Gender, Citizenship and Intersectionality: Contending with nationalism in the Nordic region

The chapter addresses the new forms of ethno-nationalisms challenging (gender) equality and solidarity in the Nordic region. It explores the intersectional dilemmas of gender politics following the immigration and ‘refugee crisis’ reflecting critically upon the links between exclusionary nationalism and feminism. The theoretical and methodological approach integrates key concepts from social movements’, citizenship and gender theories with special emphasis on intersectionality at the interface of immigration, gender and race/ethnicity. The empirical part of gender, welfare and neo-nationalism addresses the conditions for citizens’ activism against racism, discrimination and ‘othering’ from the particular Scandinavian context. The Danish case-study analyses how Rightwing populism influences politics and acts of solidarity contending with the anti-immigranion and anti-Muslim politics. The focus is on the agency, goals, strategies and motivations of activist group looking at the role women activists and whether gender issues and feminist politics are part of the anti-racist strategies and claims. It examines the potentials for forging transversal coalisions of solidarity against racism and discrimination from the Danish context. The perspective is to discuss the conditions for fostering inclusive solidarity against exclusionary nationalism from the particular Nordic context focusing on the intersectional relations between immigration, gender and race/ethnicity.