Birte Siim

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• Professor
• Professor (Full) at Aalborg University

This handbook provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of key theoretical, analytical and normative approaches, topics and debates in contemporary scholarship about gender and citizenship. It demonstrates how diverse historical, social, political, economic and legal dimensions have shaped the evolution of gendered citizenship in differe...

Citizenship is essential for our ideas about equality, social justice, and democracy. This is relevant when we think of local, national, or regional forms of citizenship, as well as think about human rights and global citizenship. Gender is important for thinking about citizenship since claims for gender equality and social justice are central aims...

Critical and feminist scholars and activists have linked global political challenges posed by the environmental and climate crises to contemporary social problems with gender, inequality, marginalization, and poverty. They argue that the social and climate collapse requires transformative changes, which need to be addressed simultaneously, locally...

Citizenship, Gender and Diversity concerns political debates about individual's and social groups rights and duties in the Danish and Scandinavian welfare states. What is and what should be citizens rights and duties in relation to the Danish welfare system? Who is included in have access to social, civil and political rights and obligations and wh...

Denmark is characterized as a non-quota country and a Nordic enfant terrible when it comes to women’s political representation. Women’s representation at the national, parliamentary level has stagnated at 37-39 percent, which has remained the average since 1998. This development covers large inter-party differences: The low percentages of women’s r...

Introduction Globalisation, European integration and migration pose new challenges for understanding citizenship from a transnational perspective. Since the 1990s the increase in migrants and refugees has sparked new political debates about multiculturalism and multicultural policies across Europe, debates which have, increasingly after 9/11, been...

Introduction Since the 1990s, Western Europe has experienced a remarkable shift in political thinking about childcare. A profound politicisation of the relationship between the state and the family has generated renegotiations of the boundaries between public and private responsibilities in the care of young children. Parenting norms, parental resp...

Introduction The previous chapters have examined changes in the perception and application of citizenship rights in relation to childcare provision and to migration and asylum. This chapter looks at what Chapter Four called the ‘transnational redistribution of care work’ – the ways migration and childcare intersect in the case of the private employ...

We have had two main objectives in writing this volume. The first, which originated in our longstanding collaboration in the research field of gendered citizenship, has been to explore the key challenges facing those who study citizenship in a cross-national context. The second has been to illustrate some of these challenges through an analysis of...

This cross-national study explores a key concept in contemporary European political, policy and academic debates and demonstrates the value of a multi-level conceptualisation of citizenship.

Introduction In this chapter, we describe and analyse the range of actors involved in contemporary citizenship debates. These actors include left-wing and right-wing politicians, feminist movements, trade unions and social movements more generally. They may adhere to more dominant and powerful discourses on citizenship or struggle with alternative...

Introduction As context matters, a cross-national European study of the meanings of the concept of citizenship must, first of all, take the distinctive historical backgrounds into account. Understandings of citizenship have not only changed over the course of time, but its multifaceted, different meanings also reflect both varied political and soci...

Birte Siim diskuterar i denna artikel, med utgångspunkt i olika tolkningar av den välfärdsstatliga utvecklingen, kvinnors möjligheter att som kollektiv kraft utöva inflytande över samhällsutvecklingen under 90-talet. Under vilka betingelser kan detta ske?

This chapter addresses the new forms of ethno-nationalisms that are challenging (gender) equality and solidarity in the Nordic region. It explores the intersectional dilemmas of gender politics following growing immigration and the ‘refugee crisis’, reflecting critically upon the links between exclusionary nationalism and feminism. The theoretical...

The chapter addresses the politics of solidarity through the magnifying glass of everyday forms of activism in Copenhagen. It aims to make the acts of solidarity with migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers visible by analyzing the challenges facing activists acting “for and with” marginalized and subaltern groups. The theoretical approach explores h...

Inspired by Jodi Dean's understanding of the reflective solidarity of strangers, this contribution explores forms of migrant solidarity and resistance in Copenhagen and Berlin. It investigates how 'hybrid' forms of solidarity emerged out of different circumstances in Trampoline House and the Oranienplatz refugee protest camp. The two selected cases...

The article aims to integrate key concepts from social movement, citizenship and gender theories with afocus on (political) intersectionality at the interface of migration, race, gender and sexuality. It explores the responses from civil society groups to the exclusive intersections of right-wing politics and discourses in Austria and Denmark with...

The chapter analyses the potentials and limits to gender equality in Denmark, focusing on communalities and differences in the Nordic gender equality and welfare regimes. Due to political developments, Danish gender politics is challenged as ‘laboratories of gender equality’. One limitation is the gender gap in the economic elites and the underrepr...

The article aims to integrate key concepts from social movement, citizenship and gender theories with a focus on (political) intersectionality at the interface of migration, race, gender and sexuality. It explores the responses from civil society groups to the exclusive intersections of right-wing politics and discourses in Austria and Denmark with...

The paper addresses the politics and practice of solidarity – through the magnifying glass of everyday forms of activism in Copenhagen. It aims to make the acts of solidarity with migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers visible by analyzing the challenges facing activists acting ‘for and with’ marginalized and subaltern groups of refugees. The theore...

This concluding chapter by Anna Krasteva/Aino Saarinen and Birte Siim sums up the book’s contribution to “critical citizenship studies” in the epoch of transition from globalization to mainstreaming of national populism, conceptualizing civic activism and solidarity movements as challengers to national citizenship, and reinvention of citizenships—c...

The introduction by Birte Siim, Anna Krasteva, and Aino Saarinen situates the book within the scholarly literature and European research. It is inspired by the challenges to understand the new forms of national populism linked to globalization, European integration, migration, and multiculturality/multiculturalism. The transformation of the politic...

The Danish chapter by Birte Siim and Susi Meret explores dilemmas of citizenship by looking at the ways rightwing populism has been countered by mobilizations against exclusionary and discriminating Danish policies. The theoretical and methodological approach is inspired by scholarly literature reframing citizenship, democracy, and social movement...

This book explores the activism and solidarity movements formed by contemporary European citizens in opposition to populism, which has risen significantly in reaction to globalization, European integration and migration. It makes the counterforces to neo-nationalisms visible and re-envisions key concepts such as democracy/public sphere, power/empow...

The growth of nationalism and nativist parties and movements has raised political and scholarly debates about the future viability of European welfare states and democracies. These projects are sparked by reactions to the global war on terror and the economic and financial crises followed by austerity politics, growing securitization, unemployment...

This edited collection considers how transformations in contemporary societies have raised questions surrounding our sense of community and belonging, alongside our management of increased diversity. Diversity and Contestations over Nationalism in Europe and Canada includes contributions that consider the rise in regional nationalism and a greater...

The main contestations that we are witnessing today have been subsumed under the nationalist logic rather than confronting it outright. But even if the terms of debate are set within the ambit of nationalism, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, and nationalist resurgence (mainly through right-wing populism) reside in different renditions of national...

This chapter addresses gender equality and ethno-national diversity in democratic politics focusing on issues of EU citizenship as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the European Public Sphere. We propose that the intersectionality approach can contribute to understand the contestations by political actors about (gender) equality, ethno-nation...

There is very little theoretically and normatively informed empirical research that seeks to juxtapose studies of national contestation with other, non-national, perspectives. This collection does so by juxtaposing analyses of Canada and Europe (the EU, member and closely affiliated non-member states). It focuses on contestations over nationalism,...

The chapter revisits the feminist criticism of the welfare regime approach and reflects on recent proposals to reframe equality and solidarity in post-crisis Europe. It argues that we need new concepts, approaches and strategies to understand transformations of contemporary European welfare policies. We present the concept of intersectionality as a...

Male, authoritarian and charismatic are often mentioned as the key features of right wing populist leaders, well-fitting parties with an overrepresentation of male voters. The surge of (successful) women politicians at the leadership of several prominent right-wing populist parties in Europe questions today these assumptions: notably Pia Kjaersgaar...

Global mobility and the present economic, political and refugee crisis have resulted in political contestations and new theoretical challenges. Inspired by several European research projects, in this paper I reflect upon feminist activism and the challenges to reframing equality and social justice in contemporary society (see Siim & Mokre, 2013; La...

Scholars suggest that the Danish and Scandinavian welfare and gender regimes have influenced the way populism has emerged, developed and consolidated in the past half century. It has been argued that Scandinavia developed a form of ‘welfare nationalism’, which since the late 1960s has linked national, social and democratic issues with social equali...

The chapter aims to analyse the challenge from globalization to the Nordic welfare and gender regimes and discuss the potentials and limits of this approach to equality from historical and comparative perspectives. The main research question is how to redesign equality politics to address multiple inequalities based on intersecting inequalities acc...

The paper first briefly revisits the academic debate about gender equality and multiculturalism. Multiculturalism has been accused of being gender-blind, and the debates have illuminated the tensions between multiculturalism and gender equality (Okin 1999). Multicultural approaches have focused on the accommodation of diversity as the key concept (...

The paper addresses the dilemmas, contradictions and paradoxes in the Danish approach to gender quotas and gender equality. Gender equality policies influence power relations in relation to citizenship, democracy and governance . The empirical focus of the paper is on three different arenas for gender parity, which have inspired Danish debates abou...

This article analyses the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion (2010) (EY 2010) with the aim of identifying the nature of gender diversities in European Union policies. We argue that the European Union handles issues related to gender and diversity in particular ways; this approach is characterised by non-citizen/citizen and red...

This article addresses conflicts and negotiations about gender equality and diversity within the European public sphere (EPS). It aims to explore the specific constraints and possibilities for realizing gender equality and justice from the transnational European context. Research illustrates that the European Union (EU) approach to gender equality...

The European Union (EU) consists of 27 nation states, and its motto united in diversity refers to the right of EU citizens to cross borders and work and live legally in another EU country as well as to the accommodation of national minorities. In spite of this common fate, diversity issues have increasingly been associated with conflicts between ci...

This book responds to the often loud debates about the place of Muslims in Western Europe by proposing an analysis based in institutions, including schools, courts, hospitals, the military, electoral politics, the labor market, and civic education courses. The contributors consider the way people draw on practical schemas regarding others in their...

Purpose The aim of the article is to discuss the challenges from immigration to Nordic (gender) politics, theories and research. The research question is to what extent Nordic welfare and gender equality politics is based on exclusive solidarity biased towards the native majorities. A key issue is how Nordic gender theory and research has addressed...

Gender has always helped shape personal and family relationships, as well as governance processes, market structures, and religious practice. Political science, which is one of many academic disciplines in the world, is gendered and shaped by the social norms on sex and sexuality. This book aims to explain the gendered nature of political science a...

This book tackles a puzzle. Given the failings of neo-liberalism revealed by the economic crisis starting in 2008, why was social democracy not triumphant? After all, its political success over much of the post-war period was bolstered by a particular representation of the inter-war years and a belief that governments had put the old economics behi...

The meaning of gender equality, women’s rights and family values is contested within and across nation states as well as influenced by a variety of national histories, institutional and cultural contexts, including the European Union (EU). Results from the Eurosphere project1 have emphasised that right-wing populist parties in western Europe combin...

The aim of this book is to explore intersections of gender and diversity in the European Public Sphere (EPS). The individual chapters have therefore been applying the two perspectives, which figure prominently in contemporary research but have rarely before been combined.

The objective of the book is to investigate how major social and political actors and opinion leaders across Europe understand the interrelations between gender, ethno-national diversity and European democracy. It addresses fundamental themes in contemporary European politics and research: how does gender diversity influence national democracies ac...

This chapter aims to relate the thoughts on intersectionality to the concepts of European Public Spheres (EPS). Our starting point is the theory of the public sphere developed by Jürgen Habermas. After presenting this theory as well as its feminist critique, we will give an overview of recent literature on EPS, mainly based on Habermas and further...

Abstract: The growth of nationalism and nativist parties and movements has raised political and scholarly debates about the future viability of European welfare states and democracies. These projects are sparked by reactions to the global war on terror and the economic and financial crises followed by austerity politics, growing securitization, une...

Can transnational public spheres be envisaged for Europe, which, in fact, create accountability - that is, spaces of critical articulations, control mechanisms, and political correctives to the governing levels? Can the political, as a critical force and the willingness to struggle and decide, be re-introduced into the public sphere? In which ways...

Citizenship, gender and diversity The article explores the intersections of gender with diversities according to ethnicity/race and religion from a citizenship perspective. It looks at national debates and regulations of Muslim headscarves in Europe based on findings from the Veil -project, which compares veiling in eight European countries. Despi...

Introduction. Globalisation and increased migration to and within Europe have led to a growth in nationalisms and anti-equality, anti-diversity and anti-human-rights agendas inside and outside the EU (Banting and Kymlicka 2006; Rydgren 2012b; Wodak et al. 2012). Migration from non-Western countries has changed the social and political landscape in...

The article illustrates how the Muslim headscarf has become a symbol of a struggle about liberal principles and values connected with democracy, gender and equality and how it is used by populist forces as symbolic politics in order to promote a more restrictive immigration- and integration policy. In addition, it shows how key actors have employed...

The article explores the intersectional approach to citizenship and politics of belonging focusing on the different framings of gender and ethnicity. It investigates the intersections of gender and ethnicity in the construction of national belongings. The hijab debates illustrate the contextual uses of intersectionality in public debates and illumi...

The Scandinavian countries have witnessed intense debates about the effects of increased immigration on the Scandinavian welfare states, family and gender relations. The purpose of the chapter is to analyse the multicultural challenge to the Danish welfare- and gender regime by exploring the different political approaches to gender equality and fam...

This chapter first introduces the citizenship frame and the challenges coming from globalisation and migration to the Nordic welfare and gender models characterised by universal social rights, participatory democracy, and so-called women-friendly policies. It then addresses the specific tensions between gender equality and diversity in the Danish a...

Gender equality is often seen as a hallmark of the Nordic countries. This book explores this notion by examining the meanings of gender that underpin policies in the Scandinavian welfare states, historically and today. It focuses on three Scandinavian countries – Denmark, Norway, and Sweden – and the policy reforms that have occurred relating to fa...

This article discusses multicultural challenges to state feminism in Denmark and Norway, focusing both on similarities and differences in the two countries policy responses. In spite of important differences, we point towards similar problems and dilemmas in the public responses to multiculturalism and diversity among women connected to a state fem...

The overall aim of this article is to explore the analytical potential and normative value of Helga M. Hernes' concept about woman-friendly welfare states in analysis of Scandinavian countries. The first part discusses the underlying theoretical, political and normative assumptions about gender equality and social justice related to dimensions such...

The multicultural challenge to gender equality Feminist scholarship has asked important questions about multiculturalism and gender equality and about the relation between women's rights and respect for cultural diversity. The objective of this chapter is to discuss the challenges from migration and multiculturalism in the context of the Nordic wel...

In my research have been interested in exploring tensions between diversity and gender equality from a theoretical and comparative approach, looking at the Nordic welfare, citizenship and gender regimes from a comparative European perspective. In this paper I draw on inspirations and results from a number of comparative research projects and networ...

The Scandinavian countries have witnessed intense debates about the effects of increased immigration on the Scandinavian welfare states, family and gender relations. The purpose of the chapter is to analyse the multicultural challenge to the Danish welfare- and gender regime by exploring the different political approaches to gender equality and fam...

The objective of this article is to analyse the tension between diversity and gender equality, looking at problems and potentials for inclusion of minority women in the Danish citizenship model. It addresses the intersection of gender and ethnicity, focusing on two main themes. One is the gender‐political challenge of combining the discourse and po...

The pursuit of equal citizenship has been complicated by two recent developments: the emergence of multi‐level governance (and with it the growing importance of local, regional and global levels of citizenship practices) and the emergence of group recognition claims (which signal the growing importance of particularised experiences and multiple ine...

This chapter concentrates on those contextual issues concerning citizenship that have emerged within the European welfare states since the 1970s. It then discusses the various contemporary vocabularies and feminist critiques of citizenship. Some striking citizenship issues and debates in contemporary welfare states are also reported. The chapter fu...

This chapter takes a historical perspective so as to contextualise citizenship through elaboration of its legal and theoretical roots. After introducing the terminology of the legal tradition and the models of the modern concept of citizenship, it then describes the delays and the impediments to women's citizenship in the different dimensions of po...

This chapter first examines the interconnection between two dimensions of migration: the external dimension regulating territorial conditions of access; and the internal dimension regulating the rights and obligations of persons living legally in the country. It provides a short overview of migration and asylum legislation, with examples from the s...

This chapter reviews the central theoretical perspectives on childcare, gender, and social citizenship, and childcare as a social right of parents. It then discusses the main components of the childcare policy packages of the nine European welfare states, and parents' take-up and use of the childcare-related rights available. The chapter returns to...

This chapter gathers a number of threads and raises some general issues for future research and policy making. It first reflects on the challenges and then expands on the fresh perspectives that are believed to contribute to the understandings of gendered citizenship in Europe. The chapter specifically provides a fresh perspective on the study of g...

This chapter brings together the issues of care and migration through a study of the transnational dynamics of care, sometimes referred to as ‘global care chains’. It reviews the many different and complexly connected dimensions of citizenship it invokes. The case studies first contextualise their empirical data in terms of the different care and m...

This is a collectively written, inter-disciplinary, thematic cross-national study which combinesconceptual, theoretical, empirical and policy material in an ambitious and innovative way toexplore a key concept in contemporary European political, policy and academic debates.The first part of the book clarifies the various ways that the concept of ci...

This is a collectively written, inter-disciplinary, thematic cross-national study which combines conceptual, theoretical, empirical and policy material in an ambitious and innovative way to explore a key concept in contemporary European political, policy and academic debates. The first part of the book clarifies the various ways that the concept of...

Intersectionality is a travelling concept rooted in Black Feminism that has recently been adopted by Nordic gender research. The concept has been transformed on its way from the US to the Danish/Nordic context. The purpose with this article is to contribute to a critical reflection of the concept and discuss its potentials from a Danish/Nordic cont...

This chapter uses the framework of citizenship to study the barriers and potentials for gender equality in the era of globalisation and welfare-state restructuring. In this frame, citizenship has two dimensions: a welfare-state dimension designating social policies, and a democratic dimension designating the participation and identities of citizens...