Gender, Identity Politics and Social Change (1999-2003)

This cluster focuses on the creation of new political and cultural resistances and configurations as articulated in various responses to the global "modern" society. The difficulties of nation-states, civil and transnational societies as a result of the malfunctioning of the world economy lead to new social categories based on wage and non-wage labor, gender and ethno-religious identities. Research projects: Susanne Thorbek: Prostitution in a Global Context; Jacques Hersh, Johannes D. Schmidt and Akram T. Hawas: The Middle East - Between Global Pressure, Local Identity and Nationalism; Akram T. Hawas: The Kurdish Question 1) Hegemony and the Kurdish Collapse; 2) Islam/West: Impacts on the Societal Development in the Middle East; Ellen Brun: Sustainable Priorities - The Case of Double Rationality-focusing on the hidden rationality of close human relations by identifying common value systems capable of uniting people for change and alternative solutions based on every-day practice; Jane Parpart: Gender and the Post-Development Debate Output: Several refereed book chapters and journal articles, and a Danida financed conference have been held.