Francesca Scala
Biographic Data
| ID | 4373618 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Francesca Scala |
| GIVEN NAMES | Francesca |
| FAMILY NAME | Scala |
| SIGNATURE | SCALA F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Concordia University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6718-7282 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Femocrats Online: Navigating Digital Feminism and GBA+ in the Canadian Public Service
Public servants' social media use has been subject to considerable debate, which often focuses on the potential conflict between duty of loyalty and free speech. Similarly, digital feminism has presented both opportunities and challenges for feminist activism, facilitating increased awareness and connections, while also inviting harassment, potentially silencing particular groups. In this article, we situate GBA+ at the nexus of these phenomena, …
Capitalising on Twitter for Policy Learning during Crises: The Case of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Drawing on a broader study on perceptions of time and well-being during Covid-19, we show how governments can use social media platforms, such as Twitter, to acquire knowledge for policy learning and design. We argue social knowledge, which includes personal storytelling, emotion, and use of hashtags and emojis, can contribute to policy learning. Using a qualitative approach, we examine citizens’ pandemic-related experiences, including changing w…
Menstrual Activism, Insider-Outsider Alliances and Agenda-Setting: An Analysis of the Campaign to End the “Tampon Tax” in Canada
The article examines the role of insider-outsider alliances and framing strategies in the campaign to end the "tampon tax" in Canada. Drawing on Kingdon's Multiple Stream Framework (MSF) and feminist policy studies, the study aims to explain how and why efforts to remove the federal sales tax on menstrual products succeeded in 2015 when previous attempts had failed. By mapping developments in the problem, policy and politics streams, the study sh…
Problematising older motherhood in Canada: Ageism, ableism, and the risky maternal subject
This article examines how older motherhood and older mothers are problematised and represented in key Canadian policy texts on ‘delayed childbearing’ and ‘advanced maternal age’. Drawing on critical disability studies and feminist scholarship on motherhood, we identify three kinds of representations of older mothers in these texts: as risk-producing subjects, as unnatural mothers, and as irresponsible reproductive citizens. We argue that dominant…
Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
In this paper, we explore the post-truth era as a contextual factor in how gender expertise is constituted, challenged, and defended in policy discourse in Canadian context. Using post-structural policy analysis to explore the contours of media scrutiny and the resulting debate about gender-based analysis plus (GBA+), Canada’s approach to gender mainstreaming, we reveal that it was ultimately a debate about the role of gender/intersectional exper…
The gender logic and effects of instrument mixes: Implementing eldercare policy in Canada
Although policy instruments are often conceptualized as technical or neutral tools through which ideas and outcomes are connected, this article focuses on the discursive dimensions of policy instruments in Canada’s eldercare policy to explore their gendered and gendering logics and effects. Using frame analysis, we examine government acts, public reports and policy documents to uncover how different policy instruments at the federal and subnation…
Stories from the Front Lines: Making Sense of Gender Mainstreaming in Canada
Gender mainstreaming (GM) is a strategy used by governments to promote gender equality. It entails integrating gender and intersectional considerations into all aspects of policy work, including policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. However, its success in achieving gender equality and social transformation has been limited. Drawing on implementation research and narrative analysis, this article explores the micro-level dynamics and…
Gender Mainstreaming and the Discursive Politics of Public Service Values
In this article, we argue that the introduction of gender mainstreaming invites tension between key public service values, such as fairness, equity, and responsiveness, on one hand, and efficiency, accountability, and neutrality, on the other hand. Using a Canadian case study, we further argue that, to reconcile this conflict, public servants deploy a number of discursive strategies, which shape the meanings of both gender mainstreaming and value…
Bureaucratic Role Perceptions and Gender Mainstreaming in Canada
Since the mid‐1990s, governments have adopted gender mainstreaming (GM) as a strategy for achieving gender equality and improving women's social, economic and political conditions. Yet, studies indicate that GM continues to be unevenly implemented, both within and across countries. To explain this outcome, this paper focuses on the local implementers of GM — the gender focal points — and how they understand GM and interpret it in their everyday w…
Gendering Public Policy or Rationalizing Gender? Strategic Interventions and GBA+ Practice in Canada
The debate surrounding the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming has revived concerns of co-optation of equality work and resistance first expressed by early feminist public administration scholars. In this article, we explore how gender analysts exercised their agency and carved out spaces within the bureaucracy to articulate and advance a gender focus in policy work. Employing discursive, institutional and relational strategies, gend…
Fertile Ground: Exploring Reproduction in Canada
Pratiques discursives et savoir social: L’exemple de la Commission royale sur les nouvelles techniques de reproduction
Les commissions royales d’enquête ont été traditionnellement considérées comme des institutions visant à produire des consensus à propos des politiques gouvernementales. Notre article refuse cet argument et s’appuie sur une interprétation plus dynamique du rôle des commissions. La rapidité des changements technologiques et sociaux, tout comme le désir d’une plus grande participation des citoyens à des décisions de plus en plus complexes, indiquen…
Every Virus Tells a Story”: Toward a Narrative-Centred Approach to Health Policy
Combining insights from narrative inquiry and participatory policy analysis, this article analyses the “illness narratives” of people with hepatitis C, a blood-borne liver disease that affects millions of people around the world. In particular, we explore how a narrative-based approach to health politics and policy can illuminate our understanding of the social dimensions of health and illness. In incorporating the “experiential” knowledge of peo…
The NAC's Organizational Practices and the Politics of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Canada
As the formal “carriers” of the goals and agendas of social movements, social movement organizations (SMOs) are committed to both institutional and identity politics. Given this dual engagement, SMOs must attempt to reconcile their intraorganizational strategies for representation and mobilization with their intergroup strategies for instrumental action in the policy process. In this article, these tensions are explored in a case study of the Nat…
The paradox of deliberative democracy: The National Action Committee on the Status of Women and Canada's policy on reproductive technology
Sustainable agriculture and global institutions: Emerging institutions and mixed incentives
Global considerations and international initiatives have a significant impact on a nation's policy choices and directions. As societies and their economies become increasingly integrated, new institutions of global governance will significantly shape political and economic behavior on both national and subnational levels. Given this context, the evolution of sustainable development as a conceptual and policy framework in agriculture will be partl…
Stories from the Front Lines: Making Sense of Gender Mainstreaming in Canada
Gender mainstreaming (GM) is a strategy used by governments to promote gender equality. It entails integrating gender and intersectional considerations into all aspects of policy work, including policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. However, its success in achieving gender equality and social transformation has been limited. Drawing on implementation research and narrative analysis, this article explores the micro-level dynamics and…
Gendering Public Policy or Rationalizing Gender? Strategic Interventions and GBA+ Practice in Canada
The debate surrounding the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming has revived concerns of co-optation of equality work and resistance first expressed by early feminist public administration scholars. In this article, we explore how gender analysts exercised their agency and carved out spaces within the bureaucracy to articulate and advance a gender focus in policy work. Employing discursive, institutional and relational strategies, gend…
Bureaucratic Role Perceptions and Gender Mainstreaming in Canada
Since the mid‐1990s, governments have adopted gender mainstreaming (GM) as a strategy for achieving gender equality and improving women's social, economic and political conditions. Yet, studies indicate that GM continues to be unevenly implemented, both within and across countries. To explain this outcome, this paper focuses on the local implementers of GM — the gender focal points — and how they understand GM and interpret it in their everyday w…
The paradox of deliberative democracy: The National Action Committee on the Status of Women and Canada's policy on reproductive technology
Menstrual Activism, Insider-Outsider Alliances and Agenda-Setting: An Analysis of the Campaign to End the “Tampon Tax” in Canada
The article examines the role of insider-outsider alliances and framing strategies in the campaign to end the "tampon tax" in Canada. Drawing on Kingdon's Multiple Stream Framework (MSF) and feminist policy studies, the study aims to explain how and why efforts to remove the federal sales tax on menstrual products succeeded in 2015 when previous attempts had failed. By mapping developments in the problem, policy and politics streams, the study sh…
The NAC's Organizational Practices and the Politics of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Canada
As the formal “carriers” of the goals and agendas of social movements, social movement organizations (SMOs) are committed to both institutional and identity politics. Given this dual engagement, SMOs must attempt to reconcile their intraorganizational strategies for representation and mobilization with their intergroup strategies for instrumental action in the policy process. In this article, these tensions are explored in a case study of the Nat…
Every Virus Tells a Story”: Toward a Narrative-Centred Approach to Health Policy
Combining insights from narrative inquiry and participatory policy analysis, this article analyses the “illness narratives” of people with hepatitis C, a blood-borne liver disease that affects millions of people around the world. In particular, we explore how a narrative-based approach to health politics and policy can illuminate our understanding of the social dimensions of health and illness. In incorporating the “experiential” knowledge of peo…
Gender Mainstreaming and the Discursive Politics of Public Service Values
In this article, we argue that the introduction of gender mainstreaming invites tension between key public service values, such as fairness, equity, and responsiveness, on one hand, and efficiency, accountability, and neutrality, on the other hand. Using a Canadian case study, we further argue that, to reconcile this conflict, public servants deploy a number of discursive strategies, which shape the meanings of both gender mainstreaming and value…
Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
In this paper, we explore the post-truth era as a contextual factor in how gender expertise is constituted, challenged, and defended in policy discourse in Canadian context. Using post-structural policy analysis to explore the contours of media scrutiny and the resulting debate about gender-based analysis plus (GBA+), Canada’s approach to gender mainstreaming, we reveal that it was ultimately a debate about the role of gender/intersectional exper…
The gender logic and effects of instrument mixes: Implementing eldercare policy in Canada
Although policy instruments are often conceptualized as technical or neutral tools through which ideas and outcomes are connected, this article focuses on the discursive dimensions of policy instruments in Canada’s eldercare policy to explore their gendered and gendering logics and effects. Using frame analysis, we examine government acts, public reports and policy documents to uncover how different policy instruments at the federal and subnation…
Sustainable agriculture and global institutions: Emerging institutions and mixed incentives
Global considerations and international initiatives have a significant impact on a nation's policy choices and directions. As societies and their economies become increasingly integrated, new institutions of global governance will significantly shape political and economic behavior on both national and subnational levels. Given this context, the evolution of sustainable development as a conceptual and policy framework in agriculture will be partl…
Sustainable agriculture and global institutions: Emerging institutions and mixed incentives
Global considerations and international initiatives have a significant impact on a nation's policy choices and directions. As societies and their economies become increasingly integrated, new institutions of global governance will significantly shape political and economic behavior on both national and subnational levels. Given this context, the evolution of sustainable development as a conceptual and policy framework in agriculture will be partl…
The paradox of deliberative democracy: The National Action Committee on the Status of Women and Canada's policy on reproductive technology
The NAC's Organizational Practices and the Politics of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Canada
As the formal “carriers” of the goals and agendas of social movements, social movement organizations (SMOs) are committed to both institutional and identity politics. Given this dual engagement, SMOs must attempt to reconcile their intraorganizational strategies for representation and mobilization with their intergroup strategies for instrumental action in the policy process. In this article, these tensions are explored in a case study of the Nat…
Every Virus Tells a Story”: Toward a Narrative-Centred Approach to Health Policy
Combining insights from narrative inquiry and participatory policy analysis, this article analyses the “illness narratives” of people with hepatitis C, a blood-borne liver disease that affects millions of people around the world. In particular, we explore how a narrative-based approach to health politics and policy can illuminate our understanding of the social dimensions of health and illness. In incorporating the “experiential” knowledge of peo…
Pratiques discursives et savoir social: L’exemple de la Commission royale sur les nouvelles techniques de reproduction
Les commissions royales d’enquête ont été traditionnellement considérées comme des institutions visant à produire des consensus à propos des politiques gouvernementales. Notre article refuse cet argument et s’appuie sur une interprétation plus dynamique du rôle des commissions. La rapidité des changements technologiques et sociaux, tout comme le désir d’une plus grande participation des citoyens à des décisions de plus en plus complexes, indiquen…
Fertile Ground: Exploring Reproduction in Canada
Gender Mainstreaming and the Discursive Politics of Public Service Values
In this article, we argue that the introduction of gender mainstreaming invites tension between key public service values, such as fairness, equity, and responsiveness, on one hand, and efficiency, accountability, and neutrality, on the other hand. Using a Canadian case study, we further argue that, to reconcile this conflict, public servants deploy a number of discursive strategies, which shape the meanings of both gender mainstreaming and value…
Bureaucratic Role Perceptions and Gender Mainstreaming in Canada
Since the mid‐1990s, governments have adopted gender mainstreaming (GM) as a strategy for achieving gender equality and improving women's social, economic and political conditions. Yet, studies indicate that GM continues to be unevenly implemented, both within and across countries. To explain this outcome, this paper focuses on the local implementers of GM — the gender focal points — and how they understand GM and interpret it in their everyday w…
Gendering Public Policy or Rationalizing Gender? Strategic Interventions and GBA+ Practice in Canada
The debate surrounding the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming has revived concerns of co-optation of equality work and resistance first expressed by early feminist public administration scholars. In this article, we explore how gender analysts exercised their agency and carved out spaces within the bureaucracy to articulate and advance a gender focus in policy work. Employing discursive, institutional and relational strategies, gend…
Stories from the Front Lines: Making Sense of Gender Mainstreaming in Canada
Gender mainstreaming (GM) is a strategy used by governments to promote gender equality. It entails integrating gender and intersectional considerations into all aspects of policy work, including policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. However, its success in achieving gender equality and social transformation has been limited. Drawing on implementation research and narrative analysis, this article explores the micro-level dynamics and…
The gender logic and effects of instrument mixes: Implementing eldercare policy in Canada
Although policy instruments are often conceptualized as technical or neutral tools through which ideas and outcomes are connected, this article focuses on the discursive dimensions of policy instruments in Canada’s eldercare policy to explore their gendered and gendering logics and effects. Using frame analysis, we examine government acts, public reports and policy documents to uncover how different policy instruments at the federal and subnation…
Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
In this paper, we explore the post-truth era as a contextual factor in how gender expertise is constituted, challenged, and defended in policy discourse in Canadian context. Using post-structural policy analysis to explore the contours of media scrutiny and the resulting debate about gender-based analysis plus (GBA+), Canada’s approach to gender mainstreaming, we reveal that it was ultimately a debate about the role of gender/intersectional exper…
Problematising older motherhood in Canada: Ageism, ableism, and the risky maternal subject
This article examines how older motherhood and older mothers are problematised and represented in key Canadian policy texts on ‘delayed childbearing’ and ‘advanced maternal age’. Drawing on critical disability studies and feminist scholarship on motherhood, we identify three kinds of representations of older mothers in these texts: as risk-producing subjects, as unnatural mothers, and as irresponsible reproductive citizens. We argue that dominant…
Menstrual Activism, Insider-Outsider Alliances and Agenda-Setting: An Analysis of the Campaign to End the “Tampon Tax” in Canada
The article examines the role of insider-outsider alliances and framing strategies in the campaign to end the "tampon tax" in Canada. Drawing on Kingdon's Multiple Stream Framework (MSF) and feminist policy studies, the study aims to explain how and why efforts to remove the federal sales tax on menstrual products succeeded in 2015 when previous attempts had failed. By mapping developments in the problem, policy and politics streams, the study sh…
Capitalising on Twitter for Policy Learning during Crises: The Case of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Drawing on a broader study on perceptions of time and well-being during Covid-19, we show how governments can use social media platforms, such as Twitter, to acquire knowledge for policy learning and design. We argue social knowledge, which includes personal storytelling, emotion, and use of hashtags and emojis, can contribute to policy learning. Using a qualitative approach, we examine citizens’ pandemic-related experiences, including changing w…
Femocrats Online: Navigating Digital Feminism and GBA+ in the Canadian Public Service
Public servants' social media use has been subject to considerable debate, which often focuses on the potential conflict between duty of loyalty and free speech. Similarly, digital feminism has presented both opportunities and challenges for feminist activism, facilitating increased awareness and connections, while also inviting harassment, potentially silencing particular groups. In this article, we situate GBA+ at the nexus of these phenomena, …
Political science (14 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Public Administration (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Gender equality (5 works)