Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GENDEMOTION (The Gendered Politics of Emotion in Austerity Ireland)
Reporting period: 2017-11-13 to 2019-11-12
This research project surveys and theorises thepolitics of shame in the contemporary Irish context. It identifies the deployment and manipulation of emotions in public discourses, particularly with regard to historically marginalised groups, since the onset of the economic crisis, teasing out the gendered and classed operation of the politics of shame. The project is based at UCD’s Women’s Studies Centre under the supervision of Prof. Ursula Barry, who is an expert on gender, public policy, and economic inequality in Ireland. Building on the applicant’s expertise in gendered shame, the proposed project establishes the role shame plays in the contemporary political setting post-2008 with the introduction of austerity as a policy-response to the economic crisis. Theoretically, there is some work highlighting the increased shame-proneness of traditionally disadvantaged groups, with women seeming to be especially susceptible to experiencing intense levels of shame and being shamed. There is a strong linkage between gender and shame, with a gendered politics of shame being entangled with patriarchal norms concerning women’s bodies and sexuality. What had, thus far, not been theorised with regard to gender and shame, was whether and how gendered shame operates through material disadvantage and poverty. There is some empirical evidence that shame, does, in fact, manifest itself in impoverished populations, and that this may be amplified or at least complicated by gender.
The project contributes to the “knowledge-based economy and society”23 by researching an underexamined context (gendered austerity in Ireland), by uniquely gathering first-person accounts of those disproportionately affected by austerity, by uniquely approaching this context through the lens of affect and emotion, and by developing a unique theoretical framework. It therefore enhances knowledge across several disciplines (political philosophy, feminist economics, social policy, feminist theory), and does so across sectors (given that much of the policy work on the effects of austerity and the economic crisis in Ireland are carried out by NGOs and think tanks).
Research objectives of the project include:
1. Establish whether and how the economic crisis and its fallout in Ireland have been gendered and classed, and
assess initial indications of the potential role shame may have played therein.
2. Record the first-person accounts of marginalised populations who have been disproportionately affected by
austerity measures since 2008.
3. Determine whether and how a politics of shame was experienced and performed by disadvantaged groups,
particularly women, who themselves are subject to shaming in the context of austerity.
4. Probe larger moral and political questions, for instance, concerning citizenship, nation-building, and the state
via the notion of the politics of shame.
5. Undertake a theoretical meta-exploration of affect, addressing questions such as affect’s relationship to
embodiment, and establishing affect’s normative role in feminist moral and political theoretical analyses.
6. Develop research, training and project management skills for current and future projects.
7. Disseminate, to multiple audiences, the first political theoretical analysis of the events and responses to the
economic crisis in Ireland.
The project contributes to the “knowledge-based economy and society”23 by researching an underexamined context (gendered austerity in Ireland), by uniquely gathering first-person accounts of those disproportionately affected by austerity, by uniquely approaching this context through the lens of affect and emotion, and by developing a unique theoretical framework. It therefore enhances knowledge across several disciplines (political philosophy, feminist economics, social policy, feminist theory), and does so across sectors (given that much of the policy work on the effects of austerity and the economic crisis in Ireland are carried out by NGOs and think tanks).
Research objectives of the project include:
1. Establish whether and how the economic crisis and its fallout in Ireland have been gendered and classed, and
assess initial indications of the potential role shame may have played therein.
2. Record the first-person accounts of marginalised populations who have been disproportionately affected by
austerity measures since 2008.
3. Determine whether and how a politics of shame was experienced and performed by disadvantaged groups,
particularly women, who themselves are subject to shaming in the context of austerity.
4. Probe larger moral and political questions, for instance, concerning citizenship, nation-building, and the state
via the notion of the politics of shame.
5. Undertake a theoretical meta-exploration of affect, addressing questions such as affect’s relationship to
embodiment, and establishing affect’s normative role in feminist moral and political theoretical analyses.
6. Develop research, training and project management skills for current and future projects.
7. Disseminate, to multiple audiences, the first political theoretical analysis of the events and responses to the
economic crisis in Ireland.
"Work was conducted by following the broad outline of five work packages. The first work package consisted of desk research on gender and class in Ireland, and on gendered shame. The Fellow successfully completed this work package, and this research formed the basis for WP2 and several publications.
WP2 consisted of data collection, including interviews. The Fellow conducted interviews with key informants, and, in addition to this, conducted a survey. The survey was rolled out by lone parent organisations and collected more than 370 responses.
WP3 involved theoretical exposition, development and analysis. Again, this fed into major outputs of the research project and was informed by WP1 and WP2.
WP4 was a training and development work package, which saw the Fellow complete 20 training courses, and achieving, among others, a FETAC certificate in Project Managment.
WP5 consisted of dissemination, communication, and public engagement. For this work package, the Fellow published three journal articles (with two more currently under review), one edited book, one book chapter, and one journal special issue (each of the journal publications is in highly ranked gender studies journals, such as Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy). The Fellow also published an OpEd piece in the Huffington Post in May 2018 (shared over 1,200 times), and was interviewed by the journal Dewey Studies about her work (Vol. 3, No. 1, 2019). The Fellow acted as a soap box speaker at the UCD Festival in June 2019, spoke at 11 conferences (including a small speaking tour of the US with several invited talks in November 2018), and organised a conference on the theme of ""Sex, Gender, and Shame in Ireland"" in September 2019. She was also an invited panellist for an event at the London School of Economics on the topic of pragmatism, which included a blog post and podcast of the event. In December 2019, she was appointed Book Review co-editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. The data collected during the course of this project will inform several future publications, in addition to the publications already produced throughout the lifetime of the project."
WP2 consisted of data collection, including interviews. The Fellow conducted interviews with key informants, and, in addition to this, conducted a survey. The survey was rolled out by lone parent organisations and collected more than 370 responses.
WP3 involved theoretical exposition, development and analysis. Again, this fed into major outputs of the research project and was informed by WP1 and WP2.
WP4 was a training and development work package, which saw the Fellow complete 20 training courses, and achieving, among others, a FETAC certificate in Project Managment.
WP5 consisted of dissemination, communication, and public engagement. For this work package, the Fellow published three journal articles (with two more currently under review), one edited book, one book chapter, and one journal special issue (each of the journal publications is in highly ranked gender studies journals, such as Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy). The Fellow also published an OpEd piece in the Huffington Post in May 2018 (shared over 1,200 times), and was interviewed by the journal Dewey Studies about her work (Vol. 3, No. 1, 2019). The Fellow acted as a soap box speaker at the UCD Festival in June 2019, spoke at 11 conferences (including a small speaking tour of the US with several invited talks in November 2018), and organised a conference on the theme of ""Sex, Gender, and Shame in Ireland"" in September 2019. She was also an invited panellist for an event at the London School of Economics on the topic of pragmatism, which included a blog post and podcast of the event. In December 2019, she was appointed Book Review co-editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. The data collected during the course of this project will inform several future publications, in addition to the publications already produced throughout the lifetime of the project."
This MSCA fellowship has advanced several fields in a variety of ways. The Fellow published the first special issue of a feminist journal on the topic of gender and shame. In light of the increased interest in affect and emotion in a number of fields (including gender studies, politics, and sociology), as well as the renewed interest in shame, this work forms a valuable resource for other scholars researching shame, as well as the politics of emotion and affect more generally. The data collected by the Fellow also forms an invaluable resource for researchers interested in gender, class, and shame in an Irish context, and in the impact of the 2008 social and economic crisis. The data highlighted that there is, indeed, a linkage between gender, class, and shame, and that this is heavily influenced by gendered policy making. Given that the world is once again experiencing economic and social turmoil, and currently facing into another crisis, this time precipitated by Covid-19, this research into the 2008 crisis can and should critically inform the current policy context.