Westberg, Lotten
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Research article2015Peer reviewedOpen access
Participate for Women's Sake? A Gender Analysis of a Swedish Collaborative Environmental Management Project
Westberg, Lotten; Powell, Stina
Abstract
Collaborative approaches have become increasingly evident in policies governing environmental management. However, realizing these approaches has proven to be challenging. In this article we discuss why this is the case by using a gender-theoretical lens. By attending to prevailing norms of masculinity and femininity within Swedish environmental agencies, we gain understanding about what implications these norms have for working collaboratively. Our findings suggest that these organizations are gendered, leaving women administrators with lower status tasks, not in line with the traditional scientific expert roles valued in these organizations. The gender of administrators are thus both a cause and effect: The status of collaborative projects is low in the natural resource management organization, which leads to administrators having low status getting appointed these projects, which in turn reproduces the view of these projects as less important. Our findings contribute to the discussion on problems of realizing collaborative environmental policies.
Keywords
environmental communication; environmental sociology; social theory; Europe; gender; integrated coastal zone management; multimethod approaches; natural resources-environmental sociology; qualitative analysis; participatory approaches
Published in
Society and Natural Resources
2015, volume: 28, number: 11, pages: 1233-1248
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
SLU Authors
Powell, Stina
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Uppsala University
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Associated SLU-program
Coastal and sea areas
Global goals (SDG)
SDG5 Gender equality
SDG13 Climate action
UKÄ Subject classification
Gender Studies
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Other Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2015.1014594
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68842