Cover European Journal of Politics and Gender
European Journal of Politics and Gender

How apprehensions impact policy implementation: a comparison of Dutch and French campaigns on street harassment

Author: Mischa Dekker1
View author details View Less
  • 1 École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France
Article Category:
Research Article
Copyright:
© European Conference on Politics and Gender and Bristol University Press 2022
Online Publication Date:
14 Jul 2022
Pages:
1–18
Publisher:
Bristol University Press
Volume/Issue:
Early View
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1332/251510821X16557137104861
Restricted access
Get eTOC alerts
Rights and permissions Cite this article
Add to cart (GBP  £25.00)

Although we often speak about a global increase in awareness and policy on street harassment, in France, the issue was incorporated into a gender-based violence policy subsector, while Dutch policymakers avoided vocabularies pertaining to structural male domination. Differences in governmental campaigns on street harassment were the result not only of policymakers’ positive convictions, but also of their ‘apprehensions’. Apprehension of ‘moralising’ led to resistance against and decline of feminism in the Netherlands, while apprehension of ‘stigmatising’ men of colour informed campaigns in France. This notion is proposed as an alternative to that of ‘blame avoidance’, which reduces policymakers’ avoidance behaviour to the logic of instrumental strategy. An analysis of apprehensions is attentive to how ideas shape social action: policy implementation cannot be reduced to the mechanical reproduction of policy paradigms, but is often the product of policymakers’ reflective choices in the policies they do and do not want to pursue.

  • Bacchi, C. (2009) Analysing Policy: What Is the Problem Represented to Be?, Frenchs Forest: Pearson Australia.

  • Baumgartner, F. and Jones, B. (1993) Agendas and Instability in American Politics, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

  • Bereni, L. (2009) Quand la mise à l’agenda ravive les mobilisations féministes. L’espace de la cause des femmes et la parité politique (1997–2000), Revue Française de Science Politique, 59(2): 301–23.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bertossi, C. and Duyvendak, L. (2012) National models of immigrant integration: the costs for comparative research, Comparative European Politics, 10(3): 238–47.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Boltanski, L. and Thévenot, L. (2006) On Justification. The Economies of Worth, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

  • Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum (COC) (2020) Over ons, https://www.coc.nl/over-ons.

  • Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color, Stanford Law Review, 43(6): 93–118. doi: 10.2307/1229039

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Davidson, R.J. (2020) After accommodation? Inclusion and exclusion of emancipation interests in Dutch ‘democratic corporatism’, Acta Politica, 56(1): 163–80. doi: 10.1057/s41269-020-00153-9

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Dekker, M. (2021) Une mesure raciste? Négocier le risque de stigmatisation dans la verbalisation du harcèlement de rue, Déviance et Société, 45(1): 25–57.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Delage, P. (2017) Violences Conjugales. Du Combat Féministe à la Cause Publique, Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.

  • De Schenck, E. (2017) Ik vroeg mijn Tindermatches of het verboden moet zijn om ‘lekker ding!’ naar iemand te roepen, Vice, 17 July.

  • Dorlin, E. (ed) (2009) Sexe, Race et Classe: Pour Une épistémologie de la Domination, Paris: PUF.

  • Duché, H. and Farres, C.B. (2014) Le harcèlement de rue n’est pas une fatalité, Libération, 2 April.

  • Duportail, J. (2015) Pascale Boistard: ‘La drague n’a rien à voir avec le harcèlement de rue’, Le Figaro, 28 August.

  • Epstein, B.L. (2002) The successes and failures of feminism, Journal of Women’s History, 14(2): 118–25.

  • Ferree, M., Gamson, W., Gerhards, J. and Rucht, D. (2002) Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Fiorina, M.P. (1977) Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

  • Fischer, T. and Sprado, N. (2017) Seksuele Straatintimidatie in Rotterdam, Rotterdam: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.

  • Gardner, C.B. (1995) Passing By: Gender and Public Harassment, Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

  • Gayet-Viaud, C. (2021) Le harcèlement de rue et la thèse du continuum des violences, Déviance et Société, 45(1): 59–90.

  • Gemeente Amsterdam (2017a) Straatintimidatie, https://www.amsterdam.nl/straatintimidatie/.

  • Gemeente Amsterdam (2017b) Straatintimidatie in Amsterdam. Factsheet 2017, onderzoek, informatie en statistiek.

  • Gemeente Amsterdam (2020) Stijlweb: campagnes, https://www.amsterdam.nl/stijlweb/campagnes/.

  • Gemeente Rotterdam (2017) Stop pikpraat: professionals, https://stoppikpraat.nl/professionals/.

  • Gusfield, J.R. (1981) The Culture of Public Problems, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

  • HCEfh (Haut Conseil à l’Égalité entre les femmes et les hommes) (2015) Avis Sur le Harcèlement Sexiste et les Violences Sexuelles Dans les Transports en Commun, Paris: HCEfh.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Henig, S. (2002) Women and Political Power: Europe Since 1945, London and New York: Routledge.

  • Het Parool (2018) Slachtoffers beschilderen lichaam voor campagne straatintimidatie, 19 July.

  • Hood, C. (2010) The Blame Game: Spin, Bureaucracy, and Self-Preservation in Government, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

  • Howlett, M. (2012) The lessons of failure: learning and blame avoidance in public policy-making, International Political Science Review, 33(5): 539–55. doi: 10.1177/0192512112453603

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ikävalko, E. and Kantola, J. (2017) Feminist resistance and resistance to feminism in gender equality planning in Finland, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 24(3): 233–48.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jasper, J. (1997) The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Karsenti, B. and Lemieux, C. (2017) Socialisme et Sociologie, Paris: EHESS.

  • Kingdon, J. (1995) Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, New York: Longman.

  • Koopmans, R. and Statham, P. (2003) How national citizenship shapes transnationalism: migrant and minority claims-making in Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands, in C. Joppke and E. Morawaska (eds) Toward Assimilation and Citizenship: Immigrants in Liberal Nation-States, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 195–238.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lemieux, C. (2009) Le Devoir et la Grâce, Paris: Économica.

  • Lemieux, C. (2018) Sociologie Pragmatique, Paris: La Découverte.

  • Lieber, M. (2008) Genre, Violences et Espaces Publics. La Vulnérabilité des Femmes en Question, Paris: Les Presses de Sciences Po.

  • Lieber, M. (2021) La lutte contre le harcèlement de rue et les (nouveaux) indésirables des espaces publics, Déviance et Société, 45(1): 91–114.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mazur, A. (2002) Theorizing Feminist Policy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Mazur, A. and Stetson, D. (1995) Comparative State Feminism, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

  • MinCEfh (Ministère Chargé de l’Égalité entre les femmes et les hommes, de la Diversité et de l’Égalité des chances) (2017) Campagne Arrêtons-les, https://www.egalite-femmes-hommes.gouv.fr/arretons-les/.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • MinEDDE (Ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement Durable et de l’Énergie), MinASSDF (Ministère des Affaires Sociales, de la Santé et des Droits des Femmes) and MinI (Ministère de l’Intérieur) (2015) Dossier de presse campagne ‘Face au harcèlement, n’attendons pas pour réagir’, 9 November.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Peeters, R. and Schuilenburg, M. (2017) The birth of mindpolitics: understanding nudging in public health policy, Social Theory & Health, 15: 138–59.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Pleck, E. (1987) Domestic Tyranny. The Making of Social Policy against Family Violence from Colonial Times to the Present, New York: Oxford University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP) (2018) Dossier de presse campagne ‘ne minimisons jamais le harcèlement sexuel’, https://www.ratp.fr/groupe-ratp/newsroom/securite/campagne-de-lutte-contre-le-harcelement-dans-les-transports-ne.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Roggeband, C. (2012) Shifting policy responses to domestic violence in the Netherlands and Spain (1980–2009), Violence Against Women, 18(7): 784–806. doi: 10.1177/1077801212455359

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Roggeband, C. and Verloo, M. (2007) Dutch women are liberated, migrant women are a problem: the evolution of policy frames on gender and migration in the Netherlands, 1995–2005, Social Policy and Administration, 41(3): 271–88. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2007.00552.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Saguy, A. (2003) What is Sexual Harassment: From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

  • Service Actu (2018) Pourquoi la nouvelle campagne de lutte contre le harcèlement dans les transports fait-elle débat?, Les Inrockuptibles, 3 March.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Stavo-Debauge, J. (2012) Le concept de hantises: de Derrida à Ricœur (et retour), Etudes Ricœuriennes/Ricœur Studies, 3(2): 128–48.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Stone, D. (1998) Causal stories and the formation of policy agendas, Political Science Quarterly, 104(2): 281–300. doi: 10.2307/2151585

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Tjen-A-Tak, C. and Van den Broek, L. (2014) Een wereld van verschil. 40 jaar vrouwenopvang in Nederland 1974–2014, Leiden: Vrouwenopvang Rosa Manus.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Vargas, V. and Wieringa, S. (1998) The triangle of empowerment: Processes and actors in the making of public policy for women, in G. Nijeholt, V. Vargas and S. Wieringa (eds) Women’s Movements and Public Policy in Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, London: Routledge, pp 3–23.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Vépierre, A. (2018) L’échec cuisant d’une campagne contre le harcèlement de rue, Cheek Magazine, 4 June.

  • Verloo, M. (ed) (2007) Multiple Meanings of Gender Equality. A Critical Frame Analysis of Gender Policies in Europe, Budapest: CEU Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Vice (2017) Straatintimidatie, https://www.vice.com/nl/topic/straatintimidatie.

  • Ville de Paris (2016) Stop au harcèlement de rue, https://www.paris.fr/pages/stop-au-harcelement-de-rue-4276/.

  • Weaver, K. (1986) The politics of blame avoidance, Journal of Public Policy, 6(4): 371–98. doi: 10.1017/S0143814X00004219

  • Wekker, G. (2017) Witte onschuld. Paradoxen Van Kolonialisme en Ras, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

  • Weldon, L. (2002) Protest, Policy, and the Problem of Violence against Women: A Cross-National Comparison, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Weldon, L. (2011) When Protest Makes Policy, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

  • Weldon, L. and Htun, M. (2013) Feminist mobilisation and progressive policy change: why governments take action to combat violence against women, Gender & Development, 21(2): 231–47.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Zippel, K. (2006) The Politics of Sexual Harassment. A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
Mischa Dekker1
  • 1 École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France

m.dekker@ehess.fr

Content Metrics

May 2022 onwards Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 105 105 99
Full Text Views 2 2 2
PDF Downloads 1 1 1

Altmetrics

Dimensions