Project description
Evaluation of anti-gender messages
The EU-funded Sense AGENDa project will explore why some people continue to oppose and, in some European democracies, increasingly push back against gender and sexual equality. With anti-gender mobilisations on the rise, mainly against gender and LGBT rights, there marks a pressing need to understand how individuals make sense of anti-gender messages, what makes these messages resonant to different audiences, and how and why they succeed or fail in different contexts. This study aims to understand how citizens evaluate publicly available ideas about gender and sexuality.
Objective
This project explores why ordinary people continue to oppose and, in some European democracies, increasingly push back against gender and sexual equality. In face of anti-gender mobilizations, i.e. the campaigns against gender and LGBT rights that have been growing in strength and influence since the mid-2000s, we urgently need to understand how individuals make sense of anti-gender messages, what makes these messages resonant to different audiences, and how and why they succeed or fail in different contexts. In examining these questions, this study will adopt a cross-cultural qualitative research design, comparing the strategically selected cases of Croatia and Belgium (Flanders). By a unique combination of democratic forums, pre-acquainted focus groups and individual interviews, this study aims to understand how ordinary people evaluate publicly available ideas about gender and sexuality; how the individuals' personal and social characteristics and identifications shape their evaluations at both the individual and collective level; and how are these gender and sexuality evaluations and interpretations situated into contexts with different climates of opinions and institutional-legal frameworks. Based on this, the study aims to build a theoretical model of cultural reception that connects individual and group perspectives and socio-cultural contexts. The project's insights will contribute to various disciplines studying the interactions of institutions, values and individual meanings in general, and the anti-gender mobilizations more specifically, ranging from sociology and political sciences to social movements, public opinion and gender and sexuality studies. The study's results are also intended to generate wider social impact by highlighting the concerns the policymakers and the stakeholders need more strongly address if they desire to open a constructive public dialogue with citizens struggling how to best make sense of difficult issues in an uncertain world.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
10000 Zagreb
Croatia