DrAlexander Kondakov

In the era of globalization after the 1990s, the states of Eastern Europe (EE) as well as the close European neighbours in the Near and Middle East (NME) underwent significant social changes and political developments, especially with regard to democratization. Political consensus on norms such as “women’s rights are human rights” and/or on measures against sexual discrimination appeared as a central component and symbol of democratization and democratic societies. Although these transformation processes had different and unequal impacts within and between the EE and NME states, these states shared some commonalities in their approach to transnational gender equality norms and policies. These commonalities have been contested for about 15 years. In the EE and NME states, current conflicts have focused on so-called “European values,” which include, in particular, gender equality and sexual equality, but which are opposed by religious fundamentalism, homophobia, and a neo-traditionalist ideology. Not only democratic values, but also gender and sexual identity equality norms and policies appear to be seriously at stake. The network aims to comparatively research and discuss anti-gender politics in Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries through its academic events and to disseminate these findings, because a systematic uncovering of how the rise of anti-gender and anti-feminist mobilizations is linked to the decline of democratic norms and structures has yet to be done. A total of four working groups will be established, including colleagues from EE and NME countries, as well as early-career researchers, innovators, and NGOs.

The project aims at organising three multidisciplinary workshops to bring together studies of violence against LGBTQI+ people within the family in the past and present-day societies. This is a new field of research in the Nordic countries that looks at the ways to improve well-being of LGBTQI+ people and Nordic society in general. It will analyse, discuss and offers ideas for legal and social work guidelines for integration of queer well-being into Nordic welfare systems. A larger research project on violence against LGBTQI+ people within the family in Northern Europe shall be formed on the basis of these workshops. The project looks at same-sex families, but at families with gay members (children, one of the (grand)parents). Thus, the project looks at this highly under-researched topic in the past and present-day societies to reveal long-term patterns of violence within the familial relationships. By organising workshops where participants will present their multidisciplinary studies of queer family violence, we will initiate conversations in this emerging field of study. We will explore intersections of many systems of power, concentrating on that of age, gender and race. By focusing on the intersection between sexuality and age, we will expand our attention to social care and social work. The project will focus on the Nordic countries in the comparative perspective of world LGBTQI+ family violence research within the queer theory and family violence theories intersection.