PROJECT SUMMARY
Human beings are highly heterogeneous. Citizens have different needs, demands and worries related to their gender and sex, which are diverse across social classes, ethnicities, ages, etc. All of them are legitimate and deserve to be adequately addressed by political representatives. However, mainstream parties have disregarded some, and radical/populist actors (right-wing populist actors mainly) are twisting their responses contrary to the EU’s core values. UNTWIST will find ways to answer needs, demands, and worries related to gender and sex in untwisted ways aligned with the EU’s core values. Furthermore, UNTWIST will empower parties to improve their representation of the gender-based interests of the citizenry through the definition, enhancement and transfer of a policy recommendation handbook with evidence-based policy recommendations.
UNTWIST (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101060836) is a Research and Innovation Project financed under the Horizon Europe scheme:
HORIZON.2.2 – Culture, creativity and inclusive society Main Programme. Topic(s): HORIZON-CL2-2021-DEMOCRACY-01-03 – Feminisms for a new age of Democracy
ESTRATEGIAS PARA CUMPLIR NUESTRA MISIÓN
UNTWIST tiene cuatro objetivos principales:
- En primer lugar, poner a prueba la hipótesis de que los partidos mainstream de la no están representando un amplio conjunto de preocupaciones, necesidades y demandas relacionadas con el género y el feminismo. Este hallazgo apoyará la idea de que los partidos de extrema derecha actúan como partidos de nicho. Y, más en general, la idea de que los votantes podrían volver a los partidos mainstream mejorando la representación de género.
- En segundo lugar, comprobar la importancia de los rasgos masculinos y femeninos y las actitudes de género en el comportamiento electoral. Ello debería permitirnos centrarnos en los perfiles de ciudadanos a los que se puede dirigir con más éxito. Además, también debería indicarnos las áreas más críticas de la representación de género que deben abordarse.
- En tercer lugar, encontrar formas no tergiversadas de representar las necesidades y demandas de género y responder a las preocupaciones de género, convirtiéndolas en recomendaciones de políticas.
- Cuarto, implicar a los actores políticos, principalmente a los partidos políticos, en la aplicación de las recomendaciones de políticas de UNTWIST.
CONSORTIUM
UNTWIST project is composed of a consortium of 9 partners (seven universities, one research institute, one association and one foundation). The consortium has been set up to ensure the well-balanced participation of academic partners from different geographical areas, and guarantee the representation of the heterogenous political, social, economic, and demographic contexts that might be relevant for our findings and that need to be considered in our policy recommendations. The project will be carried out in a set of countries that include representatives of different regional areas, with different socio-demographic characteristics and political configurations. UNTWIST focus on six European countries that we take as “representative” of those regions: Spain (South), UK (Western), Germany and Switzerland (Central), Hungary (East), and Denmark (North), all of them with relevant right-wing populist actors. The consortium integrates political science, sociology, and gender studies specialists in a complementary manner, with significant expertise in gender from different perspectives. Among the consortium partners, expertise on gender analysis, mixed methods, as well as quantitative and qualitative methods, guarantee that we have the relevant knowledge for the different work packages.