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Trial Lecture – time and place
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Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Associate professor Amanda Potts, Cardiff University,
- Second opponent: Associate professor Simon Pahle, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Kari Nyheim Solbrække, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor emerita Ragnhild Hellesø, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Eivind Engebretsen, Universitetet i Oslo
Summary
This thesis analyses how the articulation of the term "gender" in development discourse determines which gendered vulnerabilities are prioritized or ignored. With a focus on 2010–2020, the study explores potential intertextualities in the domain of “gender” of Norwegian development aid NGO texts and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015
The research asks: What gendered vulnerabilities are visible or invisible in Norwegian aid NGO texts in the SDG era? What are the implications of the articulations of gender in aid NGOs’ planning texts for the SDGs' leave no one behind-pledge and the rights-based approach to development?
The thesis makes use of corpus-assisted discourse analysis (CADS) and Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory to analyse policy, strategy, and planning texts from four Norwegian aid NGOs. This facilitated an exploration of collocation patterns around "gender," revealing its discursive constructions in different textual settings.
An analysis of the gender discourse in Agenda 2030 revealed a narrow association of "gender" with "women" and "girls," closing off the text’s scope for recognising broader gendered vulnerabilities. The research also found a surprising stability in the NGOs’ gender discourse before and after the adoption of the SDGs in 2015, beyond an increase of fixed expressions lifted directly from the SDGs.
The most significant finding of the thesis is that there was a strong commitment to SOGIE issues in the aid NGOs’ policy documents, but that terms associated with this discourse were entirely absent in strategies and planning texts. This suggests unresolved tensions in what gender means for the NGOs’ work. This can be read as a pragmatic response to polarized global discussions on gender issues. However, this strategy risks sidelining sexual and gender minorities, undermining the rights-based approach and the commitment of the SDGs to “leave no one behind.”
Additional information
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