European values, Eurasian family, or neither? A contrapuntal reading of the European Union’s agenda to combat domestic violence in Armenia
- Author
- Laura Luciani (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- This article studies how feminist activists in Armenia negotiate the agenda of the European Union (EU) to combat domestic violence in a contested geopolitical environment. Drawing on post-socialist feminist theorizing, it explores how feminist activists navigate the tensions generated by EU interventions (conditionality and civil society funding) amid Russia-inspired anti-gender campaigns, Soviet legacies, and neoliberal hegemony. I deploy contrapuntal reading as an analytical-methodological strategy to foreground disjunctions between EU logics and feminist activists' praxis, aiming to draw attention to forms of agency that are marginalized in international interventions. Building on extensive qualitative research, I show that feminist activists deploy different strategies to navigate competing pressures, as they seek to prevent feminist politics from being manipulated and selectively appropriated for geopolitical and neoliberal goals. Notably, I identify complaint, subversion, and resistance as forms of feminist agency that expose and challenge gendered structures of power in EU interventions. I argue that a contrapuntal reading spotlights feminist possibilities beyond neoliberal scripts, as they are mainstreamed in the EU's external relations, and the shrinking of gender struggles into geopolitical dichotomies of EU-Russia competition. The article contributes to decentering feminist critiques of the EU as a gender(ed) actor in its Eastern neighborhood and beyond.
- Keywords
- Armenia, contrapuntal reading, domestic violence, European Union, post-socialist feminism, GENDERING CIVIL-SOCIETY, POST-MAIDAN UKRAINE, WOMEN
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01J99AWTQ0HWJYQSE93PJT8ERS
- MLA
- Luciani, Laura. “European Values, Eurasian Family, or Neither? A Contrapuntal Reading of the European Union’s Agenda to Combat Domestic Violence in Armenia.” INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS, vol. 27, no. 3, 2025, pp. 656–82, doi:10.1080/14616742.2025.2488879.
- APA
- Luciani, L. (2025). European values, Eurasian family, or neither? A contrapuntal reading of the European Union’s agenda to combat domestic violence in Armenia. INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS, 27(3), 656–682. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2025.2488879
- Chicago author-date
- Luciani, Laura. 2025. “European Values, Eurasian Family, or Neither? A Contrapuntal Reading of the European Union’s Agenda to Combat Domestic Violence in Armenia.” INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS 27 (3): 656–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2025.2488879.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Luciani, Laura. 2025. “European Values, Eurasian Family, or Neither? A Contrapuntal Reading of the European Union’s Agenda to Combat Domestic Violence in Armenia.” INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS 27 (3): 656–682. doi:10.1080/14616742.2025.2488879.
- Vancouver
- 1.Luciani L. European values, Eurasian family, or neither? A contrapuntal reading of the European Union’s agenda to combat domestic violence in Armenia. INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS. 2025;27(3):656–82.
- IEEE
- [1]L. Luciani, “European values, Eurasian family, or neither? A contrapuntal reading of the European Union’s agenda to combat domestic violence in Armenia,” INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 656–682, 2025.
@article{01J99AWTQ0HWJYQSE93PJT8ERS,
abstract = {{This article studies how feminist activists in Armenia negotiate the agenda of the European Union (EU) to combat domestic violence in a contested geopolitical environment. Drawing on post-socialist feminist theorizing, it explores how feminist activists navigate the tensions generated by EU interventions (conditionality and civil society funding) amid Russia-inspired anti-gender campaigns, Soviet legacies, and neoliberal hegemony. I deploy contrapuntal reading as an analytical-methodological strategy to foreground disjunctions between EU logics and feminist activists' praxis, aiming to draw attention to forms of agency that are marginalized in international interventions. Building on extensive qualitative research, I show that feminist activists deploy different strategies to navigate competing pressures, as they seek to prevent feminist politics from being manipulated and selectively appropriated for geopolitical and neoliberal goals. Notably, I identify complaint, subversion, and resistance as forms of feminist agency that expose and challenge gendered structures of power in EU interventions. I argue that a contrapuntal reading spotlights feminist possibilities beyond neoliberal scripts, as they are mainstreamed in the EU's external relations, and the shrinking of gender struggles into geopolitical dichotomies of EU-Russia competition. The article contributes to decentering feminist critiques of the EU as a gender(ed) actor in its Eastern neighborhood and beyond.}},
author = {{Luciani, Laura}},
issn = {{1461-6742}},
journal = {{INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS}},
keywords = {{Armenia,contrapuntal reading,domestic violence,European Union,post-socialist feminism,GENDERING CIVIL-SOCIETY,POST-MAIDAN UKRAINE,WOMEN}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{656--682}},
title = {{European values, Eurasian family, or neither? A contrapuntal reading of the European Union’s agenda to combat domestic violence in Armenia}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2025.2488879}},
volume = {{27}},
year = {{2025}},
}
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