1st Edition
Intimate Citizenships Gender, Sexualities, Politics
This volume responds to the need to extend the theory of citizenship, in order to bridge the gap between the public and the private sphere. Through the application of intersectional methodology, the authors document how people’s most private decisions and practices are intertwined with public institutions and state policies. The stories of intimate citizenship included in this volume make the theoretical discussion more palpable. Situated perspectives, as well as application of theoretical concepts to lived experience, extend citizenship’s territory beyond the conventional public sphere and locate it at the intersection of many axes of social, political, and cultural stratification.
Introduction: Citizenship Revisted Elzbieta H. Oleksy Part I: Gender Politics – Towards a New Vision of the Subject 1. Sexual Politics, Torture, and Secular Time Judith Butler 2. Post-Secular Feminist Ethics Rosi Braidotti 3. Return of Men’s Narratives and the Vicious Circle of Gender Play Marek Wojtaszek Part II: Negotiating Citizenship – Gender, Sexuality, Politics 4. (Trans)Forming Gender: Social Change and Transgender Citizenship Sally Hines 5. Blood, Water and the Politics of Biology: Examining the Primacy of Biological Kinship in Family Policy and (Step)Family Discourse Karin Lenke 6. Intimate Citizenship and the Right to Care: The Case of Breastfeeding Lisa Smyth 7. Gender, Sexuality and Nation – Here and Now: Reflections on the Gendered and Sexualized Aspects of Contemporary Polish Nationalism Agnieszka Graff 8. Defining Pornography, Defining Gender: Sexual Citizenship in the Discourse of Czech Sexology and Criminology Katerina Lišková 9. Lesbian Representation and Postcolonial Allegory Anikó Imre Part III: Men and Masculinities – New Identities, Emerging Subjectivities 10. Patriarchies, Transpatriarchies, and Intersectionalities Jeff Hearn 11. Changing Czech Masculinities? Beyond "Environment and Children Friendly" Men Iva Šmídová 12. Experiencing Masculinity: Between Crisis, Withdrawal, and Change Iwona Chmura-Rutkowska and Joanna Ostrouch 13. Bent Straights: Diversity and Flux among Heterosexual Men Michael Flood
Biography
Elzbieta H. Oleksy is Professor of Humanities at University of Lódz and University of Warsaw in Poland. Her recent publications include: Gender and Citizenship in a Multicultural Context, ed. (Peter Lang, 2008), Men and Masculinities in Europe, co-author (Whiting & Birch Publishing, 2006).
"The limits of political citizenship are marked by the globally changing features of the nation-State, collective identities and gender relations. This volume stresses the ambivalent process of shifting borders in both the public arena and private sphere up to sexuality. Indeed, democracy and politics can be only rethought, starting from concrete experiences and practices, rooted in the daily life of women and men."
-Marina Calloni, social and political theorist, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan.
"This book pushes forward our appreciation of key issues in social and cultural studies such as intimate citizenship and intersectionality via a range of invigorating, cutting-edge essays by an engaging combination of leading scholars and newer researchers."
-Keith Pringle, Professor in Sociology, Mälardalen University College, Sweden; Honorary Professor, University of Warwick, UK
"The book is truly innovative and very interesting. With its focus on intimate citizenship, it fills a significant gap in current scholarly work on citizenship. Its transnational scope, combined with a centre of gravity in post socialist European countries, adds fruitful perspectives to the analysis of intimate citizenship."
-Nina Lykke, Linkoeping University, Sweden
