The MING network from now on

The MING network will be closely connected to the new research project “Normalization and the neoliberal welfare state. Challenges of and for gender theory” (2012-2015, The Swedish Research Council) and will follow the three themes here outlined:

Project summary: Neoliberal individualism and the corresponding re(de)formation of the welfare state and new approaches to political struggle, have remapped society and thereby also the feminist agenda. These changes have deep consequences for the understanding of gender and for the possibilities of gender theory to produce knowledge for social change. This program takes its point of departure in research done within the research theme “Challenging normalization processes”. The aim is to further explore the challenges gender theory will meet in a neoliberal welfare state, but also to explore and further develop how gender theory, in its turn, can meet with these challenges.

The program is built on a step-by-step thematic process: 1.Understanding and challenging the way normalization processes make power, values and responsibility invisible, 2. Challenging the role of emotions in normalization/ individualization and finally 3: How to deal with differences in an ethical way? The possibility of developing a more sustainable gender theory in a neoliberal time. 

The work will be carried out in an interdisciplinary and international collaboration within Forum for gender studies and its national/international network. The network will meet for thematic workshops twice a year.