Normalization and “Outsiderhood”: Feminist Readings of a Neoliberal Welfare State

Citation

Kate J.C. Sang (2015), "Normalization and “Outsiderhood”: Feminist Readings of a Neoliberal Welfare State", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 643-646. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-04-2015-0029

Scholars are increasingly turning their attention to revealing the perils of neoliberal discourses. Specifically the normalisation of power relations within neoliberal economics (Roper et al., 2010). These debates have been used to understand the politics of diversity across a range of differences, including gender, ethnicity and recently, disability (Runswick-Cole, 2014). Normalization and “Outsiderhood” is a welcome addition to this body of literature, drawing on explicitly feminist perspectives to reveal the tense relationship between the neoliberal economy and the welfare state. This collected edition explores normalisation within a range of national contexts, including Sweden, often assumed to be a relative socialist paradise, with its commitment to a welfare state. This text seeks to problematise some of this, specifically what “normal” and “outsider” can mean within the neoliberal society. Through ten chapters, explores how marginalised groups are impacted by these neoliberal discourses.

The book begins with Fahlgren et al. setting out the concept of normalisation, charting in particular the impact of neoliberal discourses. These have moved discussions of normalisation and social inclusion from the political and social sphere, towards the individual. This has occurred alongside a move towards the introduction of competition into the provision of the welfare state. The neoliberal project is creating new gendered and patriarchal divisions of labour, for example, the link between flexibility (for the employer!) and the rise of part time work, undertaken mostly by women. This chapter then moves to present the potential for Foucault to elucidate the power relations which underpin the naturalisation of “normal”, for example, the bio-politics which inform the false gender binary.

From this introductory chapter, the text moves to two broader sections. Part 1 – Doing the normal and Part 2 – What normal does. Part 1, with its focus primarily on Sweden’s welfare state and gender. Covering “normal birth” (Mulinari) with associated tensions between idealised (white) femininity and resistance to neoliberal policies and the patriarchal dimensions of medicine. Social work and the role of time in the normalisation process (Fahlgren), those working with marginalised women (Olofsdotter), gender and integration (Schmauch) and sexual harassment in schools (Gillander Gadin). Through these chapters, the authors illustrate how working with marginalised groups creates a tension between the creation of normality within welfare and the resulting inequalities which are (re)produced through these normative actions. The work in these chapters powerfully demonstrates how “normal” appears neutral.

Part 2 focuses more on the normalisation processes which are central to exclusion and stigma. Pease explores unearned privilege and its relationship to normalisation, specifically blindness to privilege and oppression. This is further discussed by Johansson who examines how marginalisation, oppression and privilege are hidden. The final chapter in Part 2, demonstrates how fiction, specifically a figure familiar to many; Pippi Longstocking, can be used to understand families and normalisation (Soderberg).

The final part of the text (Fahlgren et al.) draws together the research groups to explore the dynamics of collaborative research. This is a wide ranging text of interest to a range of scholars. The chapters reveal the complexities and tensions with Sweden, often lauded for its welfare state. As such it would be useful to scholars of social and public policy. These carefully constructed chapters help to reveal the political projects which inform and result from a range of welfare initiatives, including care for vulnerable people. The discussion of Pippi Longstocking shows how the radical, the unusual, can become the norm and thus lose its transformative potential, particularly when exposed to the neoliberal market economy.

One of the most interesting chapters is the final part of the text: “A room of our own”, which presents the findings from an innovative attempt to understand the researchers’ experiences of the research. This chapter will be of particular interest to those working across traditional disciplinary boundaries. The researchers developed a collective biography across the scholars of gender, sociology, literary studies, health studies and social work who collaborated across the project “Challenging Gender”. This chapter goes some way to challenge the heterodoxy of academia – where research can occur and how. Research can be visceral, it is memory and can occur anywhere.A commitment to the importance of emotions to research is welcome – as many social justice researchers will know – we are moved by our research, and moved to undertake it. To deny this aspect of the research process, is to deny our roles in the co-production of research. Fahlgren and her co-authors do not shy away from this, challenging the scientific discourse which dominates much social science research. The collaborative research is complicated when efforts are made to be non-hierarchical when hierarchy is the norm. How can decision making and consensus be reached outside the hierarchical structures we are familiar with? Mauthner and Edwards (2010) have also considered these challenges – specifically how to maintain a feminist ethos of equality within the context of higher education, which is built upon gendered hierarchies. To what extent must researchers comprise their personal values to succeed within institutions where power structures are “normal”? Fahlgren et al. also reflect that some compromise was necessary in order to avoid exclusion from the group. This has particular resonance where the researchers are predominately women for whom exclusion and oppression is common place. The pressures to do “real work”, or work which is institutionally valued can clash with the desire to undertake work which is personally valuable. When it comes to it, academics are still neo-liberal workers with a financial value for their employers. As Elliott et al. (2012) have argued, researcher reflexivity is itself a valuable aspect of the research process, providing a source of data to understand research and the resulting knowledge.

The book ends with a hope that we, academia, can be different. We should not forget the aims of the Enlightenment; to question all we see. This then extends to what we consider normal. To make “normal” visible, to denaturalise it. For scholars who are interesting in making what we take for granted visible, and thus, not taken for granted, this text is ideal. It is robustly underpinned with relevant social theory. It is not aimed at undergraduate students, or the non-academic reader. This may be a limitation, if the authors wish the reach of their text to extend beyond the academic audience. This is not an introductory text to social theory. Rather it is a detailed, nuanced and thorough examination of normalisation under a neoliberal economy.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this collected edition. It is theoretically informed and presents a range of innovative, and more traditional research, all of which is rigorous and informative. I would recommend this text to more advanced scholars, rather than those new to the field. The lessons from Sweden will be applicable across a range of national contexts. The final chapter is most revealing for collaborative scholars. Drawing on this section will be of use to all scholars who are working in interdisciplinary groups – a demand of many research funders. The e-book is good value for money and would make a useful addition to institutional and personal libraries.

About the reviewer

Dr Kate J.C. Sang is an Associate Professor of Management at the Heriot-Watt University. Her research and teaching examines the sociology of work, using feminist theory to explain why workplace inequalities persist. Recent projects include everyday sexism in male dominated occupations, in work poverty, academic parenting and disability in the transport industry. She is the Chair of the Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK and Ireland. Dr Kate J.C. Sang can be contacted at: k.sang@hw.ac.uk