Researching the European Union seminar: Debating European Integration in Turbulent Times

 

Welcome to the second Researching the European Union seminar of 2024!

 

Debating European integration in turbulent times

 

We are delighted to welcome our colleagues from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) EU-programme to present their research on contemporary themes of EU integration, including enlargement politics, memory politics and narratives about European integration.

 

13 March 2024, 15.00-16.30
The Centre for European Studies,
Unioninkatu 33, seminar room 247

 

Speakers:

Tyyne Karjalainen (FIIA): “EU member states driving European integration in the Eastern neighbourhood?”

Marco Siddi (FIIA): “Transnational Memory Politics and EU-Russia Relations”

Manuel Müller (FIIA): “The Cosmopolitan-Democratic Narrative of European Integration”

The seminar series Researching the European Union is organised and chaired by Johanna Kantola and Päivi Leino-Sandberg at the University of Helsinki.

Researching the European Union seminar: Governing Finnish EU policy and EU-NATO relations

Welcome to the Researching the European Union seminar series session:

Governing Finnish EU policy and EU-NATO relations

17th November 2023
12.30-14.00
University of Helsinki, U33 room 247

 

We are delighted to welcome Professor Tapio Raunio and Research Director Hanna Ojanen from Tampere University to present their research on the European Union in our seminar series. The session focuses on governing policies and structures in the context of Finnish EU policy and influence and EU-NATO relations.  

Speakers:

Tapio Raunio (Tampere University): “Still speaking with one voice – or why the Finnish national EU coordination system does not change?”

Hanna Ojanen (Tampere University): “Researching EU-NATO relations”

The seminar series Researching the European Union is organised and chaired by Johanna Kantola and Päivi Leino-Sandberg at the University of Helsinki.

Researching the European Union seminar: Gendering violence and anti-gender backlash in Europe

Welcome to the Researching the European Union seminar series session:

Gendering violence and anti-gender backlash in Europe

5th December 2023
14.00-15.30
University of Helsinki, U33 room 247

 

We are delighted to welcome Professor Mona Lena Krook (Rutgers University) to the Centre for European Studies (CES) to present her work on violence against women in politics based on her Oxford University Press book on the topic.

The seminar will also present research from the Horizon Europe funded research project CCindle studying anti-gender politics, backlash against gender equality and feminist responses to it in Europe and the EU.

 

Speakers:

Mona Lena Krook (Rutgers University): Violence against women in politics

Johanna Kantola (University of Helsinki): Conceptualising institutional feminist responses to anti-gender politics in Europe

Valentine Berthet (University of Helsinki): Findings about feminist responses to anti-gender politics in the European Parliament

The seminar series Researching the European Union is organised and chaired by Johanna Kantola and Päivi Leino-Sandberg at the University of Helsinki.

Final Project Conference

In the final year of the EU GenDem project we will be organizing the international conference:

European Politics, Equality, and Democracy

25-26 May 2023

University of Helsinki

How can we make European political institutions and policies more democratic and equal? What methods, concepts, and theories are needed to study them? To answer these questions, the conference brings together scholars working on key issues for democracy and equality in European politics today. The aim is to explore the power structures, actors, and dynamics shaping European democracy today. Topics range from political legitimacy, democratic practices and policy-making of European political institutions, to the impact of radical right populism and anti-gender backlash, and to promoting gender equality, anti-racism, and LGBTQI rights in European societies and politics. The conference explores how EU governance and the knowledge underpinning it is constructed and implemented, and with what outcomes.

The conference forges a dialogue between scholars across different disciplines and approaches bringing together EU studies, gender and politics, political science, and social scientists more broadly. The conference is organised around two keynote sessions, four plenary panels, and panel sessions with papers selected in an open call.

Keynote session 1: Challenges to European democracy and integration   

Natasha Wunsch (Sciences Po, CEE & ETH Zurich): “European integration in the shadow of democratic backsliding”

Elżbieta Korolczuk (Södertörn University & University of Warsaw): “Right-wing populism and (anti)gender politics in Europe”

Keynote session 2: European Parliament in turbulent times   

Nathalie Brack (UL Brussels): “The challenge of the Populist Radical Right in the European Parliament”

Johanna Kantola (University of Helsinki): “Gender, power, and democracy in European Parliament’s political groups”

Plenary panels:
1. Critical perspectives on the informal in parliamentary politics

Jennifer Piscopo (Occidental College): “Gender and Informal Networks: Lessons from Women’s Strategies for Power and Change in the Americas”

Akwugo Emejulu (University of Warwick): “Ambivalent Activism: Contradiction as a Radical Democratic Praxis for Women of Colour Activists in Europe”

Georgina Waylen (University of Manchester): “Informal institutions in parliamentary politics: Gender, power and change”

Laura Landorff (Lund University): “Intergroups in the European Parliament: Exclusive Arenas for Informal Civil Society Deliberation?”

2. Governance and knowledge for equality and democracy 

Ben Crum (VU Amsterdam): “Democratizing Economic Governance in the European Union”

Stefanie Wöhl (University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna): “Gendered International Political Economy Perspectives on Economic Governance in the European Union – Taking Social Reproduction serious”

Paul Copeland (Queen Mary University of London): ​​”A step-change in EU anti-poverty policy? Evaluating recent developments”

Anna Elomäki (Tampere University): “Transformative or ambiguous actor? Where does the European Parliament stand in terms of EU socio-economic governance”

3. Equality policies in the European Union

Iyiola Solanke (University of Leeds): “Protection from Intersectional Discrimination in EU Law – time for effective action?”

Petra Ahrens (Tampere University): “Gender mainstreaming in the EU policy framework and strategies in the European Parliament”

Amandine Le Bellec (Sciences Po Paris): “Shifting equality policies from the margins. The Common European Asylum System and the making of LGBTI rights in the EU”

Serena D’Agostino (VU Brussels): “Intersectional Discrimination and Romani Women’s Rights in Europe: Pushing the Equ(al)ity Boundaries”

4. Parliamentary and legislative ethnography: Gender, democracy, and practice

Nadia Brown (Georgetown University): “Doing Ethnographic Research as a Black Woman on Black Women Political Elites”

Jonathan Chibois (Laboratory of Political Anthropology, EHESS, CNRS): “Doing fieldwork in centres of power: the case of deliberative assemblies”

Cherry Miller (University of Glasgow): “From Westminster to Brussels: Putting the ‘Parliament’ in Parliamentary Ethnography”

Sandrine Roginsky (Catholic University Louvain): “A decade of ethnography of the European Parliament: an evolution in the forms of legitimacy construction?”

The conference invites both panel and paper proposals coming from a variety of theoretical, methodological, empirical, or normative perspectives. We welcome proposals on all the main themes, with no geographic restrictions on the cases studied. The submission form will be available on the conference website in January 2023.

You can submit your paper and panel proposals on the website until 13 February 2023.

Further details and the Cfp will be available on the conference website.

Contact: Research Assistant Säde Kunnas sade.kunnas(a)helsinki.fi

EUGenDem final event in the European Parliament

In the final year of our project, we will be organizing an event presenting our project findings to policymakers and stakeholders in Brussels.

‘Gender equality in the political groups: Pushing the agenda forward’

7 February 2023, 9.30-11.00
European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
Organized by the EUGenDem research project , University of Helsinki, Finland and Maria Noichl, MEP

EUGenDem is a major European Research Council funded research project which provides a systematic analysis of the gendered policies and practices of the political groups in the European Parliament. It addresses crucial questions about the gender and policies and practices of European party politics. The research and analysis conducted led to over 70 scientific publications so far.

Program:
9.30-9.40  Opening

Professor Johanna Kantola, University of Helsinki
Maria Noichl, MEP, S&D

9.40-10.20 Presentations: Key findings on gender equality in the political groups

Professor Johanna Kantola: Where do we stand now on gender equality in political groups?
Dr Anna Elomäki: Making room for gender equality in political group policymaking
Dr Valentine Berthet: Tackling the oppositions to gender equality
Dr Barbara Gaweda: Putting anti-racism and intersectionality on the
agenda

10.20-11.00 High-level Roundtable: Debating gender equality in the political groups

Moderators: Dr Petra Ahrens and Dr Cherry Miller

Speakers:
Maria Noichl, MEP, S&D
Kira Marie Petersen-Hansen, MEP, Greens/EFA
Sirpa Pietikäinen, MEP, EPP
Samira Rafaela, MEP, Renew
Dr Costanza Hermanin, European University Institute (EUI), Italy

If you would like to join us, please register by contacting sade.kunnas@helsinki.fi by January 30th.

Seminar on Researching the European Union

Welcome to the first Researching the European Union seminar!

Power and expertise in the institutions of the European Union: Perspectives from law and politics

1 February 2023, 10.00-11.30

Location: Unioninkatu 33, 247 (meeting room, 2nd floor), Centre for European Studies (CES)

Programme:

Milka Sormunen (University of Helsinki): Assessing the practical implications of informalisation of EU external migration policy on separation of powers

Päivi Leino-Sandberg (University of Helsinki): Transparency and trilogues? Real legislative work for grown ups

Johanna Kantola (University of Helsinki): The politics of national delegations in the European Parliament (co-authored with Anna Elomäki, Petra Ahrens, Valentine Berthet, Barbara Gaweda and Cherry Miller)

Anna Elomäki (Tampere University): Constructing expertise in the European Parliament: Democratic legitimacy and political actors (with Taru Haapala)

The aim of the Researching the European Union seminar is to present and debate recent research on the EU from the University of Helsinki and beyond. This first seminar brings together researchers from the Centre of European Studies (CES) and Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights in the University of Helsinki. The papers come from two internationally funded research projects, the ERC funded EUGenDem, and the Norface-funded SEPAROPE as well as the STN project Legitimacy2035. To participate, please email: johanna.kantola@helsinki.fi

Distinguished Visiting Professor in Gender and EU Studies, Universität Tübingen

Johanna Kantola was invited to a three year position as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in Gender and EU Studies at the Universität Tübingen, the Institute for Political Science (2022-2025).

The position involves one or two week research visits to Tübingen each year, teaching a course on gender and the European Union, and public research talks.

Kantola held her Inaugural Visiting Professor Lecture at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences 11th May 2022 and it was titled ‘Holding up democracy and equality? Democratic and gendered practices of European Parliament’s political groups in times of populism and backlash’. The lecture was followed by a reception in the institute’s garden. Kantola’s research visit also included teaching an intensive MA level course on “Party Politics and Gender Equality in the European Parliament”.

As a visiting professor, Kantola works closely with Professor Gabriele Abels. They undertook joint teaching on the EU legislative triangle and gendering trilogues, and on the Conference n the Future of Europe from a gender perspective. Their research collaboration includes organizing a workshop “Gendering the Conference on the Future of Europe” in Scuola Normale in Florence in October 2022 together with Emanuela Lombardo. Abels, Kantola and Lombardo are also working on a co-edited volume evaluating the work of Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission from a gender perspective and are hoping to host a workshop on the topic in Tübingen during Kantola’s next year’s research visit in June 2023.

International Women’s Day blog post in ECPR’s Political Science Blog The Loop: How the European Parliament worked gender equality into the EU pandemic response

To celebrate the International Women’s Day 2021 we wrote a blog post about our most recent EUGenDem research for the ECPR Political Science Blog The Loop:

“While EU crisis responses are often gender blind, European Parliament gender equality actors have managed to develop gendered EU Covid recovery policies. Still, argue Anna Elomäki and Johanna Kantola, equality is only welcome when it does not challenge dominant economic priorities”

How the European Parliament worked gender equality into the EU pandemic response

Join us for the EUGenDem virtual workshop “Gender and Politics in the Covid-19 Crisis: Including a Gender Perspective in Responses and Recovery” for more. Programme and registration here.

LSE blog post: How opposition to gender equality is expressed by radical right MEPs in the European Parliament

Read our LSE blog post on our recent research article out in International Political Science Review:

Issues affecting gender equality are frequently debated in the European Parliament. Drawing on a recent study, Johanna Kantola and Emanuela Lombardo present new findings on how radical right MEPs express opposition to gender equality during plenary sessions.

How opposition to gender equality is expressed by radical right MEPs in the European Parliament

EUGenDem workshop sessions 2020/21

We are very excited to announce the launch of the EUGenDem series of online workshops on gender and democracy in Europe.

COVID-19 restrictions have caused many of us to lose the opportunity to interact with each other and to discuss our research. To counter this, the EUGenDem team is organizing a series of workshops with both academics and practitioners to debate the polarized politics in Europe today.

Session 1: European Parliament’s political groups in turbulent times: New research avenues

December 14th 2020, at 15:00 (EET)

Chair: Petra Ahrens (Tampere University, Finland)

Speakers:

Johanna Kantola (Tampere University, Finland): Gender and democracy in European Parliament’s party group practices

Valentine Berthet, Anna Elomäki, and Barbara Gaweda (Tampere University, Finland): Political dynamics, power struggles, and intra-group policy formation in the European Parliament

Cherry Miller (Tampere University, Finland): ‘Ethno, ethno, what?’ How Parliamentary Ethnography can help us to better understand Parliament’s Political Groups

Session 2: European Parliament’s political groups in turbulent times

January 22nd 2021, at 11:00 (EET)

Chair: Johanna Kantola (Tampere University, Finland)

Speakers:

Nathalie Brack and Anne-Sophie Behm (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium): How do Eurosceptics wage opposition in the European Parliament? Explaining Patterns of behavior in the 8th legislature

Ariadna Ripoll Servent (EUI, Italy and College of Europe, Belgium): When words do not follow deeds: An analysis of party competition between Eurosceptic and mainstream right-wing parties in the European Parliament.

Tapio Raunio (Tampere University, Finland): Shaping the EU’s future? Europarties, European Parliament party groups, and the Conference on the Future of Europe

Session 3Gendering Representative Institutions: Actors, Inner Lives, and Political Struggles

March 12th 2021, at 11:00 (EET)

Chairs: Cherry Miller (Tampere University, Finland)

Speakers:

Cecilia Josefsson (Uppsala University, Sweden): The toxic reality for young female MPs: On the intersection between gender and being young in the Swedish Parliament (co-authoring with Josefina Erikson, Uppsala University, Sweden)

Eva-Maria Euchner (Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany) and Elena Frech (University of Konstanz, Germany): Gender Quotas in the elections to the European Parliament: design, pattern and consequences

Session 4Democratic backsliding in Europe and the opposition to gender equality

March 17th 2021, at 11:00 (EET)

Chairs: Johanna Kantola (Tampere University, Finland) and Emanuela Lombardo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)

Speakers:

David Paternotte (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) and Mieke Verloo (Radboud University, the Netherlands): De-democratization and the politics of knowledge: Unpacking the Cultural Marxism narrative

Andrea Krizsan (Central European University) and Conny Roggeband (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands): Reconfiguring state-movement relations in the context of de-democratization

Johanna Kantola (Tampere University, Finland) and Emanuela Lombardo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain): Democratic practices and backsliding in the European Parliament: Feminist perspectives on the politics of political groups

Session 5: Mobilizing around gender and sexual and reproductive rights in EU institutions

April 29th 2021, at 11:00 (EET)

Chair: Anna Elomäki (Tampere University, Finland)

Speakers:

Elena Zacharenko (Tampere University, Finland): Rise in anti-SRR and anti-gender opposition at EU level – backlash on progress or opposition to the neoliberal logic?

Valentine Berthet (Tampere University, Finland): Mobilizing around reproductive rights in the European Parliament: political groups at cross?  

Session 6: Gender equality in the EU in the Covid-19 world

May 2021

Speakers:

Jennifer Piscopo (Occidental College) Title of the talk TBC

Pauline Cullen (Maynooth University) Title of the talk TBC

Anna Elomäki and Johanna Kantola (Tampere University, Finland): Covid-19, democracy and gender in the European Parliament: practices and policy responses

Session 7Parliamentary ethnography

3 June 2021, at 13:00 (EET)

Speakers:

Emma Crewe (SOAS University of London, UK): Title of the talk TBC

Sarah Childs (Royal Holloway, UK): Title of the talk TBC

The workshop will include the book launch of Cherry Miller’s new monograph Gendering the Everyday in the UK House of Commons: Beneath the Spectacle (Palgrave Macmillan), with comments by Marc Geddes (University of Edinburgh, UK).

More details coming soon!

For inquiries about the workshop series, please contact Barbara Gaweda (barbara.gaweda@tuni.fi).