Principle, practice & pragmatism: Gender and development mediations in Danish non-governmental organisations
(2023) GNVM03 20231Department of Gender Studies
- Abstract
- Despite the long-established commitment to gender mainstreaming in global development, its transformative potential remains questionable in practice. This thesis explores how development practitioners tasked with gender mainstreaming responsibilities in Danish non-governmental organisations mediate between ideal and practice in their daily work. Through twelve semi-structured interviews, I bring the voices and experiences of development practitioners to the centre of analysis and highlight the messy and complex processes of doing gender and development. I apply an actor-oriented interface approach to explore sites of mediation in development practice coupled with intersectional inquiry to consider the power dynamics affecting such... (More)
- Despite the long-established commitment to gender mainstreaming in global development, its transformative potential remains questionable in practice. This thesis explores how development practitioners tasked with gender mainstreaming responsibilities in Danish non-governmental organisations mediate between ideal and practice in their daily work. Through twelve semi-structured interviews, I bring the voices and experiences of development practitioners to the centre of analysis and highlight the messy and complex processes of doing gender and development. I apply an actor-oriented interface approach to explore sites of mediation in development practice coupled with intersectional inquiry to consider the power dynamics affecting such mediations. The analysis points to three recurring dilemmas. First, development practitioners contribute to the shaping of gender in development by negotiating between nuanced comprehension and simplified framings of gender. Second, the consideration of gender in development programming changes as development practitioners engage in mediations over meanings and objectives with stakeholders, systems, and structures. Third, compromises and everyday pragmatism affect the possibilities for change in gender and development practice. The findings suggest that the dilemmas and complexities inherent to the daily work of development practitioners must be acknowledged to promote a vision of transformative change in gender and development practice. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9120430
- author
- Ahlberg, Astrid LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- GNVM03 20231
- year
- 2023
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- gender mainstreaming, global development, development practitioners, non-governmental organisations, Danish development cooperation, global utveckling, biståndsarbetare, icke-statliga organisationer, danskt utvecklingssamarbete
- language
- English
- id
- 9120430
- date added to LUP
- 2023-06-07 09:29:02
- date last changed
- 2023-06-07 09:29:02
@misc{9120430,
abstract = {{Despite the long-established commitment to gender mainstreaming in global development, its transformative potential remains questionable in practice. This thesis explores how development practitioners tasked with gender mainstreaming responsibilities in Danish non-governmental organisations mediate between ideal and practice in their daily work. Through twelve semi-structured interviews, I bring the voices and experiences of development practitioners to the centre of analysis and highlight the messy and complex processes of doing gender and development. I apply an actor-oriented interface approach to explore sites of mediation in development practice coupled with intersectional inquiry to consider the power dynamics affecting such mediations. The analysis points to three recurring dilemmas. First, development practitioners contribute to the shaping of gender in development by negotiating between nuanced comprehension and simplified framings of gender. Second, the consideration of gender in development programming changes as development practitioners engage in mediations over meanings and objectives with stakeholders, systems, and structures. Third, compromises and everyday pragmatism affect the possibilities for change in gender and development practice. The findings suggest that the dilemmas and complexities inherent to the daily work of development practitioners must be acknowledged to promote a vision of transformative change in gender and development practice.}},
author = {{Ahlberg, Astrid}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Principle, practice & pragmatism: Gender and development mediations in Danish non-governmental organisations}},
year = {{2023}},
}