Unpacking social safety: new politics of equality work at Dutch universities

Abstract

In light of #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and the Decolonisation movement, sexual and racial violence has gained renewed attention within academic institutions. One notable policy response within the Dutch (academic) context has been the emergence of the notion of 'social safety'. This article is one of the first to examine whether and how this new policy response allows for true anti-racist feminist praxis to achieve equality in academia. We conducted interviews with equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) practitioners employed at nine Dutch universities. Our analysis reveals two understandings of social safety: (1) an interpersonal understanding that denotes social safety as merely a matter of 'feelings', contributing to it becoming a discursive depoliticised container term; and (2) an organisational understanding that focuses on hierarchy and power, allowing for EDI work to be repoliticised. EDI practitioners engage with these understandings in multiple ways, as they (unconsciously) reproduce and actively contest the depoliticisation of social safety discourses.