Eu Promotion of Human Rights for Lgbti Persons in Uganda: Translating and Organizing a Wicked Problem

Examining the EU’s promotion of human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans+ and intersex (LGBTI) persons in Uganda during the period of 2009 to 2017, this book investigates how a public administration defines and deals with a wicked problem. The empirical puzzle of how the topic of human rights for LGBTI persons, despite its highly contested nature, travelled between Brussels and Kampala, became codified in form of LGBTI Guidelines (2013) and institutionalized within EU foreign policy is addressed as one of translation and sensemaking. The investigation focuses on the process of problem definition in everyday practice by EU staff and EU member states’ staff in Brussels and Kampala. This book therefore provides key insights into how public administrations deal with wicked problems, how contested ideas can become institutionalized and how an idea is translated and made sense of across time, levels and cultural boundaries. The findings are of interest especially to scholars of wicked problems, sociological new institutionalism and public administration as well as international relations and EU studies, human rights, gender and sexuality studies.

Lydia Malmedie has an interdisciplinary background in political science, human rights, media and comparative literature and organizational sociology. Lydia has published on topics such as sexual orientation and gender, nondiscrimination, EU policies, and advocacy in social work. She completed her doctorate as a member of the Research Training Group on Wicked Problems - Contested Administrations: Knowledge, Coordination, Strategy (WIPCAD) at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Potsdam, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Prior to academia Lydia worked at Stonewall UK, a human rights organization for LGBT equality. Today, Lydia champions LGBTI issues and rights within the public administration in Berlin, Germany, and is a lecturer in human rights and social work.