Elżbieta Korolczuk

Södertörn University | sh · School of Culture and Education

In recent years, there has been a wave of opposition to feminism, gender equality, and minority rights in various national and international contexts. While there is a growing number of works that examine anti-gender campaigns, less attention has been devoted to the potential consequences of the anti-gender mobilizations for the internal relations...

In the contemporary world, the topic of women’s rights has often been employed and manipulated in debates on religious freedom. In her article Rola El-Husseini shows that whereas Western politicians have promoted liberal values, including religious freedom, internationally, they have rarely uphold these principles domestically. Often, these values...

This paper examines how the term 'gender' has been re-signified by the right-wing actors in contemporary struggles around globalization. First, we offer a chronology of debates concerning global diffusion of gender norms, tracing the consolidation of various groups into the anti-gender movement. The next section discusses how gender and globalizati...

In recent decades, we can observe significant changes in states’ approaches towards civil society around the globe, including efforts to control civil society organisations, closing communication channels between the state and citizens, and redirecting financial support towards organisations that have been co-opted by the state. These changes are o...

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note...

The shrinking of civil society—a problematic trend in a growing number of countries—often involves enacting legal measures to curtail the activity of civil society organizations and vilifying and/or harassing such organizations. Poland has been at the forefront of this trend since 2015. This article examines the mechanisms promoting elite replaceme...

This book charts the new phase of global struggles around gender equality and sexual democracy: the ultraconservative mobilization against "gender ideology" and feminist efforts to counteract it. It argues that anti-gender campaigns, which emerged around 2010 in Europe, are not a simple continuation of the anti-feminist backlash dating back to the...

This article focuses on the epistemic strategies employed by ultraconservative movements to oppose women’s reproductive rights and the ways in which the women’s movement counteracts these efforts. The core argument is that nowadays the opponents of gender equality and sexual democracy are seeking not only political but also epistemic power, produci...

What can we learn about civil society in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Russia from studies on activism within the region’s urban spaces? In this article, we argue that studying urban activism in CEE offers useful insights for general theory building about the importance of uneventful protests, the formation of agency and the processes of bec...

The crisis associated with the Covid19 pandemic is gendered, as it clearly shows social inequalities of all kinds. It particularly affects women, as well as disadvantaged and variously marginalised groups. There are also attempts to exploit the pandemic for short-term political goals directly targeting women's rights. The crisis can be compared to...

Kryzys związany z pandemią Covid-19 ma płeć i pokazuje wyraźnie wszelkie nierówności społeczne. Szczególnie dotyka kobiety, a także grupy gorzej sytuowane i w różny sposób marginalizowane. Pojawiają się też próby wykorzystania pandemii do realizacji doraźnych celów politycznych, wymierzonych bezpośrednio w prawa kobiet. Niniejsza analiza podsumowuj...

Świdnik in Südostpolen war die erste Stadt, die zur „LGBT-freien Zone“ wurde. Im März 2019 erklärte die Kreisverwaltung ihre Absicht, Kinder und Familien vor „homosexueller Propaganda“ und moralischem Verfall zu schützen. In einer nicht-bindenden Resolution versprachen lokale Politiker*innen, sich von jeglichen Aktivitäten fernzuhalten, die zu „Tol...

Świdnik, a town in south-east Poland, has become the country’s first ‘LGBT-free zone’. In March 2019, the county council declared its aim to protect children and families from ‘homosexual propaganda’ and moral degeneration. In a non-binding resolution, local politicians pledged to refrain from any action that would encourage ‘tolerance of LGBT peop...

Based on a critical interpretative review of existing qualitative research investigating accounts of ‘lived experience’ of surrogates and intended parents from a relational perspective, this article proposes a typology of surrogacy arrangements. The review is based on the analysis of 39 articles, which belong to a range of different disciplines (mo...

Abortion stigma, while observable as a global phenomenon, is constructed locally through various pathways and institutions, and at the intersection of transnational and local discourses. Stigmatisation of abortion has been challenged in varied ways by pro-choice adherents. This article investigates strategies for identifying and opposing stigmatisa...

The rise of ultraconservative, often religious movements and the right-wing electoral victories in many European countries, such as Poland, limit the opportunities for inserting feminist agenda in academia, institutional settings and public debates. In my presentation I will argue that national and transnational campaigns against “gender ideology”...

In their recent article in The Guardian, based on the forthcoming book The Light that Failed: The Reckoning Ivan Krastev and Steven Holmes claim that the current illiberal backlash in countries such as Poland and Hungary is best explained by the post-transformational fatigue rooted in unsuccessful efforts to emulate the West after 1989. While this...

Niniejszy zbiór poświęcony jest przede wszystkim analizie przyczyn i charakteru kobiecego buntu przeciwko zaostrzeniu prawa do aborcji, a także próbom oceny potencjalnych skutków tego zrywu dla ruchu kobiecego, dla polityki i społeczeństwa, nie tylko w Polsce. Analizujemy największą społeczną mobilizację w Polsce ostatnich lat za pomocą narzędzi i...

Książka analizuje relacje matek i dorosłych córek we współczesnej Polsce. Celem jest zrozumienie funkcjonujących we współczesnej kulturze i doświadczeniu wzorów i skryptów kulturowych związanych z rolą matki i córki, tego jak się one zmieniają i w jaki sposób negocjują je kobiety należące do odmiennych pokoleń. Badania, na których opiera się książk...

Feminist geography in Poland does not exist as a sub-discipline of geography. While there are individual Polish geographers pushing for feminist perspectives, most feminist analyses of issues relating to place, space and politics of location can be found within gender studies or feminist sociology. In this sense, feminist geography in Poland cannot...

Wstep. Mobilizacja kobiet w latach 2016-2018 : przyczyny, konteksty i perspektywy badawcze English: Introdtuction. Women's mobilization 2016-2018 : causes, contexts and research perspectives From the Book: Bunt Kobiet, Gdańsk, Europejskie Centrum Solidarności 2019. https://ecs.gda.pl/library/File/nauka/e-booki/raport/ECS_raport_buntkobiet.pdf

Recent developments show that Poland’s anti-gender campaigns, initiated around 2012 by the Polish Catholic Church and ultraconservative organisations, will continue into the next parliamentary term. While the right-wing populist Law and Justice party has made attacks on ‘gender ideology’ a key element of the critique of individualism and neoliberal...

This article examines the recent wave of grassroots mobilizations opposing gender equality, LGBT rights, and sex education, which vilify the term “gender” in public debates and policy documents. The antigender movement emerged simultaneously in various locations after 2010. We argue that this is not just another wave of antifeminist backlash or a n...

This article analyzes antigenderism as a coherent ideological construction consciously and effectively used by right-wing and religious fundamentalists worldwide. In what follows we examine the basic tenets of antigenderism, shedding light on how it contributes to the contemporary transnational resurgence of illiberal populism. We argue that today’...

Czy polski feminizm zajmował się kwestią socjalną po 1989 roku? A jeśli tak, to czy w stopniu wystarczającym? Zarówno w debacie publicznej jak i wśród części feministek dominuje przekonanie, że w ciągu ostatnich 25 lat ruch kobiecy zaniedbał kwestie socjalne: feminizm zajmował się przede wszystkim aborcją i kulturą, zaniedbując kwestie związane z p...

Masowe zaangażowanie kobiet w protesty przeciwko zaostrzeniu prawa dotyczącego aborcji w Polsce zaskoczyło właściwie wszystkich: władze, media i społeczeństwo. Skalą protestów i ich zasięgiem zaskoczona była także większość feministek. Po latach walki o liberalizację drakońskiej ustawy z 1993 roku; po dziesiątkach petycji i demonstracji, na które p...

Parental movements are strengthening around the world and often spark tense personal and political debate. With an emphasis on Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, this collection analyzes formal organizations as well as informal networks and online platforms which mobilize parents to advocate for change on a grassroots level. In doing so, the wo...

In much social scientific literature, Polish civil society has been portrayed as weak and passive. This volume offers a much-needed corrective, challenging this characterization on both theoretical and empirical grounds and suggesting new ways of conceptualizing civil society to better account for events on the ground as well as global trends such...

In much social scientific literature, Polish civil society has been portrayed as weak and passive. This volume offers a much-needed corrective, challenging this characterization on both theoretical and empirical grounds and suggesting new ways of conceptualizing civil society to better account for events on the ground as well as global trends such...

This article examines the public debate on reproductive technologies in contemporary Poland, focusing on the rhetorical strategies used by the main opponents of IVF: conservative politicians representing the leading parties in the Polish parliament and the representatives of the Catholic Church. The analysis highlights the exclusionary logic inscri...

This article focuses on present ave of opposition towards "gender" in Poland and elshwere. It shows that conservative actors have managed to harness a growing sense of anxiety and economic instability caused by neoliberal ideology and policies. These sentiments are channeled into anger against decadent elites, portrayed as morally corrupted and dan...

This article analyzes protests against abortion ban in Poland, with specific focus on the Black Protest (Czarny protest) initiated in September 2016 and All-Poland Women’s Strike (Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet) organized on October 3 and then again October 24, 2016. The aim is to explain the factors behind the mass scale of protests focusing on the ro...

This article examines how discourses on assisted reproductive technologies are locally appropriated, translated or contested in the specific cultural and political contexts of Poland and Sweden. The aim is to investigate how two national patients' organisations, namely the Polish association Nasz Bocian and the Swedish organisation Barnlängtan, art...

This article engages with feminist critiques of neoliberalism, specifically with the influential narrative about the NGO-ization of women’s movement and co-optation of feminism by neo-liberalism (Charkiewicz 2009, Fraser 2011, McRobbie 2009). It argues that while the vision of the feminist actors as “the handmaidens” of neoliberalism accurately cap...

This article compares the contemporary Czech and Polish women’s movements and demonstrates that there are significant differences in their strategies. While the Polish women’s movement is more active in mobilizing the population and uses both transactional and participatory strategies in order to achieve its goals, the Czech women’s movement focuse...

This article focuses on the identity work that takes place on the biggest Polish In-ternet forum for infertile people (www.nasz-bocian.pl). It is an example of a wider trend of digital groupings created by and for those who struggle with the physi-cal and emotional burden of a disease or disability, and through blogs, chats and forums contact other...

Artykuł poddaje analizie strategie tożsamościowe w ruchach społecznych kobiet we współczesnej Polsce. Pytania badawcze dotyczą znaczenia kategorii płci (gender) w procesie konstruowania zbiorowej tożsamości oraz tego, jak konkretne genderowe strategie tożsamościowe wpływają na społeczny odbiór, a w konsekwencji także sukcesy bądź porażki kobiecych...

This paper is a contribution to the ongoing discussion concerning factors determining the development of civil society in a post-state socialist context. It examines the financial mechanisms designed to promote civic engagement in Poland, including EU grants and the so-called ‘percentage law’ that allows citizens to support NGOs of their choice wit...

In this chapter we analyze factors determining the outcomes of civic participation of mothers in Poland. Thus, we have chosen to consider the cases of motherist mobilizations, whose effects vary significantly: while the Childbirth with Dignity Foundation has been very successful both in terms of changing attitudes and practices concerning perinatal...

The mother-daughter relationship has received increasing attention over the last few decades, both at the conceptual level and in empirical research. Unfortunately, however, this domain has not yet been sufficiently explored in the Polish context. Equally infrequent are empirical projects which strive to combine analysis of individual experiences w...