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- Olivius, Elisabeth, 1983-
(författare)
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Governing Refugees through Gender Equality : Care, Control, Emancipation
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In recent decades, international feminist activism and research has had significant success in pushing gender issues onto the international agenda and into global governance institutions and processes. The goal of gender equality is now widely accepted and codified in international legal instruments. While this appears to be a remarkable global success for feminism, widespread gender inequalities persist around the globe. This paradox has led scholars to question the extent to which feminist concepts and goals can retain their transformative potential when they are institutionalized in global governance institutions and processes. This thesis examines the institutionalization of feminist ideas in global governance through an analysis of how, and with what effects, gender equality norms are constructed, interpreted and applied in the global governance of refugees: a field that has thus far received little attention in the growing literature on feminism, gender and global governance. This aim is pursued through a case study of humanitarian aid practices in refugee camps in Bangladesh and Thailand. The study is based on interviews with humanitarian workers in these two contexts, and its theoretical framework is informed by postcolonial feminist theory and Foucauldian thought on power and governing. These analytical perspectives allows the thesis to capture how gender equality norms operate as governing tools, and situate the politics of gender equality in refugee camps in the context of global relations of power and marginalization. The findings of this thesis show that in the global governance of refugees, gender equality is rarely treated as a goal in its own right. The construction, interpretation and application of gender equality norms is mediated and shaped by the dominant governing projects in this field. Gender equality norms are either advocated on the basis of their usefulness as means for the efficient management of refugee situations, or as necessary components of a process of modernization and development of the regions from which refugees originate. These governing projects significantly limit the forms of social change and the forms of agency that are enabled. Nevertheless, gender equality norms do contribute to opening up new opportunities for refugee women and destabilizing local gendered relations of power, and they are appropriated and used by refugees in ways that challenge and go beyond humanitarian agendas.
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| 2. |
- Olivius, Elisabeth, 1983-
(författare)
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Displacing Equality? : Women’s Participation and Humanitarian Aid Effectiveness in Refugee Camps
- 2014
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Ingår i: Refugee Survey Quarterly. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1020-4067 .- 1471-695X. ; 33:3, s. 93-117
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In humanitarian aid policy and practice, the importance of women’s participation is strongly emphasised. However, this article argues that women’s participation has become an instrument for optimising the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian operations rather than a tool for the promotion of gender equality. Drawing on the Foucauldian concept of governmentality, the article examines how women’s participation is represented and employed as a means to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian aid in two refugee camp contexts, in Bangladesh and in Thailand, and asks how such strategies affect the gendered relations of power that shape women’s lives in the camps. Based on interviews with humanitarian workers, the analysis shows that programmes that promote women’s participation as a means for the achievement of other goals can reinforce existing gender inequalities, but also, despite their constraining effects, contribute to open up new opportunities for women. However, equality is treated as a side effect, not a goal in its own right. In conclusion, the article suggests that renewed engagement with the political project of feminism is needed to counter the de-politisation and instrumentalisation of gender in humanitarian aid, and bring the goals of equality and justice back in.
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| 3. |
- Olivius, Elisabeth, 1983-
(författare)
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Gender Equality and Neo-liberal Governmentality in Refugee Camps
- 2013
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Ingår i: St. Antony's International Review (STAIR). - 1746-451X .- 1746-4528. ; 9:1, s. 53-69
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent decades, humanitarian aid to refugees has increasingly employed neo-liberal forms of governing that are characterized by an emphasis on accountability, measurement of performance, and the decentralization of responsibility for welfare. This paper examines the implications of the neo-liberalization of the international refugee regime for humanitarian aspirations to promote gender equality, and argues that neo-liberal strategies and practices of government fundamentally shape the meaning of gender equality,equality and the organization of its promotion in humanitarian aid to refugees. This paper e analysis draws on a Foucauldian governmentality perspective, and, based on interviews with humanitarian workers, shows how neo-liberal technologies of government are employed in gender equality programmes in refugee camps in Thailand and Bangladesh. The paper concludes that neo-liberal forms of gender equality promotion have a number of problematic effects: the meaning of gender equality becomes superficial and instrumental, and international “expertise” is privileged at the expense of refugee ownership, when gender equality is constructed as a technical, administrative issue rather than an issue of power and politics.
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| 6. |
- Olivius, Elisabeth
(författare)
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(Un)Governable Subjects : The Limits of Refugee Participation in the Promotion of Gender Equality in Humanitarian Aid
- 2014
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Ingår i: The Journal of Refugee Studies. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0951-6328 .- 1471-6925. ; 27:1, s. 42-61
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In humanitarian aid to refugees, participatory and community-based approaches are today strongly emphasized as the path towards more efficient protection and assistance. Participation and community mobilization are particularly constructed as a vehicle for the promotion of gender equality. This paper explores how participatory and community-based approaches are used in efforts to promote gender equality in humanitarian aid to Burmese refugees in Thailand and Bangladesh. Refugees in Bangladesh, especially women, are problematized as passive and dependent due to their alleged lack of 'community spirit' and participation. In contrast, the political activism of refugee leaders and women's organizations in Thailand is represented as problematic, illegitimate and unruly. While refugees in Bangladesh do not participate enough, it appears that the refugees in Thailand participate too much. Drawing on interviews with humanitarian workers, this paper examines this paradox through a governmentality perspective, draws out the meanings attached to the concept of participation in humanitarian policy and practice and shows how participation is employed in the government of refugees.
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