Natacha Bastiat (Natacha Bastiat-Bastiat-Jarosz)

You can learn more about my research here: https://www.feprp.org/

As a doctoral researcher, my research topic is to investigate the practices of self-proclaimed feminist businesses (FBs) and their alignment with feminist values. Specifically, I aim to explore how these practices contribute to dismantling social inequalities, what kind of feminist economic practices they create and employ, and how they contribute to their communities and the feminist movement. I acknowledge that FBs operate within neoliberal market systems, which are often viewed as incompatible with feminist ideals, and my research challenges the dominant view of the literature that focuses on the impossible solution of the feminist-business-dilemma. Instead, I draw a more nuanced picture of the constraints and opportunities that these businesses have to destabilize, erode, and interrupt neo-liberal exploitative practices from within.

I propose to approach the interaction of feminism and neoliberal market logics as a tension upon which feminist entrepreneurs can act, leading to innovative and more socially-driven business practices with the potential to change neoliberal market logics from within by providing solutions to structural inequalities. My study will refer to the theoretical framework of diverse economies and weak theory to explore the diversity of doing feminist economic activities and make these alternative economic practices more visible and credible within academic and activist circles. My research seeks to expand economic and feminist vocabulary by investigating and naming a range of economic practices by FBs that are often ignored or marginalized by mainstream economic and feminist thought. By analyzing the impact of FBs' practices on their stakeholders, I aim to shed light on the potential of feminist economic activism at a local level.