Margunn Bjørnholt

Margunn Bjørnholt (born 9 October 1958 in Bø, Telemark) is a Norwegian sociologist and economist. Her research focuses particularly on organisational and spatial flexibility in the public sector, management, gender equality, work–family arrangements, and men and masculinities. In particular, she is an expert on men's role in social change in regard to work–family arrangements. Her current research focuses on mobility, labour migration and family practices in Europe. She is also President of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights and the Norwegian Women's Lobby.

Background and career

She holds a cand.mag. degree in regional planning from the University of Tromsø (1981), an MA in international economics (European economic studies) from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium (Promotion Johan Willem Beyen 1981–1982^[1]) and a mag.art. (PhD equivalent) degree in economic sociology from the University of Oslo (1995), with a dissertation on microfinance, ethical and interest-free banking (Pengene mot strømmen) and a fellowship at the Project for an Alternative Future (now the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo).^[2] She also holds a fil.dr. (PhD) in gender studies from Örebro University (2014), with the dissertation Modern Men on men's work–family arrangements, intergenerational transmission and social change.^[3]

She has previously worked at the Regional Development Fund (now Innovation Norway), at the National Institute of Technology, and as a partner in a consultancy, promoting regional development and entrepreneurship, with a particular emphasis on female entrepreneurship. She has worked as a researcher at a number of research institutions since 1997, including at the Work Research Institute and the Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, and is now director of Policy and Social Research AS, an affiliated researcher at the Center for Feminist Social Studies at Örebro University and an associate member of the research group Rights, Individuals, Culture and Society at the University of Oslo Faculty of Law. She has been a visiting scholar at Emory University School of Law (the Feminism and Legal Theory Project) in Atlanta (2012)^[4] and GEXcel Center of Gender Excellence (2013), and has served as a national expert on gender equality to the European Commission DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.^[2]

Research

Her research interests encompass ethical banking and microfinance, organisational and spatial flexibility in the public sector, management, gender equality, work–family arrangements, qualitative research methods and cultural sociology.^[5] She is an expert on men's role and agency in social change towards more egalitarian work–family arrangements.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}

In recent years her research has focused on fathers and sons, and she has carried out a follow-up study 30 years later of Erik Grønseth's pioneering, experimental gender equality research from the 1970s, which studied gendered patterns of breadwinning and care. The follow-up study, which was funded by the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs and the Research Council of Norway, has received much attention in Norway and abroad.^{[7][8][10][11][12][15][16]} She is currently involved in a cross-national comparative study on work–life balance in Poland and Norway with a grant from the EEA and Norway Grants.^[17] She is also involved in research on theory of social justice, in cooperation with feminist legal theorist Martha Albertson Fineman.

She was co-editor, with the Scottish economist Ailsa McKay, of the 2014 book Counting on Marilyn Waring: New Advances in Feminist Economics.^[18][19] The book was described by Alison Preston as "a timely reminder of the politics and economics underpinning what, how and by whom activities are valued." According to Choice, the book explores "a wide range of issues—including the fundamental meaning of economic growth and activity to consumption, health care, mortality, unpaid household work, mothering, education, nutrition, equality, and sustainability" and reveals "the breadth, depth, and substance that can grow from innovative ideas and critical analysis."^[20] Diane Elson argues that "despite many valiant efforts, women do not as yet really count in the conduct of economic policy. This book is an imaginative contribution to an ongoing struggle."^[21]

Civic and political activities

She was involved in the ethical banking movement in the 1990s as chair of a working group attempting to start a bank in Norway modelled after JAK Members Bank in Sweden. She is chair of CINI (Child In Need India) Norway, President of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights,^[22] a board member of the International Alliance of Women,^[23] and President of the Norwegian Women's Lobby.^[24]

Selected publications

References

External links

• Official website