The 9th European Feminist Research Conference
-Sex & Capital, 3-6 June, 2015
University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

Recent economic crises and their worldwide impacts have highlighted the relationship between global politics and the economy. Indeed, economic discourses reign supreme and it looks like capitalism has won, which raises feminist concern. The power of economics has become palpable: the scramble for natural resources has put the multi-ethnic Arctic on centre stage; new sectors – education and care among them - are being commercialized; and trafficking in women and the consumption and commodification of sexed bodies appear in new, intensified forms. Then again, issues that feminist research and politics have promoted are now realities for a large number of women: multicultural life, diversification of family forms and sexual identities, and the women’s economy. Despite this progress, the need for equality politics and feminist activism has not diminished. We are living in a global world where different, and differently gendered, material and cultural realities coexist.

Sex & Capital will engage with recent feminist thinking on gender politics, economics and futures to ask questions such as: What are the different, sexualized forms of capital? What are the gendered dynamics and outcomes of barefaced capitalism? and How should we understand and reconceptualise material realities, embodiment and subjectivities?

The 9th Conference invites scholars, students, policy makers and activists to gather and discuss and reflect upon these themes.

Welcome to Rovaniemi!