THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL IN/EXSCLUSION: A COMPARISON OF GENDER AND MIGRATN INCLUSION IN THE EU
WHEN: May 20, 2024 from 12:30-2:00 PM
WHERE: Bagley Hall Room 261
TALK DESCRIPTION:
How can we understand the policy improvements and setbacks regarding social inclusion in Europe? And to what extent does the rise of political mobilisation among civil society groups and political parties advance or hinder in/exclusions in Europe? This book presentation details how civic activism regarding the inclusion and integration of gender and sexual minorities, as well as migrants and refugees, have become substantial forces in European politics today. Using various policy indexes and public opinion data, it highlights the polarization surrounding inclusion and shows differences between member states, but also unevenness in the various
aspects of social inclusion.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Markus Thiel is a professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, Miami and director of FIU’s Jean Monnet Center of Excellence. Dr. Thiel’s research interests are the political sociology of the EU and European (Union) Politics more generally, as well as Human Rights and Identity Politics. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Miami in 2005 and has published several EU-related articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of European Integration, the Journal of Common Market Studies and others. In addition, his research on the political sociology of the EU produced the monographs ‘The Limits of Transnationalism’ (Palgrave, 2011) and ‘EU Civil Society and Human Rights Advocacy’ (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), as well as 5 co-edited volumes on: ‘Diversity and the European Union’ (with Lisa Pruegl, Palgrave, 2009), ‘Identity Politics in the Age of Globalization (with Roger Coate, Lynne Rienner/First Forum Press, 2010), ‘European Identity & Culture: Narratives of Transnational Belonging’ (with Rebecca Friedman, Ashgate, 2012), ‘Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ Claims Shape International Relations’ (with Manuela Picq, Routledge, 2015) and ‘EU Development Policies between Norms and Geopolitics’ (with Sarah Beringer & Sylvia Maier, Palgrave, 2019). Most recently, he published ‘The EU’s international LGBTI rights promotion: promises & pitfalls’ (Routledge, 2021), and co-authored 'The Politics of Social In/Exclusion in Europe' (Palgrave/Springer, 2023, with Ernesto Fiocchetto & Jeffrey Maslanik).
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TITLE: RETHINKING EQUALITY IN THE REALM OF NEOLIBERALISM: PARITY AND DIVERSITY "FRENCH STYLE
WHEN: May 22, 2024 from 12:30-2:00 PM
WHERE: Bagley Hall Room 261
TALK DESCRIPTION:
This presentation analyses the rise of diversity politics in France from the mid-2000s onwards, a period which coincided with the shaping of anti-discrimination policies driven by legal developments at the EU level, and preceded the incipient interest in multiple types of discrimination. Its purpose is to reframe diversity as politics, policy and polity, by examining the tensions between equality and identity politics. Our hypothesis is that the discursive framing of diversity, as it emerged in France, challenges the compatibility between three competing frameworks: republican equality entrenched in a universalistic tradition; the politics of identity in a multicultural context, and the neo-liberalist approach to social investment. We shed light on how diversity and parity politics open up the way towards an intersectional citizenship in which equality is conditional to the ‘performance’ of those who are considered as different, who I call the “non-brother”. Performance is both seen as a mise en scene and estimated as an added value.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Réjane Sénac is a CNRS tenured researcher at the CEVIPOF, the Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po, where she teaches. She is Head of Sciences Po’s Political Science Department and member of the steering committee for the research and educational programme on gender studies (PRESAGE). She is co-editor of Presses de Sciences Po’s gender collection and a member of the editorial board of Politics and Gender (Cambridge University Press). Her research brings political theory and a cognitive approach to public policy together to examine the tensions between republican and liberal notions of equality and liberty, as well as the way in which they intertwine with identity issues. They focus on public justifications for equality policies (parity diversity, same-sex marriage, etc.) and the principles of justice at stake in the latter. Her publications include the co-direction of Global Perspectives on Same-Sex Marriage: A neo-Institutional Approach (with Maxime Forest and Bronwyn Winter, Palgrave MacMillan, 2018), the notice “France: The republic tested by parity” in The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights (2019) and the article “Explaining gender gaps in legislative committees” (with Rainbow Murray in the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 2018).
