{"id":2491,"date":"2025-12-04T10:12:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brias.be\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=2491"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:54:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:54:57","slug":"public-lecture-big-ideas-for-democracy-tania-verge","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/event\/public-lecture-big-ideas-for-democracy-tania-verge\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Lecture \u2013\u00a0Big Ideas for Democracy: T\u00e0nia Verge"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Register here<\/a><\/h2>\n

When We\u00a0Are\u00a0Not in the Room:\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>Designing Feminist\u00a0Institutional Change\u00a0for\u00a0Resilience and Reactivation<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Feminist institutionalism has long shown that feminist institutional change is rarely\u00a0one-shot, given the\u00a0\u201c<\/span>genderedness\u201d\u00a0of organisations\/institutions<\/span>\u00a0(Benschop &\u00a0Verloo, 2006), the\u00a0\u201c<\/span>nested newness\u201d<\/span>\u00a0of reform efforts (Mackay, 2014), and multiple forms of resistance (Tildesley, Lombardo & Verge, 2022). Recent work argues that inclusive reforms tend to follow\u00a0<\/span>cycles of repetition\u00a0<\/span>through which change is\u00a0<\/span>sedimented<\/span>\u00a0(Cianetti, 2024). This resonates with Benschop &\u00a0Verloo\u2019s\u00a0metaphor of \u201cSisyphus\u2019 sisters\u201d \u2013 organising so each restart begins from a slightly stronger position \u2013, with Mackay\u2019s (2014)\u00a0<\/span>memory-keepers<\/span>\u00a0who periodically force recollection, and with Sara Ahmed\u2019s (2017: 12) insight that \u201c<\/span>repetition is the scene of a feminist instruction<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Catalan case offers unusually clear evidence that\u00a0while\u00a0feminist insider\u00a0activists in executive office can rewrite\u00a0the\u00a0gendered rules of the game and effectively implement transformative state feminism,\u00a0much feminist change remains deeply\u00a0<\/span>embodied<\/span>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/b>d<\/span>ependent on insider feminist\u00a0activists\u2019 presence at veto and coordination nodes, with sufficient expertise and overlapping membership in the feminist movement.\u00a0<\/span>Nearly two\u00a0years on, following a change of administration, drift is very visible:<\/span>\u00a0new formal and informal gendered rules thin out or are abandoned, coordination venues are downgraded, veto power is not exercised, and technocratic \u201cadd-women-and-stir\u201d mainstreaming is back.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From a dual practitioner-academic\u00a0perspective\u00a0as\u00a0former Minister of Equality and Feminisms,\u00a0Government of Catalonia\u00a0(2021\u20132024) and\u00a0feminist institutionalist scholar, this paper reflects on the extent to which feminist governance\u00a0<\/span>can be designed<\/span>\u00a0to endure in the absence of feminist insider\u00a0activists or be\u00a0<\/span>relaunched\u00a0swiftly<\/span>\u00a0when they are back in the room. In doing so, I discuss\u00a0the gendered legacies\u00a0seeded, including:\u00a0<\/span>entrenchment across venues<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/b>and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/b>duplicated authority<\/span>\u00a0to counter \u201cremembering the old\u201d;\u00a0<\/span>memory infrastructures<\/span>\u00a0to counter \u201cforgetting the new\u201d; and\u00a0<\/span>broadened legitimacy coalitions\/audiences<\/span>\u00a0to ease the \u201c<\/span>liability of newness\u201d\u00a0and embed new feminist logics of appropriateness<\/span>. This reflection is particularly relevant amid\u00a0the global\u00a0dismantling, backsliding,\u00a0and\u00a0watering-down of feminist policies across governments\u00a0\u2013 whether\u00a0far-right or centre-left executives\u00a0\u2013 as well as universities and other institutional arenas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bio<\/h3>\n

T\u00e0nia Verge<\/strong> is a Full Professor of Politics and Gender at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF, Barcelona), where she led the Equality Unit between 2014 and 2021 and coordinated the Minor in Gender Studies. Between May 2021 and August 2024, she served as Minister of Equality and Feminisms of the Government of Catalonia, and between May 2024 and February 2026 she was an MP in the Parliament of Catalonia. Her main area of research is gender and politics, with a focus on how political parties and parliaments are shaped by gender dynamics and on resistance to the adoption and implementation of equalities policies. Her consultancy and governmental practice have also given her new insights into the possibilities and limitations of feminist institutional redesign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Register here When We\u00a0Are\u00a0Not in the Room:\u00a0\u00a0Designing Feminist\u00a0Institutional Change\u00a0for\u00a0Resilience and Reactivation\u00a0 Feminist institutionalism has long shown that feminist institutional change is rarely\u00a0one-shot, given the\u00a0\u201cgenderedness\u201d\u00a0of organisations\/institutions\u00a0(Benschop &\u00a0Verloo, 2006), the\u00a0\u201cnested newness\u201d\u00a0of reform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[37],"tribe_events_cat":[29],"class_list":["post-2491","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","hentry","tag-big-ideas-for-democracy","tribe_events_cat-programme-events","cat_programme-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/2491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/2491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3728,"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/2491\/revisions\/3728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2491"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brias.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=2491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}