Depoliticisation and Repoliticisation of Feminist Knowledge in a Nordic Knowledge Regime: The Case of Gender Budgeting in Finland

Abstract

Knowledge has a growing role in contemporary politics and policy-making. As a response to new forms of governance and evidence-based policy-making, feminist knowledge has become an important device of gender equality policy. This article analyses the role, form, and producers of feminist knowledge in contemporary policy-making. It focuses on the depoliticizing as well as the repoliticising tendencies in feminist knowledge production. It takes as its focus the recent gender budgeting initiative in Finland. The article shows that the role of feminist knowledge is symbolic; that the preferred form of feminist knowledge is quantified knowledge; and that the credible producers of feminist knowledge are gender experts and economists. All these elements of feminist knowledge production are characterized by a constant movement between depoliticization and repoliticisation.