(http ://italianpolitical cience.com/)
Networking and Partner hip a
trategic Practice for Gender
tudie in Academia: the Ca e of
the Univer it of Trento
ar ara Poggio (http ://italianpolitical cience.com/author/ip ar arapoggio/), 21/12/2016
Gender a a concept entered the Italian political de ate in the late 1970 . A in man other u-ropean countrie and the United tate , theoretical reflection on gender fir t emerged out ide academia and were clo el linked to political activi m women on i ue uch a a ortion and divorce. The de ate then moved from women’ tudie to gender tudie . It thu no longer focu ed olel on women and women’ right , ut al o encompa ed roader a pect of gender relation and the inter ection etween gender and other identit categorie uch a race, ethnicit and exual identit . Onl in the late 1980 did gender tudie egin their fight to ecome a di cipline full acknowledged Italian academic in titution .
A araceno (2010) tate , there wa a de ate among women femini t academic on how etter to achieve in titutionalization within academia: introducing pecific women and gender
tudie curricula, or attempting to main tream women and gender per pective in exi ting cour e and curricula. Given the in titutional rigidit of the Italian univer it tem, femini t
cholar opted for a main tream olution. The introduced a focu on women, and later on gender, in their regular teaching u ject . The offered tudent eminar , initiative , and event in addition to normal curricula, and eventuall e ta li hed gender re earch center . The fir t uch center opened in 1991 at the Univer it of Torino. Thi wa the CIR D (Women and Gender tudie Interdi ciplinar Centre) who e founder came from man academic field : oth humanitie like ociolog , p cholog , hi tor , political cience, literature, eco-nomic , foreign language , and “hard” cience like iolog , law, medicine, and chemi tr . Thereafter, everal re earch center and program were founded, and toda there are around 20 re earch center at univer itie acro Ital .
The Centre for Interdi ciplinar Gender
tudie at the Univer it of Trento
The Centre for Interdi ciplinar Gender tudie (C G) of the Univer it of Trento elong to thi tradition. On the one hand, it aim to tran form ocial realit and promote equal right for women and girl ; on the other, it work to develop critical and interdi ciplinar theoretical ap-proache to gender relation . C G wa formall e ta li hed in 2008 a group of cholar and re earcher from different facultie and department . It aim wa to give formal recognition to an exi ting active colla oration among gender cholar in multiple field . Cooperation among cholar in the e field had een informall in exi tence for everal ear , and their colla ora-tion wa trengthened the joint effort to e ta li h an interdi ciplinar peciali t program,
“Gender Policie in the La our Market”. Thi colla oration wa a ed from the out et on the conviction that tud ing gender need a compo ite approach, the adoption of multiple per pective , and the a ilit to con ider the complexit of cultural, ocial, and tructur-al factor that come into pla in the ocial con truction of gender. Of nece it , therefore, gender tudie mu t draw on varied knowledge a e — ociological, legal, economic, political, p chological, narrative, and philo ophical—in an interdi ciplinar per pective.
A econd corner tone of C G i recognition of the importance of colla oration etween univer-it and communetween univer-it . For thi rea on, the Centre i open to external mem er , including indi-vidual a well a pu lic and private in titution concerned in an wa with gender i ue . The ultimate goal of the Centre i , in fact, to create a multidi ciplinar la orator in which interac-tion etween the univer it and ociet can ecome a timulu for reflection, de ate, and o-cial change.
In order to achieve it goal , C G undertake initiative in three realm : teaching and training, conference and eminar , and re earch and action.
The fir t et of activitie i aimed at promoting a gender- en itive culture through graduate and po tgraduate program and cour e , a well a continuing education on different i ue (in particular gender policie in the la our market, gender and politic , gender and education, gender and law, gender and interculture).
A econd group of activitie include conference and eminar on a variet of topic u uall connected with ke i ue in the Italian de ate on gender and femini m and addre ed oth to
tudent and a wider audience. Moreover, ever two ear the C G organize a national confer-ence to deal with a pecific i ue, alwa from a gender per pective (topic that have een ad-dre ed: Gender and Precariou ne ; Gender and Power; Gender, Knowledge and cience). The third area i that of re earch and action. We are involved in re earch project at national and international level, focu ed on uch diver e i ue a gender policie within organization , gender pa gap, gender implication of precariou ne , fatherhood, gender and education.
everal of the activitie carried out have een a ed on interdi ciplinar colla oration with other national and international cholar and re earch center .
The GARCIA project
Currentl the Centre i engaged in a uropean Project, GARCIA (Gendering the Academ and Re earch: com ating Career In ta ilit and A mmetrie ) concerned with the implementation of action in uropean univer itie and re earch center
to promote a gender culture and com-at gender tereot pe and di crimination . Particular attention i paid to the earl tage of academic and cientific career : the main target are re earcher with non-tenured po ition and people who have left the univer it after their PhD or a temporar po ition (Murgia, Poggio 2015).
To thi end, we have con tructed a partner hip con i ting of even uropean univer itie and re earch center repre enting different U countrie . involving oth T M and H di ci-pline , the aim of tran forming academia and re earch into a more gender equal environment ma e extended to all di cipline adopting the e t temic organizational approache . Macro, me o, and micro level anal e are followed through the implementation of Gender Ac-tion Plan , which are mainl directed to: gender regime ; gender equalit in management and deci ion-making; awarene rai ing on gendered practice ; ever da working condition ; re-cruitment and election proce e ; and the “leak pipeline” phenomenon.
The role of coordinator of the GARCIA project ha ena led u to ecome part of a network of “ i ter project ” (i.e., the tructural change project funded under the FP7 from 2010 to 2013) engaged in encouraging and upporting mutual learning d namic , the purpo e eing to inte-grate the effort that each project i making toward gender equalit in cientific organization . Moreover, in order to di eminate the re ult of our project, we have organized everal tream in different national and international conference and cientific network (for example, the Gender ummit, Gender Work and Organization, the International ociological A ociation,
1
the uropean Group for Organizational tudie , and the ociet for Advancement of ocio- co-nomic ). Thi ha created a olid international network.
uilding partner hip and networking
In the la t part of thi hort contri ution I would like to focu pecificall on the i ue of part-ner hip uilding and networking, ecau e the are critical dimen ion for the urvival and de-velopment of gender tudie in academia, and in particular for re earch center working on the e topic .
There are variou rea on for thi importance. Fir t of all, I mu t mention the interdi ciplinar vocation of man of the e center , which make it vital for them to have and to create opportu-nitie to interact and to relate with other cholar , other di cipline , other per pective . Another important point i that the e center do not u uall have a ver ea
life within univer-itie , where gender i ue are not con idered a priorit , and ometime are even di mi ed a “non- cientific”. It i therefore important for gender i ue to gain legitimac
through relation-hip with other univer itie and imilar organization , a well a with other in titution , oth pu lic and private. In the ca e of our center, eing cho en a an honorar mem er of the U
ociologi t for Women in ociet network or coordinating an important international project are example of wa to o tain internal recognition within the univer it .
Moreover, networking can e u eful in order to act a pre ure group linked through meta-or-ganization , uch a the gender-dedicated ection of di ciplinar a ociation (for in tance, the Gender tudie ection of the Italian ociological A ociation) or the uropean network of women cienti t ( PW ) (Antonucci 2013), and therefore a le to lo national and uprana-tional odie .
Networking i al o nece ar to e ta li h clo e relation with local takeholder , in our ca e, the provincial mini tr for equal opportunitie and equalit odie , trade union , and other pu lic in titution . Networking at the local level make it po i le on the one hand to o -tain additional authorit , and on the other, to affect local policie , experimenting with innovative mea ure . In our ca e thi ha happened through oth innovative work-life al-ance initiative in pu lic organization and gender- en itive education in chool .
Finall , it i al o important to uild and con olidate a network within the univer it . In our ca e thi ha een done at in titutional level e ta li hing contact with all repre entative group and categorie of the univer it and identif ing delegate within each department. The outcome i a group of motivated and proactive people who can collect in a wide pread manner the need and requirement of individual department and di eminate the action and poli-cie ena led.
Networking i certainl a ver fatiguing and delicate work. It require a con tant activit of re-lation hip and connection; ut at the ame time it i a nece ar condition for legitimizing and
upporting change.
Note
Online at: http://garciaproject.eu/ (http://garciaproject.eu/).
Univer it of Trento (Ital ); Univer it of Louvain ( elgium); Rad oud Univer it (the Netherland ); Univer it of Iceland; Univer it of Lau anne ( witzerland); ZRC A U Re earch Centre of the lovenian Academ of cience and Art Ital ( lovenia); and Joanneum Re earch (Au tria).
Reference
Antonucci, M.C. (2013) “Promotional or pu lic intere t group? The advocac and lo ing activit for gender equalit in cience and re earch the uropean Platform of Women cienti t , in . Avveduto, L. Pi acane (ed ) Portrait of a Lad . Women in cience: Parcienticipaciention I
-ue and Per pective in a Glo alized Re earch tem, Gangemi, Roma, pp. 91-95. 1
Murgia, A., Poggio, . (2015) “Il progetto GARCIA – Univer ità e Ricerca in ottica di Genere: uperare le a immetrie e l’in ta ilità lavorativa”, in . Avveduto, M.L. Paciello, T. Arrigoni, C. Mangia, L. Martinelli (ed ) cienza, genere e ocietà. Pro pettive di genere in una ocietà che i evolve, CNR-IRPP : e-Pu li hing, pp. 247-252.
araceno, C. (2010) “Women and Gender tudie in Ital : Lack of In titutionalization or a Different Kind of In titutionalization?” uropean Journal of Women’ tudie 17 (6): 269-274.
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