Dear colleagues,

we are happy to invite you to a workshop on critical demography studies 
from gender and intersectional perspectives. The workshop will take 
place on 18-20 April, 2018 at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. Please 
find attached the call for papers for the workshop theme “Demographic 
Change, Women’s Emancipation and Public Policy: Interrogating a Divisive 
Nexus – Gender and Intersectional Perspectives” and feel free to submit 
an abstract. Please deliver the call for papers also to interested 
colleagues and your networks.
We are looking forward to your abstracts and to meeting you in April 
2018 in Bochum!

Best regards,


Heike Kahlert and Daniela Heitzmann



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student research assistant

Ruhr-Universität Bochum / Ruhr University Bochum
Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaft / Faculty of Social Science
Lehrstuhl für Soziologie / Soziale Ungleichheit und Geschlecht
Chair of Sociology / Social Inequality and Gender
Postal address: Universitätsstr. 150, D-44801 Bochum, Germany
www.sowi.rub.de/sozsug
Fon: +49 (0)234 32-22267
Fax: +49 (0)234 32-14502


Call for Papers
Demographic Change, Women’s Emancipation and Public Policy:
Interrogating a Divisive Nexus – Gender and Intersectional Perspectives
International Workshop
organised by the Chair of Sociology/Social Inequality and Gender
with the Marie Jahoda Visiting Professor Programme in International 
Gender Studies
Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany), 18-20 April 2018

Women have been the subject of demographic research and politics for the 
last 200 years. Based on the
unquestioned assumption of procreation as a ‘natural fact,’ women became 
the primary objects of study of
demography as well as – involuntarily – causal agents of demographic 
imbalances. Their ‘fertility behaviour’
further became the main indicator for demographic developments. Not only 
does this limited perspective
contribute to the naturalisation of the gender order, it also implies 
that women’s emancipation is the cause of low
reproduction rates in Western nation states. At the same time, under the 
surface, not all women are addressed in
the same way in demography. Instead, such ‘interpellations’ are 
structured by race, class, ability and age.
Against this backdrop, the workshop aims to widen and strengthen the 
discussion about demography, gender
order and public policy by developing new approaches and explanations 
informed by gender and intersectional
perspectives as well as critically examine the epistemological and 
methodological foundations of current
demography. Another aim is to establish a European-wide network of 
critical gender and intersectionality
researchers with respect to these issues.
We are interested in contributions for the themes named below and for 
which we propose the following
crosscutting issues: Contributions that
‐ deal with historical and/or contemporary perspectives;
‐ are substantiated in, or linked to, concepts of intersectionality, 
feminist theory and gender studies, critical
race theory and postcolonial studies, approaches for analysing classism;
‐ have a regional or national or European focus and compare regions or 
nation-states from post-socialist
perspectives;
‐ examine social practices and/or social and/or symbolic structures 
(discourses) at an analytical level;
‐ study specific social fields and/or relations between different social 
fields, such as: politics, media, science
and research, economics, medicine;
‐ study specific policies and/or their relations to one another, 
especially: family, demographics, migration,
reproductive technologies, gender equality, and/or the state, at either 
a European or global level;
‐ analyse critiques, concepts and/or the influence of social movements.
We welcome both theoretical and empirical proposals, in particular those 
concerning the following themes:
 Challenging Theories and Methods in Demographic Research: The focus on 
women in demographic
research is embedded in a – regularly self-diagnosed – limited range of 
theory and methods like the “Theory
of Demographic Transition,” rational choice theories and quantitative 
methods. Therefore, we are looking for
contributions addressing (1) critical discussions of established 
theories and methods in demographic research,
e.g. works that examine the epistemological foundations or the 
restrictions of quantitative methods. Especially
we are looking for (2) historical and contemporary insights into social 
categorisations through statistics, the
main methodological instrument and a legitimizing tool in demographic 
research and policies. We are also
interested in (3) new perspectives and approaches that challenge current 
positions in demographic research
and/or that innovatively link demographics with critical approaches such 
as intersectionality, feminist studies
and postcolonial studies.
 Social Constructions of Gender, Parenthood and ‘Having a Child’ in 
Demographic Discourses: As
mentioned above, ‘women as mothers’ are the focus of demographics, 
whereas men and ‘men as fathers’ are
seen to be of minor importance. Hence, we are looking for explorations 
of the social construction of femininity
and masculinity, as well as motherhood and fatherhood and/or 
heteronormativity in demographic discourses.
Inherently connected with the construction of gender is the societal 
perception of having children or not having
them. Based on an understanding of procreation as ‘natural fact’ and the 
norm of ‘having a child’, child-free
women have experienced severe discrimination just like non-conformist 
negotiations of motherhood (e.g.
“regretting motherhood”) have been marginalized. Therefore, we ask for 
contributions illuminating processes
of normalisation and/or comparing perceptions of having children and 
living child-free in different
(trans)national contexts.
 Reproductive Technologies (RTs) Between Individual Salvation and 
Pro-natalist Governance:
‘Involuntary childlessness’ has functioned as legitimation for promoting 
and funding reproductive technologies
like artificial insemination, in vitro fertilisation or surrogacy. 
However, due to ethical concerns, any medical
developments have been continuously accompanied by negotiations about 
appropriate policy frameworks. At
the same time, nation-states integrated RTs into their population 
policies. We are looking for contributions
discussing these tensions. In what way are RTs instruments of 
pro-natalist governance? How are feminist
perspectives dealing with the ambivalence of women’s reproductive rights 
and state interests in stabilising a
‘traditional’ gender order? We are also looking for contributions that 
consider RTs to more broadly include
contraception and termination of pregnancy, as the use of contraception 
by women is often named a further
‘cause’ for declining fertility rates.
 Policy Analyses on Demographic Change and Women’s Emancipation: 
Demographics is an inherently
political topic; in particular, discussions about ‘care chains’ and ‘a 
crisis of reproduction’ since they raise
questions about the alignment, justification and efficiency of past and 
current policies. Here, we are looking for
contributions dealing with the following questions: How is the 
‘demographic challenge’ balanced with efforts of
women’s emancipation and gender equality, especially in vital political 
fields of Western welfare states like
family, labour and internal affairs? How are global perspectives, 
particularly migration and the global south,
incorporated into (Western-)national and European population policies? 
What are the positions and influences
of social movements and NGOs?
Both junior and senior scholars are invited to submit an abstract 
(between 500 and 800 words on the topic,
objectives and research questions, plus, if applicable, the empirical 
background of the paper) in the form of a
word- or pdf-document. Abstracts should include FULL contact details, 
especially your name, institutional
affiliation, plus mailing and e-mail address. Abstracts should be sent 
to Heike Kahlert and Daniela Heitzmann
([log in to unmask]) by September 15th, 2017 (for more information 
about the organising chair,
see: http://www.sowi.rub.de/sozsug/index.html.en). Authors will be 
notified of the acceptance or rejection of
their proposal by October 15th, 2017.
The workshop is an opportunity to discuss work in progress and research 
results, as well as form networks for
further international collaboration. Therefore, papers will be discussed 
in small groups. These groups will work
together throughout the whole workshop. The papers (with a maximum 
length of 7.000 words) are due on
January 31st, 2018, and will be delivered to participants of a given 
working group. All participants are expected to
have read the papers in advance. During the workshop, the authors will 
introduce their papers briefly, and each
participant will comment on one paper. Selected papers will be 
published.
Note: Unfortunately, no funding, fee waiver, travel or other bursaries 
can be offered for attending the workshop. The
workshop fee (approx. 100 €) will cover conference materials and 
catering during coffee and lunch breaks.