The gendered coloniality of current development policies: A critical discourse analysis of the Swedish feminist foreign policy
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
In 2014, Sweden became the first country in the world to explicitly adopt a feminist foreign policy. Since then many countries have followed their example by putting gender equality, feminism and the rights of women on their agenda for foreign policy. The application of a Westernised perception of feminism on states within a culturally different context has however faced some critique. Taking into account the troubled relationship that Western First world feminism has had with colonialism, alongside the criticism that contemporary international development has faced, there is an academic relevance to the contribution and exploration of the nascent field of feminist foreign policy. This study takes a critical approach towards the Eurocentric Westernized perception of development and feminism, with the objective to see how current development policies could potentially reinforce and reproduce colonial structures through the discourse of Western feminism. By taking a feminist postcolonial approach to deconstructive discourse analysis, this study unveils the reproduction of unequal power structures through the development discourse, Western feminist discourse and neoliberal discourse.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. , p. 57
Keywords [en]
Postcolonialism, Neocolonialism, Feminism, Liberal feminism, Discourse, Critical discourse analysis
National Category
Other Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-113787OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-113787DiVA, id: diva2:1667172
Subject / course
Peace and development
Educational program
Peace and Development Work, Master Programme, 60 credits
Supervisors
Examiners
2022-06-132022-06-092022-06-13Bibliographically approved