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Category Archives: Arts and Health
Unpacking categorizations in researching GBTIQ+ parents
Sexualities, Ahead of Print.
In this article, based on anthropological research conducted in the Netherlands and Switzerland, I show the diversity and multi-faceted nature of GBTIQ+ (gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer) parenting. In contrast to recent research on GBTIQ+ parents, which often distinguishes between parents who have children through a (former) heterosexual encounter, adoption, fostering, surrogacy, co-parenting, or trans pregnancy, I deliberately chose not to study just one form of family formation. Drawing on 37 biographical, narrative, and thematic interviews and two group discussions with GBTIQ+ parents, I adopt a processual understanding of parenting that takes into account its fluidity and transformations over the life course. I argue that we should pay attention to how both the unique ways of forming and being a GBTIQ+ family, and common notions of imagining and doing family, intermingle in practice. Furthermore, I stress the importance of taking into account the intersecting differences within the category of GBTIQ+ parents, and accordingly, we should critically analyze which factors are relevant to an individual in a particular time and space.
In this article, based on anthropological research conducted in the Netherlands and Switzerland, I show the diversity and multi-faceted nature of GBTIQ+ (gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer) parenting. In contrast to recent research on GBTIQ+ parents, which often distinguishes between parents who have children through a (former) heterosexual encounter, adoption, fostering, surrogacy, co-parenting, or trans pregnancy, I deliberately chose not to study just one form of family formation. Drawing on 37 biographical, narrative, and thematic interviews and two group discussions with GBTIQ+ parents, I adopt a processual understanding of parenting that takes into account its fluidity and transformations over the life course. I argue that we should pay attention to how both the unique ways of forming and being a GBTIQ+ family, and common notions of imagining and doing family, intermingle in practice. Furthermore, I stress the importance of taking into account the intersecting differences within the category of GBTIQ+ parents, and accordingly, we should critically analyze which factors are relevant to an individual in a particular time and space.
Unicorns, rainbows, and unicorn magic: Storying new knowledge of black masculinities within the WWE
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
This paper examines the story arc of a trio of Black male wrestlers called the New Day within the World Wrestling Entertainment industry (WWE) who go from militant nationalists, stereotypical singing/dancing preachers, and finally to self-described unicorns bringing magic back to the WWE. Wrestling is used to explore anti-Blackness, Black masculinity, and conceptions of the human/humanity. Drawing on Katherine McKittrick's Black methodological intervention of textual accumulation to interrogate issues of race, masculinity, and sexuality within their performances, I argue the group's unique position as wrestlers allows us to conceptualize the trio as “writers” of fiction; a position that when read through Kevin Young's concept of storying provides insight into a Black creative practice engaging in alternative worldmaking and rewriting understandings of the human outside of a Western European framework. I advocate that the stories of the New Day not only provide glimpses into new genres of being human, but also forms of Black manhood(s) outside of a patriarchal framework.
This paper examines the story arc of a trio of Black male wrestlers called the New Day within the World Wrestling Entertainment industry (WWE) who go from militant nationalists, stereotypical singing/dancing preachers, and finally to self-described unicorns bringing magic back to the WWE. Wrestling is used to explore anti-Blackness, Black masculinity, and conceptions of the human/humanity. Drawing on Katherine McKittrick's Black methodological intervention of textual accumulation to interrogate issues of race, masculinity, and sexuality within their performances, I argue the group's unique position as wrestlers allows us to conceptualize the trio as “writers” of fiction; a position that when read through Kevin Young's concept of storying provides insight into a Black creative practice engaging in alternative worldmaking and rewriting understandings of the human outside of a Western European framework. I advocate that the stories of the New Day not only provide glimpses into new genres of being human, but also forms of Black manhood(s) outside of a patriarchal framework.
More Democracy, More Security? Regionalism and Political [In]Security in East and Southern Africa
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Building a Glocal Collective Actor: The European General Assembly of Couriers
Dissenting and innovating: Freelancers’ emerging forms of organising in the Netherlands
Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
This article investigates precarious workers’ organising by considering the case of freelancers, a category between the self-employed – usually represented by employer organisations – and employees – whose interests are traditionally defended by trade unions. Drawing on a 6-month ethnography conducted in the Netherlands within two freelancer associations, our study shows their capacity to exercise collective forms of ‘critical agency’ – on the one hand, by questioning their established practices and seeking to innovate their repertoire, and on the other, by staging protest actions, despite the long Dutch tradition of consensus-based social dialogue. The aim of the article is twofold. First, it contributes to the debate on precarious workers’ organising by considering freelancers as agentic subjects, whose collective identity and organising practices shape and are shaped not only by the socio-institutional context, but also by the type of relationships they create and in which they are embedded. Second, by focusing on collective everyday practices as fields of production of the new, it illustrates diverse forms of critical agency exercised by freelancers, thus offering an empirical contribution to the understanding of critical agency in its making.
This article investigates precarious workers’ organising by considering the case of freelancers, a category between the self-employed – usually represented by employer organisations – and employees – whose interests are traditionally defended by trade unions. Drawing on a 6-month ethnography conducted in the Netherlands within two freelancer associations, our study shows their capacity to exercise collective forms of ‘critical agency’ – on the one hand, by questioning their established practices and seeking to innovate their repertoire, and on the other, by staging protest actions, despite the long Dutch tradition of consensus-based social dialogue. The aim of the article is twofold. First, it contributes to the debate on precarious workers’ organising by considering freelancers as agentic subjects, whose collective identity and organising practices shape and are shaped not only by the socio-institutional context, but also by the type of relationships they create and in which they are embedded. Second, by focusing on collective everyday practices as fields of production of the new, it illustrates diverse forms of critical agency exercised by freelancers, thus offering an empirical contribution to the understanding of critical agency in its making.
Book Review: Women resisting sexual violence and the egyptian revolution: Arab feminist testimonies
Sexualities, Ahead of Print.
Scapegoating queers: Pink-blocking as state strategy
Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
Malaysia’s ‘democratic transition’ in May 2018, when a challenger coalition ousted the long-dominant incumbent coalition, raised hopes of a new political climate, more respectful of civil liberties. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Malaysians shared that sentiment; a growing number had even protested openly for political liberalization as part of an umbrella movement for electoral reform. Within months of the election, several higher profile incidents peppered a series of attacks on queer spaces and both state-sponsored and private harassment of LGBT Malaysians – even as Malaysia ticked upwards in global metrics of ‘democracy’. Attention to LGBT peoples and issues remain at an all-time high in Malaysia, driven far less by queer activism than anti-LGBT agitation, in line with a government-led, base-ingratiating ‘pink-blocking’ agenda, rooted in both ‘Asian values’ and religious discourse. Here as elsewhere, queer identities and acts offer a handy diversion and scapegoat – and in Muslim-majority, increasingly Islamist Malaysia, anti-queer policies and policing affirm commitment to the presumed moral high ground of Malay-Muslim rights: pink-blocking offers a way to build coveted electoral support. In contrast, we may find recourse to ‘pink-washing’ strategies in countries lacking a similarly socially conservative, substantial base and/or competitive elections, and/or where currying favour with the west is a higher imperative.
Malaysia’s ‘democratic transition’ in May 2018, when a challenger coalition ousted the long-dominant incumbent coalition, raised hopes of a new political climate, more respectful of civil liberties. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Malaysians shared that sentiment; a growing number had even protested openly for political liberalization as part of an umbrella movement for electoral reform. Within months of the election, several higher profile incidents peppered a series of attacks on queer spaces and both state-sponsored and private harassment of LGBT Malaysians – even as Malaysia ticked upwards in global metrics of ‘democracy’. Attention to LGBT peoples and issues remain at an all-time high in Malaysia, driven far less by queer activism than anti-LGBT agitation, in line with a government-led, base-ingratiating ‘pink-blocking’ agenda, rooted in both ‘Asian values’ and religious discourse. Here as elsewhere, queer identities and acts offer a handy diversion and scapegoat – and in Muslim-majority, increasingly Islamist Malaysia, anti-queer policies and policing affirm commitment to the presumed moral high ground of Malay-Muslim rights: pink-blocking offers a way to build coveted electoral support. In contrast, we may find recourse to ‘pink-washing’ strategies in countries lacking a similarly socially conservative, substantial base and/or competitive elections, and/or where currying favour with the west is a higher imperative.
Mediated risk: A qualitative exploration of students’ experiences flirting online
Sexualities, Ahead of Print.
Based on qualitative interviews with 53 college students, this article explores how digitally mediated communication is seen as a tool for risk reduction by college students when it comes to their flirtatious interactions. I conclude that college students perceive the affordances of digital communication technologies as helping them manage the anxieties and vulnerabilities inherent in the flirtation process, an idea I refer to as “mediated risk.” My findings suggest that partly due to “mediated risk,” digital communication has become a normative mode of flirtatious interactions for young people as they experiment with romance, courtship, and sexuality. My findings offer a counter-narrative to popular media images, as well as scholarly accounts of adolescents’ use of social media, which tend to highlight risk.
Based on qualitative interviews with 53 college students, this article explores how digitally mediated communication is seen as a tool for risk reduction by college students when it comes to their flirtatious interactions. I conclude that college students perceive the affordances of digital communication technologies as helping them manage the anxieties and vulnerabilities inherent in the flirtation process, an idea I refer to as “mediated risk.” My findings suggest that partly due to “mediated risk,” digital communication has become a normative mode of flirtatious interactions for young people as they experiment with romance, courtship, and sexuality. My findings offer a counter-narrative to popular media images, as well as scholarly accounts of adolescents’ use of social media, which tend to highlight risk.
Strategic adjustments: Daily experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons in Nairobi
Sexualities, Ahead of Print.
Despite International efforts by NGOs and social movements to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) people in Africa, they still face injustices, stigma, and discrimination. This study uses an assemblage approach to analyze narratives collected through interviews with LGBTQI individuals in Nairobi, Kenya about the daily strategies they use to navigate the tensions between their need for livelihood security, personal safety, and their gender and sexual identity. The study employs the analysis of daily experiences to discuss how contexts and preferences interact with internal sexual identities and choices for external expressions of sexual identities.
Despite International efforts by NGOs and social movements to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) people in Africa, they still face injustices, stigma, and discrimination. This study uses an assemblage approach to analyze narratives collected through interviews with LGBTQI individuals in Nairobi, Kenya about the daily strategies they use to navigate the tensions between their need for livelihood security, personal safety, and their gender and sexual identity. The study employs the analysis of daily experiences to discuss how contexts and preferences interact with internal sexual identities and choices for external expressions of sexual identities.