Petra Meier – författare

This book explores the discursive constructions of gender equality and the implications of these understandings in a broad range of policy fields.Using gender equality as a prime example, a number of internationally renowned scholars offer a new vocabulary to identify and study processes of the reduction, amplification, shifting or freezing of meaning. The main aim of the book is to understand the dynamics and to reflect on the consequences of such discursive politics in recent policy making on gender equality. It explores both the potential opportunities that are opened up for the promotion of equality through discursive politics, and the limitations they impose. Distinctive features of the volume include: chapters covering a range of case studies in Europe, the USA, and the Asia region, tackling contemporary political debates on equality new insights of relevance to public policy practices such as gender mainstreaming, with theorizing on intersecting inequalitiesThe Discursive Politics of Gender Equality will be of interest to students and scholars, of political science, public policy, comparative politics, gender and women studies.

This book explores the discursive constructions of gender equality and the implications of these understandings in a broad range of policy fields.Using gender equality as a prime example, a number of internationally renowned scholars offer a new vocabulary to identify and study processes of the reduction, amplification, shifting or freezing of meaning. The main aim of the book is to understand the dynamics and to reflect on the consequences of such discursive politics in recent policy making on gender equality. It explores both the potential opportunities that are opened up for the promotion of equality through discursive politics, and the limitations they impose. Distinctive features of the volume include: chapters covering a range of case studies in Europe, the USA, and the Asia region, tackling contemporary political debates on equality new insights of relevance to public policy practices such as gender mainstreaming, with theorizing on intersecting inequalitiesThe Discursive Politics of Gender Equality will be of interest to students and scholars, of political science, public policy, comparative politics, gender and women studies.

The third edition of this highly respected book covers the numerous political developments that have taken place in Belgium since 2012.This book features topics such as the implementation of the sixth state reform, the rebranding of political parties with new party leaders, several elections at all levels of government (from local to European) leading to new governing coalitions, democratic innovations in several parliaments, and, of course, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the challenges of climate changes on all political and social institutions.Key features:Gives an even-handed and analytically sophisticated account of contemporary Belgium politics.Explains the background to the territorial divide between a Dutch-speaking north and a French-speaking south that has shaped the political system and led to polarized communities and the need for institutional responses to internal conflict.Provides a thorough example of a consociational democracy, and shows how this form of democratic government, along with Belgium’s particular federal system, has provided a basis – most of the time – to govern a deeply divided country.Provides a comprehensive picture of Belgian politics, which helps answer the question of whether Belgium – and indeed other divided societies – can be governed in a legitimate democratic manner.This book is essential reading to students and scholars of Belgian politics and society, democracy and democratic innovations, political systems, and more broadly to European and comparative politics.

The third edition of this highly respected book covers the numerous political developments that have taken place in Belgium since 2012.This book features topics such as the implementation of the sixth state reform, the rebranding of political parties with new party leaders, several elections at all levels of government (from local to European) leading to new governing coalitions, democratic innovations in several parliaments, and, of course, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the challenges of climate changes on all political and social institutions.Key features:Gives an even-handed and analytically sophisticated account of contemporary Belgium politics.Explains the background to the territorial divide between a Dutch-speaking north and a French-speaking south that has shaped the political system and led to polarized communities and the need for institutional responses to internal conflict.Provides a thorough example of a consociational democracy, and shows how this form of democratic government, along with Belgium’s particular federal system, has provided a basis – most of the time – to govern a deeply divided country.Provides a comprehensive picture of Belgian politics, which helps answer the question of whether Belgium – and indeed other divided societies – can be governed in a legitimate democratic manner.This book is essential reading to students and scholars of Belgian politics and society, democracy and democratic innovations, political systems, and more broadly to European and comparative politics.

What is symbolic representation? Since Hanna Pitkin’s seminal The Concept of Representation, the symbolic has been the least studied dimension of political representation. Innovatively adopting a discursive approach, this book - the first full-length treatment of symbolic representation - focuses on gender issues to tackle important questions such as: What are women and men symbols of, and how is gender constructed in policy discourse? It studies what functions symbolic representation fulfils in the construction of gender, what social roles get legitimized in policy discourse, and how this affects power constellations, ultimately revealing much about the relation between symbolic, descriptive, and substantive representation. Emanuela Lombardo and Petra Meier draw on theories of symbolic representation and gender, as well as rich primary material about political debates on labour and care issues, partnership and reproductive rights, gender violence, and quotas. Using this original data, the authors show that reconsidering symbolic representation from a discursive perspective makes explicit issues of (in)equality embedded within particular constructions, as well as their consequences for political representation and gender equality. This important exploration raises relevant new questions regarding the representation of gender that form valuable contributions to the fields of political science, political theory, sociology, and gender studies.

What is symbolic representation? Since Hanna Pitkin’s seminal The Concept of Representation, the symbolic has been the least studied dimension of political representation. Innovatively adopting a discursive approach, this book - the first full-length treatment of symbolic representation - focuses on gender issues to tackle important questions such as: What are women and men symbols of, and how is gender constructed in policy discourse? It studies what functions symbolic representation fulfils in the construction of gender, what social roles get legitimized in policy discourse, and how this affects power constellations, ultimately revealing much about the relation between symbolic, descriptive, and substantive representation. Emanuela Lombardo and Petra Meier draw on theories of symbolic representation and gender, as well as rich primary material about political debates on labour and care issues, partnership and reproductive rights, gender violence, and quotas. Using this original data, the authors show that reconsidering symbolic representation from a discursive perspective makes explicit issues of (in)equality embedded within particular constructions, as well as their consequences for political representation and gender equality. This important exploration raises relevant new questions regarding the representation of gender that form valuable contributions to the fields of political science, political theory, sociology, and gender studies.

This edited collection explores how party politics impacts the implementation of gender quotas in political representation across Europe. As voluntary party quotas and legislative quotas gained prominence, so did strategies to undermine them.

This edited collection explores how party politics impacts the implementation of gender quotas in political representation across Europe. As voluntary party quotas and legislative quotas gained prominence, so did strategies to undermine them.