Ambivalent Gender Knowledge

‘Culture’ as a Field of Conflict for Feminist Initiatives in Post-migrant Society

Issues such as ‘forced marriage’ and ‘female genital mutilation’ have become an increasing focus of feminist activism in Europe in the 1990s. These forms of gender-specific violence are negotiated as ‘culturally determined’ and primarily localised in the group of migrant women. Feminist initiatives that are directed against such phenomena are thus central locations for the production, negotiation and reproduction of knowledge about the relationship between gender and cultural difference. This gender knowledge is the subject of this ethnographic research project, which aims to contribute to research into feminist practices and discourses in a post-migrant society. How does this gender knowledge emerge in concrete practices? How is it produced and negotiated situationally? And how is this gender knowledge positioned in political action?

People: Miriam Gutekunst, Ananya Mehra