Call for Abstracts: (En)Gendering Transboundary Water Governance: Feminist Perspectives on Water Conflict and Cooperation

With this workshop, we want to bring together researchers and practitioners to shed light on the often hidden gender dynamics of water conflict and cooperation at transboundary level and on the implicit assumptions that guide research as well as policies. We also strive to discuss how we can (en)gender more inclusive water diplomacy. We are interested equally in empirical case studies, discourse analyses, practitioners’ accounts and theoretical reflections.

Contributions could for example:

– Scrutinize the gendered nature of transboundary water governance and address the causes, dynamics and impacts of the different roles of men and women;

– Analyse the reasons and impacts of the wide absence of women at higher decision-making levels on international waters;

– Evaluate gender mainstreaming policies of relevant actors in transboundary river basins;

– Uncover the masculinities in water diplomacy;

– Question the standard assumptions about who are the important actors, where are the important places and levels, what are the key issues in water diplomacy;

– Critically engage with assumptions of women having positive impact on peaceful, equitable and sustainable transboundary water governance;

– Analyse how gender stereotypes affect the dynamics of water negotiations.

You are invited to join the workshop and contribute a paper. Participants will be selected based on the abstracts they submit. Prior to the workshop, all invited presenters are expected to submit their draft papers to facilitate in-depth discussions. The workshop will take place online. It will be split into two separate time slots on two dates, in order to limit the amount of screen-time and to allow people from different time zones to contribute. The exact timing will be fixed once the participants have been selected. We plan to publish (selected) papers of the workshop in an edited volume.