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Negotiating gendered transnationalism and nationalism in post-socialist Latvia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Mara Lazda
Mara Lazda*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
*
*Email: mara.lazda@bcc.cuny.edu
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Abstract

This article examines how gender equality activists in postsocialist Latvia negotiate national and transnational frameworks in their campaigns. The case study for this analysis is the 15-year evolution of one gender equality non-governmental organization (NGO), the Resource Center for Women, Marta, in Riga. RCW Malta's work has resulted in significant steps in policy reform and broader social awareness regarding questions of gender equality. In doing so, it bridges essentialist, patriarchal conceptions of the Latvian nation-state and a transnational European feminist narrative. The experience of RCW Marta affirms the continued relevance of the nation, though a redefined one, within transnationalism, which in turn contributes to a rethinking of post-socialism as a spatial and analytic category.

Keywords

nationalismtransnationalismNGOsgenderdemocratizationpost-socialismLatvia
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , May 2018 , pp. 422 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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