Le pôle genre de l’université de Genève organise les 19 et 20 novembre 2015 à Genève une conference sur les savoirs féministes et l'expertise genre. Il s'agit d'y aborder la relation des savoirs entre expert-e-s, militantes, institutionnelles, de s'attacher à leur comparaison, d'imaginer les liens possibles. 

Concept note (anglais)

International Conference. Pôle Genre et Développement. Geneva, 19-20 November 2015

Who knows?

Feminist knowledge production on development and gender experts. Interpretations, (de)-politicisation and social change.

Feminist knowledge has been produced for many decades, locally and globally, by researchers from the Global South and the Global North, by feminist and women’s movements, by governmental, non-governmental and/or international organisations. Academics and bureaucrats do not have the monopoly of knowledge production. What are the tensions between different producers of knowledge, and how is this knowledge used? There is concern about the fact that less authoritative forms of knowledge – local, produced by subaltern groups – have been replaced by expert knowledge, and distrust regarding the authority of experts over the public policies. Whose knowledge is valued, considered as legitimate, powerful? Which knowledge is incorporated in policy- making? Does feminist knowledge production, which claims to be inclusive, collaborative, and transformative, infuse gender expertise? If knowledge gives power, which feminist knowledge does so? Is it as empowering as knowledge produced in other fields?

What are the links between feminist knowledge and gender expertise? Expertise has sometimes been seen as a method to depoliticise policy issues. Experts draw their authority on their supposedly unbiased and rational knowledge. Scientific experts were supposed to provide the truth to decision-makers or have been sought to legitimate decision-making. Some scholars and feminist movements have critically analysed the de-politicisation of feminist knowledge by gender experts,  their distance to different understandings of social change and to women’s movements and their disconnection from feminist theories. They have claimed that feminist knowledge cannot serve the goal of gender equality, of transformative feminist policies, if it is de-politicised. Is de-politicisation inherent to the professionalisation of feminist knowledge?

During the International women’s conference in Beijing in 1995, gender mainstreaming was defined and since then has been widely promoted as the strategy to address gender inequalities. Different directions have been taken, either encouraging measures to increase women’s participation in politics and economics – “smart economics” – in an integrationist approach, or rethinking the global neo-liberal and patriarchal system, in a transformative approach. Gender mainstreaming has led to a proliferation of gender experts appointed to work towards the integration of gender in policies and programmes.

While much literature has critically discussed gender mainstreaming, the field of “gender experts” has not been as largely investigated. This conference will shed light on the construction of gender experts and gender expertise, on the processes of feminist knowledge construction, on the uses of this knowledge in development agencies and will discuss the interpretive power of this knowledge.

The conference will address the construction of gender experts and gender expertise in transnational spaces. Who are these people, how are they organised in transnational networks, how are power relations among them affected by intersectionality and the “coloniality of power”? Where do they draw their legitimacy, their authority from, how do they wield power? Who defines their goals, who are they accountable to? To what extent are their analyses and recommendations incorporated in policy debates and in public policies? Where do they draw their knowledge from, how do they use it?

The conference will also explore the production of feminist knowledge, from different points of view and sites – feminist movements or universities, NGOs or cooperation agencies, etc. It will discuss the processes of knowledge construction, how knowledge has circulated, been translated and interpreted, used or misused, appropriated or transformed, how dialogues and interactions have taken place or hegemonic positions have been occupied in this field. It will explore how the concept of gender – shaped by feminist theories – has travelled and how it has been translated.

To what extent are gender experts indebted to feminist scholarship and movements? How do they consider politicisation? Under what circumstances can we expect gender experts to defend feminist goals and women's rights, as well as alternatives and global economic, social and political changes? If gender experts adhere to these transformative agendas, how can they build their authority to influence changes? Can gender experts make a difference?

Claudy Vouhé

Membre du CA de Genre en Action