Lecture Tour

The lecture tour is an opportunity for Southern institutes or universities to invite a researcher, who is well known in a Southern country, and represents a historical school or a specific research approach in social sciences, so that he or she can give seminars and public lectures on the chosen themes. The aim of this activity is to establish connections between different research traditions and networks in the South. 

The primary objective behind this international academic dialogue is to create a space  for discussion so that  researchers from the South can express their visions and share their perspectives on the selected themes, and  the ways in which the two spheres are articulated. The idea behind the lecture tour is the establishment of  professional ties, as well as a dynamic intellectual exchange  among the different research traditions of the South. This program will enable southern institutes and universities to invite a scholar with an established reputation from another area of the South, affiliated to a historic school or specific research approach, to present a series of lectures.

The  tour will provide the researcher with an unprecedented opportunity to meet and interact with colleagues and upper-level students, discuss thematic issues and academic programs, and explore the possibilities of collaborative efforts. It will also encourage the generation of debates and elaboration of critical analyses on the chosen theme, in order to promote a refined understanding of these concepts which have an undeniable impact on the future of Southern societies.

In a bid to promote the development of a comparative perspective,  it is proposed to invite a scholar from the host country so that s/he can discuss the lecturer’s paper and present a reflection on the same theme adapted to his/her country or  sub-region. S/He will also orientate discussions on this theme, and more precisely on the lecturer’s text. 

Themes for 2003-2007 - Gender and Democracy

The lecture tour aims at contributing to the development of the South-South debate on this theme. The increasing involvement of women in politics makes it necessary to open the debate and promote critical analyses on this theme. Indeed, there is  a poor record of historical reflections on the relations between women and politics in Southern countries, at least in comparison with the abundant scientific production on this theme in the Anglo-Saxon Western world. Besides, this theme is fundamental, knowing that the concept of democracy was built on the ideals of freedom and individual liberties. But women, who are still generally kept  in the domestic sphere, have long been excluded from the political world. After decades of fighting for gender equity, they have gradually started to  convince the world that they can be involved in the definition and management of power in the public arena, particularly in politics.

To analyse this  struggle, as well as the emergence of women’s issues in politics in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the lecturer will need to produce a historically-grounded  reflection. This will avoid  the banalisation or limitation of  the question  to the issue simply of knowing whether women fulfil political responsibilities in a better or different way in comparison to men or whether this depends more on the personal qualities of each individual, rather than on their sex. In the process of defining and implementing a strategy to promote a greater and fairer involvement of women in the economic sphere , analyses will have to take into account the  intervening factors that are at play and the stakeholders that could influence those factors.

The lecturer will thus have to review the issue of gender equity in the following contexts:

• Women’s involvement and representation in politics, in the context of the patriarchal conception of women’s role in Southern societies

• Quantitative aspects and qualitative impact of women’s representation in structures and processes of decision-making.

• The study must explore the inclusion and exclusion processes of women into/out of the democratic processes in the Western  mono-cultural conception of politics that makes a dichotomy between democracy and dictatorship

This reflection on gender and democracy will have to take into consideration the new intellectual and theoretical context created by the structural adjustment crises as well as the efforts and attempts  at renewing the practices and theories of post adjustment development.