Multiple approaches to the EPS
 Comparative approach: 16 countries, 200
organisations, 1300 interviews
 Multiple sites: Political parties, social
movements/NGOs, think tanks, and media
 Data: Elite interviews, institutional data,
media and surveys
 Methods: Content analysis, critical frame
analysis and discourse analysis of texts
Research Questions and
Dimensions
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Where are the women - presence, voice
& power/empowerment- who participates?
Gendering as a process – framings,
arguments & discourse, silencing - gender
issues as a part of the public discourse?
Diversity & pluralism – intersections of
gender and diversity - communication?
The European Public Sphere (EPS) –
outcome, policies and visions for EPS?
Constructions of national and
European Belongings
Perceptions of DIVERSITY – the Danish case:
 Universalist adaptation model – the prevalent
model
 Particularistic assimilation model – overlaps
with the universalist model
 Mutual Integration model – a minority model
 How do actors link (national) diversity models
with EPS models beyond the nation state
Forms of gendering
 Where are the women? How are the issues
gendered? How are women articulated as
bearers of cultural meanings?
 Different categories intersect, creating
inequality in inclusionary or exclusionary
ways (in the political argumentation)
Political Actors Perceptions of
Gender and Diversity
 The universalist adaptation and particularist
assimilation model resembles each other most
 The models are based upon ideas of sameness
as well as difference
 Denmark as a forerunner when it comes to
gender equality – to be integrated and be part of
the insider group one has to be gender equal
 In the Danish national identity construction
being equal means being integrated on the labour
market
Constructions of identities
 Women as gatekeepers/border guards (symbols of
belonging/membership): language proficiency (Wodak),
gender identity (Yuval-Davis)
 Symbolic meaning of gender significant in reproduction of
communities: the empowered working woman as border
guard of national identity
 National/European identity, gender equality and ethnonational diversity intertwined: gender equal, progressive
insider vs gender unequal, old-fashioned outsider
 Implications for the in/exclusion into national and European
spheres of belonging and for the development of Europe
as a diverse society
 Finding: Young minority women as bearers of integration!
Intersectionality I
“I think one should be very careful not to make too general
conclusions in this matter because we also see second generation
children of immigrants doing great, especially the girls we see at
the universities and the schools in Denmark do absolutely
marvellous. So, again we should be much more accurate about
what we are talking about. Is it the first generation or is it the
second generation?
The girls are good at finding their way into our educational system
but the boys are, so to speak, hopelessly maladjusted and they find
some subcultures which are hopeless to deal with.”

(IP, Danish, Social Democrat)
 Intersection of generation, age, ethnicity and gender
 Creation of category of belonging and membership: who is defined as
the European woman
 Belonging – integration – gender equality – labour market participation
The ’includer’
“I become extremely happy when I see some of these
immigrant girls, who are the ones that manage the best,
who just develop very fast and also handle having a
good relationship with their parents who are proud of
them, naturally, but who also think that they do a lot of
things wrong. […] Just as somebody like me, coming
from [a marginal region in Denmark], coming from such
an Inner Mission environment. I mean, most people do
not live the same life as their parents and do not share
the same values either. […] It is something you have to
be able to handle as a human being”.
(IP, Socialist People’s Party)
The ’excluder’
“Since for instance many Muslims come with a Middle Age world
view in terms of women, then [gender equality and diversity] is a
problem but I actually always think that, well, the thing about
gender equality, I think, we are really on the way to achieving it
without… if we do not consider the ethnic groups, then we are well
on our way to a reasonable gender equality. In relation to this, it
puzzles me that these women’s movements do not touch the other
thing even though it ought to be their first objective to get many of
these Muslim women out of these slave-like relations they are in. I
remember in the 60’s how they stood and shouted, the women’s
movements, outside schools where meetings in the housewife
association were held. And, back then, I thought that was a bit
ridiculous. I still think it is. But it shows how strong feelings there
were […]. And then there are no feelings at all when it comes to
what is going on right in front of us”.
(IP, Danish People’s Party)
Models & Visions for the
Public Sphere/EPS
 The Pragmatic Approach – the prevalent
model across the political spectrum
 The Nationalist Model – a counter
discourse expressed by DPP & Danish Ass.
 The Democratic Participatory Approach –
a minority position
Multilayered Citizenship and Politics
of Belonging
 Social divisions are about macro axis of social
power but also involve actual concrete people.
Social divisions have organizational,
intersubjective, experiental & representational
forms…In other words they are expressed in
specific institutions and organizations, such as
state laws and state agencies, trade unions,
voluntary organizations and the family. In addition,
they involve specific power and affective
relationships between actual people…
(Yuval Davis 2006, 198)