#NoTenemosMinistra: The crisis in Chile’s Ministry of Women and Gender Equality
by Bárbara Sepúlveda Hales & Lieta Vivaldi Macho The recent appointment of the new Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Macarena Santelices, by President Sebastián Piñera is very worrying and this has been expressed not only by feminist organizations but also by politicians and activists from different sectors. After 54 days without an incumbent […]
Read moreBacklash: A misleading narrative
by David Patternote (Université libre de Bruxelles)[1] On 13 February 2019, the European Parliament adopted a resolution “on experiencing a backlash in women’s rights and gender equality in the EU”. Following a report by the FEMM committee on the situation in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, this text defines backlash as “a resistance to progressive […]
Read moreTo drink or not to drink – that is not the question: Alcohol consumption in India and South Africa in the time of COVID 19
by Dr. Debjyoti Ghosh* “That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.” ― Charles Bukowski, “Women” For thousands of […]
Read moreScience, political crisis and the lives of people
by Lorena Moraes* Last weekend, the largest Brazilian national survey on Covid-19 suffered resistance in a number of cities, most of them located in the country´s hinterland. The cities selected for the survey are described as “sentinel cities” – i.e., the main urban centers of various sub-regions of the country, according to criteria defined by […]
Read moreBolsonaro’s most radical supporters only believe what he tells them
As Brazil has been rising the tops of global coronavirus dissemination curve and Bolsonaro’s popularity hits a new low, his most radical support base has remained by his side. Its members have even inaugurated a new strategy for demonstrations against COVID-19 restriction policies. As rallies turn out has declined, the protest base has ushered more […]
Read moreSexual politics in times of pandemic
March and early April 2020 It has been very challenging to prepare the SPW announcement for March/April 2020 due to the abnormality, risks, and losses caused by the dizzying spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In this troubled context, we thought that it was not sufficient to compile and organize, in our usual categories, the substantial […]
Read moreCOVID-19 and AIDS: parallels and lessons
by Richard Parker* In the COVID-19 pandemic, the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic emergence and responses offers lessons for reflecting on the current challenges and risks we face. The first lesson is to stress that testing – a civil society demand – is much more than a simple biomedical technique. There are always political dimensions […]
Read moreBack to where we always have been: sex/gender segregation to contain Covid-19
by Sonia Corrêa[1] But, people die, don’t they? Yes, indeed. However, the current naturalization of death erases thinking – Santiago López Petit In the first week of April, the international press reported that, in order to reduce drastically the circulation of people, the governments of Panama and Peru defined a sex/gender criterion to establish the rotation of who can […]
Read moreCOVID-19 and Biopolitics: Compilation I (March-June 2020)
The Agamben Debates Giorgio Agamben: Contagion – Enough 14 Philosophy and Pandemic in the Postdigital Era: Foucault, Agamben, Žižek – Post Digital Science and Education The Biopolitics of Immunity in Times of COVID-19: An Interview with Roberto Esposito – Antipode Online Giorgio Agamben: The Plague was Already Present – Critical Legal Thinking Understanding the Coronavirus […]
Read moreThe Prostitute, the Virus, and the City
Prostitution Policy Watch, IPPUR, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Authors: Soraya Silveira Simões, Laura Murray, Patrícia de Moura e Silva Toledo, Thaddeus Gregory Blanchette, Ana Paula Silva More than three decades ago, when HIV erupted around the world and AIDS was defined as a “syndrome” (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), the epidemic was classified as […]
Read moreBukele: A ‘caudilho’ Dies and A Messiah is Born in El Salvador
SPW begins a series of brief analyses of the Covid-19 crisis in contexts that are generally under-reported by the mainstream press and which are characterized as regressive in relation to gender and abortion policy. The second article in this series is about El Salvador. We thank educator Amaral Arévalo for his collaboration! by Amaral Arévalo* […]
Read moreNicaragua: A Pandemic Carnival
“Amor en los tiempos del covid-19” march, organized by the government. Photo: EFE. Nicaragua and the dance of horrors in the struggle against COVID 19 by Humberto Meza* This article is not an optimistic text, despite its festive title, nor does it document best practices in the face of the current pandemic. It can be […]
Read moreSexual politics in January and February 2020
Anti- gender politics in Latin America – SPW is pleased to announce the collection Anti-gender Politics in Latin America, which encompasses nine case studies from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay, a regional study on the effects of anti-gender frays on debates of the Organization of American States, and an […]
Read moreSmart Guide: Recognising Sex Workers as Experts
This Smart Person’s Guide is a tool to support sex workers and their allies in advocating for the recognition of sex workers’ expertise. Sex workers’ have an indispensable knowledge of, and experience with the structural, legal, institutional, socio-economic and cultural barriers which impede their human and labour rights. Evidence shows that meaningful involvement of sex […]
Read moreWhatsApp and political instability in Brazil – 2018 Presidential elections
Rafael Evangelista Laboratory of Advanced Studies on Journalism (Labjor), State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, rae@unicamp.br Fernanda Bruno Communication and culture, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil Published on 31 Dec 2019 | DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1434 Abstract In the 2018 presidential election, Brazil elected a fringe congressman, Jair Bolsonaro, despite his radical rhetoric […]
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