Disciplinization of Gender Studies. Old Questions, New Answers? Nordic Strategies in the European Context

Abstract

The old question if—and then how—to make a discipline out of Women's Studies is raised anew in Europe in 2005/6 as a result of the restructuring of the higher education system brought about by the Bologna agreement. Based on material from an on‐going EU project on interdisciplinarity between the social sciences and humanities, this article argues that in the long run institutionalization and disciplinization actually go hand in hand with the integration of the subject in the traditional disciplines. They presuppose and even promote each other rather than undermine or exclude one another. Here focusing on the situation in Sweden, Norway and Finland, the situations in the UK and France are used as comparative illustrations. As part of the background of a more general description of the development of Gender Studies in these countries, a recent example of disciplinization—the Bachelor Degree in Gender Studies at the University of Oslo—is also presented and discussed.