Projectifying feminism: exploring the conditions for feminist politics in international development aid

Abstract

As an organisational form, the project poses a challenge today for the possibility of articulating feminist politics, understood as feminist visions and ambitions. With a focus on women’s organisations working in international development aid, we examine how the project format and its managerial attributes shape the possibility of articulating feminist politics. Mobilising assemblage thinking on a material consisting mainly of interviews with project workers in women’s organisations, we show that these organisations engage in assembly work to fit their activism with the project format, such as translating feminist ambitions into bureaucratic procedures and notions of temporality, activating repertoires of expertise, and adopting marketised approaches to development. We conclude that the project format depoliticises feminist politics, although it does not make the articulation of feminist ambitions impossible. Assemblage thinking is suggested as a suitable framework for feminist research when investigating how contemporary governing arrangements influence the articulation of feminist politics.Key messagesThe project format influences how women’s organisations articulate feminist politics.Women’s organisations engage in the work of adaptation and translation to fit feminist politics with the managerial features of the project format, resulting in co-optation and resistance.Assemblage thinking is suggested as a conceptual framework for exploring how feminist politics is shaped by the project format.