Untitled Document

Newsletter No 36

CONFERENCES

International and Interdisciplinary Conference
CIVIL SOCIETY AND GENDER JUSTICE HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES

Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fuer Sozialforschung (WZB)
(Social Science Research Center Berlin),
Working Group "Civil Society: Historical and Comparative Perspectives"
Berlin, 9-11 July 2004

The Conference will discuss the concept and project of civil society from a gender perspective. In the current debates, the term "civil society" refers, on the one hand, to the largely self-regulated space of civic engagement between the state, the economy, and the private sphere. Associated with this is a particular type of individual and collective action in civil society, characterized by personal initiative, communicative competence, openness and pluralism, the ability to engage in constructive conflict and to avoid violence as well as the systematic linking of particular and universal interests. On the other hand, civil society refers to the future project of human coexistence in the tradition of the Enlightenment, which remains to be realized. In interplay with other constructions of difference, "gender" not only - shapes the socially and culturally constructed images and ideas of civil society in discourses and cultural practices;
- defines the possibilities of and limits to participation by individuals and groups in the project of civil society;
- produces in various ways hierarchies and asymmetries within civil society as well as between civil society, the state, the market and the family;
- influences to a high degree individual and collective identity in the framework of civil society as well as its subjective experience and perception.
Therefore every analysis of and debate about civil society has systematically to integrate gender. The conference will not just analyze the gendered concept and the project of civil society in its historical genesis and thus conditionality, as well as its transnational and intercultural referentiality, but also address its contemporary global significance. The focus will be on questions of gender justice. This term refers to the unequal and unjust relations between women and men not just in politics and the economy, but also in the family and society. It is based on a feminist utopia derived from the program of civil society, which promises all individuals a legal claim to equal rights and treatment, to justice and recognition. Thus since the Enlightenment, unjust gender relations have been at the center of critiques by the women's movement as an important actor in civil society.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2004

WELCOME

9:15-9:30 a.m.
- Juergen Kocka and Dieter Gosewinkel (directors of WZB the Working
Group "Civil Society: Historical and Comparative Perspectives")
- Karen Hagemann (WZB, Working Group "Civil Society: Historical and Comparative Perspectives" / University of Glamorgan, Centre for Border Studies)

CIVIL SOCIETY AND GENDER JUSTICE
9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

- Karen Hagemann, Civil Society, Gender Difference and Gender Justice – Introduction
- Juergen Kocka, The History, Project and Vision of Civil society - an Overview
- Regina Wecker (University of Basel, Department of History) Gendering Equity, Gender Justice and Recognition
Moderation: Dagmar Simon (WZB, Research Policy and Co-ordination)

CIVIL SOCIETY, THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND THE PRIVATE
1:30-3.30 p.m.
- Karin Hausen (Technical University of Berlin, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies on Women and Gender) The Public, the Private and the Gendered Division of Labor in Civil Society
- Claudia Opitz (University of Basel, Department of History) Montesquieu and the 18th Century Debate on Politics, Gender and 'Societé Civile'
Moderation: Dieter Gosewinkel

CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE FAMILY
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
- Rebekka Habermas (University of Goettingen, Department of History) Men, Women, and Children: the Family, the Public and the Private in German Civil Society in 19th Century
- Paul Ginsborg (University of Florence, Department of History) 'Only Connect': Family, Gender and Civil Society
Moderation: Gunilla Budde (Free University of Berlin, Department of History)

PUBLIC LECTURE: CIVIL SOCIETY, GENDER JUSTICE AND THE HISTORY OF
EUROPEAN FEMINISMS
6:30-8:00 p.m.
- Karen Offen (Standford University, Institute for Research on Women and Gender)
Moderation: Jürgen Kocka

SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2004

CIVIL SOCIETY, GENDER DIFFERENCE AND ASSOCIATIONAL CULTURE
9:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
- Gisela Mettele (Technical University Chemnitz, Department
of History) The City and the Citoyenne. Associational Culture and Female Civic Virtues.
- Birgit Sauer (University of Vienna, Department of Political Sciences) Conflict, Compromise and Hegemony. Civil Society, Women's Movement and State Feminism
Moderation: Ulrike Weckel (Technical University of Berlin, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies on Women and Gender)
- Shalini Randeria (University of Zurich, Department of Ethnology) The Indian Caste System and its Gendered Associations as a Basis for Civil Society
Moderator: Ute Luig (Free University of Berlin, Department of Ethnology)

CIVIL SOCIETY, GENDERED VIOLENCE AND PROTEST
2:00-4:00 p.m.

- Manfred Gailus (WZB, Working Group "Civil Society: Historical and
Comparative Perspectives") Gendered Protest over Food: On some Paradoxical Changes of Resource
Conflicts and the Public Sphere
- Belinda Davis (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Department of History) Feminist and 'Alternative' Groups Take On 'Civil Society' in 1970s West Germany
Moderation: Brigitte Geißel (WZB, Working Group "Political Communication and Mobilization")

CIVIL SOCIETY, GENDER ORDER AND CITIZENSHIP
4:30- 6:30 p.m.

- Monika Wienfort (Technical University of Berlin, Department of History) Civil Citizenship for Married Women: Germany in Comparison 1870s - 1950s
- Sonya Rose (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of History and Department of Sociology)
Virtuous Masculinity, Citizenship and the Gendering of the 'Civic Public' in Britain, 1867-1939
Moderation: Sven Reichardt (University of Konstanz)

SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2004

CIVIL SOCIETY, WORK AND THE GENDERED WELFARE STATE SYSTEM
9:15-12:30 a.m.
- Sonya Michel (University of Maryland, Department of History) The Rise of Welfare States and the Regendering of Civil Society
- Hildegard Nickel (Humboldt University of Berlin, department of Sociology) The Gendered Division of Labor, the Future of Work and Civil Society: Actual Developments in East and West Europe
- Jacqueline O'Reilly(WZB, Research Unit "Labor Market Policy and Employment") Challenging the Gender Contract: Reforming Work and Welfare in Europe
Moderation: Hildegard Matthies (WZB, Research Project "Gender and
Organization")

FINAL COMMENTS: CIVIL SOCIETY AND GENDER: THE OUTLOOK FOR RESEARCH
12:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
- Dieter Gosewinkel
- Dagmar Simon
Moderation: Karen Hagemann

CONFERENCES VENUE
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung GmbH (WZB)
Reichpietschufer 50, D-10785 Berlin
Room A 300

ORGANIZERS
- Karen Hagemann, University of Glamorgan, Wales, Centre for Border Studies/ WZB Working Group "Civil Society: Historical and Comparative Perspectives") <Email: khagemann@wz-berlin.de>
In co-operation with:
- Gunilla-Friederike Budde (Free University of Berlin, Department of History)
- Dagmar Simon (WZB, Research Policy and Co-ordination)

REGISTRATION
A registration is necessary. The deadline for registration by fax or email is July 25, 2004.
Please send your registration to: