Merike Blofield

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Merike Helena Blofield (born April 24, 1972 in Finland ) is a political scientist and Latin America expert at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) , Hamburg. She is director of the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies and professor at the University of Hamburg .

Career

Merike Blofield was born in Finland, studied and worked in Canada, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, the USA and Germany. In 2003 she received her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . In 2006 she became an assistant professor at the University of Miami , with tenure from 2010, and later also as director of the program for Women's and Gender Studies. In 2011/12 she was visiting professor at the Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa (INSPER), São Paulo. Since January 2020 she has been director of the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies.

research

Blofield's research covers socio-economic inequalities, gender issues, and social and labor policies with a focus on Latin America . She describes her work as "research on the mechanisms of disadvantage", whereby she is always concerned with the approaches to overcome this.

Blofield wrote her dissertation on the political approach to abortion and divorce, based on comparative empirical research in Chile , Spain and Argentina . Whether abortion is legalized, one of the results of the work, depends not least on the distribution of income: In Catholic countries with less inequality such as Spain, Italy or Portugal , women show solidarity across income limits; In the countries of Latin America, on the other hand, women with high incomes live in a completely different reality with great social distance from the poor. Since abortions are illegal for them, but still possible and relatively safe to carry out - for example with special doctors or abroad - there is no cross-class solidarity and the political pressure for legalization is reduced. Blofield's research deals in a variety of ways with questions of social inequality as well as the political conditions of redistribution and social programs. She worked on equality between men and women and on changing family models and the resulting policy-making challenges. Another strand of her work deals with the social and political situation of domestic workers. She recently published on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for Latin America as well as on the social policy programs to cushion the crisis. Blofield is repeatedly asked about her research topics in interviews in international media.

Publications

Books

  • Care Work and Class: Domestic Workers' Struggle for Equal Rights in Latin America. Penn State University Press, 2012. ISBN 0415977754
  • The Politics of Moral Sin: Abortion and Divorce in Spain, Chile, and Argentina. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Essays

  • Moving Away From Maternalism: Parental Leave Policies in Latin America (with Michael Touchton), Comparative Politics, 2020.
  • Assessing the Political and Social Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis in Latin America (with Bert Hoffmann and Mariana Llanos); GIGA Focus Latin America | Number 3 | April 2020 ( open access ).
  • The Politics of Social Policies in Latin America. Latin American Research Review, 54 (4), 2019, 1056-1064. DOI: http://doi.org/10.25222/larr.817
  • Care Work and the Struggles of Care Workers in Latin America (with: Merita Jokela). Current Sociology, 66 (4), 2018, 531-546.
  • The Reactive Left: Gender Equality and the Pink Tide in Latin America. Social Politics, 24 (4), 2017, 345–369.
  • The Left Turn and Abortion Politics in Latin America (with Christina Ewig). Social Politics, 24, 2017, 4, 481-510.
  • Maternalism, co-responsibility, and social equity: A typology of work-family policies (with Juliana Martínez Franzoni). Social Politics, Vol. 22, No. 1., 2015, pp. 38-59. (Access to Document 10.1093 / sp / jxu015 )
  • Work, family and public policy changes in latin america: equity, maternalism and co-responsibility, CEPAL Review, vol. 2014/114, https://doi.org/10.18356/1f42dd52-en .
  • Feudal Enclaves and Political Reforms: Domestic Workers in Latin America. Latin American Research Review, vol. 44 no.1, 2009, p. 158-190.
  • Women's Choices in Comparative Perspective: Abortion Policies in Late-Developing Catholic Countries. Comparative Politics, vol. 40, no. 4, 2008, pp. 399-419.
  • Defining a Democracy: Reforming the Laws on Women's Rights in Chile, 1990–2002. ” (with Liesl Haas). Latin American Politics and Society, vol. 47, no. 3, 2005, pp. 35-68.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Merike Blofield new director of the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies | GIGA. Retrieved June 15, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Latin America expert enriches Hamburg University - politics, families and social inequality | University of Hamburg. Retrieved June 15, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Blofield, Merike. The Politics of Moral Sin: Abortion and Divorce in Spain, Chile and Argentina. Routledge, 2012.
  4. ↑ Blofield, M. (2019). The Politics of Social Policies in Latin America. Latin American Research Review, 54 (4), 1056-1064. DOI: http://doi.org/10.25222/larr.817
  5. ^ The Reactive Left: Gender Equality and the Pink Tide in Latin America. Social Politics, 24 (4), 2017, 345–369.
  6. ↑ https://www.diariodocentrodomundo.com.br/coronavirus-especialista-finlandesa-em-america-latina-diz-ao-dcm-que-bolsonaro-e-imprudente-e-irresponsavel/
  7. ↑ https://www.dw.com/es/en-busca-de-curas-para-un-mercado-laboral-devastado-por-el-coronavirus/a-53286010
personal data
SURNAME Blofield, Merike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blofield, Merike Helena (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish political scientist and Latin America expert
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH Finland