Workshop 1: Politics of Population Growth and Gender Rights in Middle East and South East Europe States

Abstract

The population problem relates to both life and socio-economic risks. On the one hand, stagnating or decreasing population will have implications of aging and long-term care. Adverse trends in population demographics will bear risks for socio-economic development and high economic costs. They may also compromise developments in gender policy regimes if childbearing becomes a “political” demand from women and socio-political actors portray homosexuals as “anti-national” for they do not engage in procreation. On the other hand, scarcity and access to natural resources due to uncontrolled increases in population would imply geopolitical risks. Political instability at the macro level and socio-psychological risks at the individual level will be the result. Moreover, these risks diverge in terms of the challenge that they pose to the developed and developing countries around the Mediterranean namely in South Europe, East Mediterranean and North Africa. While the former increasingly feels the brunt of stagnating and aging populations, access to resources and healthy environment is threatened in the latter two, given a rather uncontrolled population growth. As geographical distance between the developed North and the developing South disappears due to the high mobility of goods, people, business, and services, the risks in one area threaten the other. Thereby, socio-economic, civil society and policy actors have to respond to domestic implications of the population problem, but also prepare for external threats that may burden the welfare of their citizens. Bearing in mind the financial, gender, socio-economic and political implications of such risks, the proposed papers should deal with actors respond to life and socio-economic risks that accrue from population stagnation as well as uncontrolled increase of population.

Description

We are in an age in which respective populations of states are signs of national as well as economic strength. The “population problem” became more complex given the stagnating or even declining population figures in most of the developed world and increasing population figures in the developing world. For the developed world, stagnant populations are prone to become economic burdens given the generous welfare states as well as pension schemes whereas for the developing world increasing population is an economic burden given the scarcity of jobs. Such an unbalanced population growth has a significant impact on the immigration waves from the South to the North – sometimes with dire consequences for the emigrating communities. The Mediterranean area, namely South Europe, Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, is an area that is prone to face the direst consequences of the population problem. 

Beyond the complex socio-economic consequences of “population problem” in the North and the South, the programmes of population increase as well as control have inevitable gender policy aspects. In relevance, the improvements in gender rights in the new democracies as well as democratising societies mean that any politics of population control or growth also engage with gender policy. This fosters foes as well as supporters. With rare exceptions, such as Korkut and Eslen-Ziya (2011); Banaszak (2007); Benería (2001); Gal and Kligman, (2001), recently, little comparative scholarly attention is given to the relationship between population politics and economic competitiveness and population politics and gender rights. Far less is known about how population politics affect gay and lesbian rights in democracies, new democracies and democratising countries. Arguably, conservative voices in these countries tend to raise their opposition to improvements in gay rights on the basis that it will compromise the number of childbirths and a “healthy” environment for children.

Therefore, we are interested in papers in the general area of population politics in the South Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa, but also keen to receive paper submissions on specific conceptual areas such as economic competitiveness, gender rights, and immigration related to the population problem. Methodologically, we are interested in process tracing with respect to building the causal links that trigger the mechanism of population problem. Papers with qualitative research focus should derive from the theories of both formal and discursive institutionalism in setting how population risks are framed domestically and internationally. Moreover, the papers can also make use of the quantitative method in studying socio-economic variables to present a clear picture of what population problem may involve and imply. Our starting point is that regardless of population increase, stagnation or decline levels, population figures relate to politics and receive much attention both from the political as well as the civil society. Some other questions central to this workshop are: What reverses population decline? What are the fundamental institutions of population politics? How do gender rights and population politics relate to each other? Hence, in this workshop we will gain insights to how conservative social ideas on gender issues prevail in effect to institutionalised population politics and whether this shows differences across the Mediterranean states or not.

Theoretical Conceptualisation of Population Politics:

Personal is political. As Connell (1990: 507) argues this phrase represents a basic feature of feminist and gay politics, a link between personal experience and power relations. Reproduction and gender rights conventionally thought as "private” are among the most fundamental aspects of life and in fact they are highly "public". Yet due to cultural and political sensitivities they receive little attention in public policy discussions. In fact laws and policies related to gender equality and sexual and reproductive rights, the availability of information and services, and whether and how gender equality is implemented is shaped by the socially conservative discourse.

An institutionalist interpretation of population politics focus on women’s concerns related to job and career with respect to childcare facilities as well as family-friendly working practices (Frey 2003), as the factors in effect to women’s decisions to bear children. One can also list equal pay legislation, paid parental leave with one’s job held for the duration, high quality public childcare, and an environment which does not threaten fertility as further institutional factors to affect the reproductive choice of women (Einhorn 1993: 75-76). However it is important to note that not just institutions but also the social conventions affect fertility decisions. O’Connor et. al. (1999) show that maternal and child health arrangements are historical constructions, differentially shaped by time, place, politics and culture while states are the main instruments for shaping family practices. Policy makers’ efforts to control reproduction ultimately enable the “state” to redefine the boundaries of such practices in relation to modernity as well as moral considerations (Krause and Marchesi 2007).

Eventually, the central role that states play in the determination of population politics attracts political networks vying to impart their effect on the formulation of family policies. Hence, in order for socially-conservative ideas to prevail, there is a need for networks. The degree to which policies addressed women primarily as workers or as mothers was strongly influenced by political agents, including women’s organisations (Glass and Fodor 2007) as well as religious organisations. Traditionally, in conservative societies, women’s issues are interpreted as “family issues” and women’s rights are often seen as coming at the expense of family life (Brunell 2002). Family frames the future of the nation while women inculcate the characteristics of their nation to their children. The cult of motherhood becomes the glorification of the traditional female role of wife, mother, and proud homemaker. This cult also promotes a vision that women are to have babies “for the nation” to teach them the national language and to inculcate them a love of their ethnic or national heritage (Einhorn 1993). As such, emancipated women deviate from what is normal. This discourse constructs families as safe heavens and sees problems occurring within families as linked to the changes in the structure of families or to women’s participation in the labour market (Verloo et. al. 2004).

Overall, population politics consists of a government’s direct or indirect measures for population development and legal norms concerning parental leave, employment, abortion, family responsibilities and benefits etc. The ideological orientation of the political party in power affects the shape of population politics. If the state supports the traditional family prototype with a male breadwinner, for instance, its entitlement will be different than a state supporting the dual earner family. In this respect population politics may diversify depending on the type of the welfare state and its affinity to gender equality. For instance while in in the EU member states, the EU as a supranational organization also meddles with population politics in terms of setting parental leave conditions and duration, in Middle East population policies mostly focus on fertility rate. With respect to new democracies, this workshop will analyse how conservative social ideas on gender issues prevail in effect to institutionalised population politics and either infiltrate into the institutions or find breeding ground in the absence of formal employment relations through bringing Middle East Central and South East Europe under its scope.

Possible paper topics:

• The first issue relates to gender rights and population politics and the position of women across the Mediterranean states. Here, the workshop will concentrate on two major aspects of population politics, namely the workforce participation of women and related work/family reconciliation issues including childcare. Under this theme the participants will discuss whether there is an implicit push for women to leave the labour market and become mother/housewives in the Middle Eastern and South East Europe economies where economic growth is devoid of creating new jobs. Hence, the workshop will investigate whether the introduction of pronatalist policies paves the way towards increasing poverty. While the number of children is proved to be a cause of poverty, the impact of pronatalist policies on poverty is not comprehensively investigated.

• The second theme relates to the issue of gay and lesbian rights in both regions. The participants will investigate the increasing anti-gay and lesbian instances in the Middle East and South East Europe States. Distinct from the current research in the area, however, the participants will inspect how in some cases, pronatalist rhetoric of the governments strengthen traditionalist social forces and eventually turn the tide against the governmental policies to enhance gay rights. And in others, how the state, Islam, Church and traditionalist social forces join their forces to oppose the pressure of enhancing anti-discrimination legislation. Gay rights issue brings some social movements and the religious groups closer to some politicians, although the former two may as well be opponents of major other policies of the same politicians. Hence, the second theme of this workshop will raise the question if opposition to gay rights is becoming a crosscutting cleavage in certain states while in others it repeats the traditional urban-rural or secular-religious divide. Simultaneously, the workshop will inquire whether the issue of gender rights re-shapes cleavages in the Middle East and South East Europe States or not.

• A third theme should relate to welfare, socio-psychological risks and related problem of security, and immigration that population problem may imply. Both the singular effects that these factors pose to the developed and developing states across the Mediterranean as well as their aggregate effect, given the high mobility of goods, people, business, and services, will be under study. Hence, papers should ascertain hypotheses for both singular and aggregate risks while responding to the research questions posed above.

Time Line:

The deadline for the submission of paper proposals for participants is 15 September 2012. Applications can only be submitted on-line through the electronic application form available on the above mentioned web address. Please submit extended abstracts (400-500 words), outlining research question, methodology and key arguments.

Works cited:

Banaszak, Lee Ann. 2006. “The Gendering State and Citizens’ Attitudes Toward

Women’s Roles: State Policy, Employment, and Religion in Germany.” Politics and

Gender 2 (1): 29-55.

Benería, Lourdes. 2001. “Shifting the Risk: Employment Patterns, Informalization, and

Women’s Work.” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 15 (1): 27-53.

Connell, R. W. 1990. “The state, gender, and sexual politics: Theory and appraisal” Theory and Society 19: 507-544.

Einhorn, Barbara. 1993. Cindrella Goes to Market. Citizenship, Gender and Women’s

Movements in East Central Europe. Verso: London, New York.

Eslen-Ziya, Hande and Korkut, Umut 2010. Political Religion and Politicized Women in Turkey: Hegemonic Republicanism Revisited, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions (renamed Politics, Religion and Ideology) 11, 3 & 4, September: 311-326.

Glass, Christy and Fodor Éva. 2007. “From Public to Private Maternalism? Gender and

Welfare in Poland and Hungary after 1989.” Social Politics: International Studies in

Gender, State and Society 14 (3) Special Issue: 323-350.

Korkut, Umut and Eslen-Ziya, Hande. 2011. “The Impact of Social Conservatism on Population Politics in Poland and Turkey, Social Politics 18 (3): 387-418.

Krause, Elizabeth and Marchesi, Milena. 2007. “Fertility Politics as ‘Social Viagra’:

Reproducing Boundaries, Social Cohesion, and Modernity in Italy.” American

Anthropologist 109 (2): 350-362.

O’Connor, Julia S., Orloff, Ann Shola, and Shaver, Sheila. 1999. States, Markets,

Families. Gender, Liberalism and Social Policy in Australia, Canada, Great Britain,

and the United States. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Verloo, Mieke et. al. 2004 “Framing the Organisation of Intimacy as a Policy Problem in

the EU.” Paper presented at the 2nd Pan-European Conference on European Politics of the ECPR Standing Group on European Union Politics, Bologna, 24-26 June.