The conference Equality, Growth and Sustainability – Do They Mix? was made possible through initiatives, joint efforts and collaboration between actors representing JÄMI, VINNOVA, FAS, Thematic Group on Equality, NIKK, Tema Genus and Forum for Gender Studies and Equality at Linköping University.
The conference created an opportunity for academics, practitioners as well as policy makers to meet and discuss if and how questions of equality, growth and sustainability can be reconciled in organisations and implemented in general practice. 15 years after the Beijing Platform for Action the conference provided academics, policy makers and practitioners with an international and interdisciplinary forum for exchange.
The purpose was to explore and disseminate knowledge and experiences on gender equality, gender mainstreaming, diversity management, growth and sustainability, inclusion and equal opportunities. The ambition was to discuss these key concepts and issues from an intersectional perspective, and in theory and practice, in order to rethink and find new ways to move on. The conference provided new research results, policy discussions and presented new ideas on how to advance the practical and theoretical work through collaborative/joint ventures between academia and society.
The conference consituted a mix of presentations and discussions with the 165 participants, from all over the world. The interactive conference format contained eight interactive workshops and eleven parallell paper sessions, see appendix. The paper sessions contained academic paper presentetions while the workshops offered forums for listening practioners’ presentations and taking part in discussions.
The four key note speakers, as well as the concluding panel, addressed and discussed the conference topics from their view points as policy makers, researchers and/or practitioners. Key note speakers included Ms Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission; Mieke Verloo, Professor of Comparative Politics and Inequality Issues at Radboud University Nijmegen; Jeff Hearn, Professor in Gender Studies with a focus on critical studies on men at Linköping university and Tryggvi Hallgrimsson from the Center of Gender Equality, Iceland.
The workshop was hosted by Linköping University´s Forum for Gender Studies and Equality.
Funding was provided by JÄMI at Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems/VINNOVA, Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research/FAS, Thematic Group on Equality, Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Linköping University, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions/SALAR/SKL, and Wenner-Gren Foundations.
The majority of the paper authors have chosen to contribute to this document, which presents the proceedings from the conference.