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- Convenors:
-
Anika Keinz
Monika Baer (University of Wrocław)
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- Formats:
- Panels Network affiliated
- Sessions:
- Friday 24 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
The panel seeks to explore cooperation across and beyond identity politics and inquire into the actual (im)possibilities of creating various types of solidarities in the field of feminist and queer projects in and out of Europe.
Long Abstract:
In the recent decades, identity politics initiatives related to precisely defined social groups have been increasingly criticized both within political and academic settings. In this context, feminist and queer movements have been among those particularly targeted as single-issue undertakings concerned mostly with their own particular agendas. Their activities have been seen as raising social and political cleavages instead of contributing to the broader left struggle against social inequalities and exclusions. As a consequence, they have been accused of strengthening right wing populist movements. But, these criticisms risk to create a set of false oppositions as if identity politics always already exclude solidarities in the field of the political (Mouffe 2005). Alternatively, both critical scholars and activists have argued for more inclusive projects and differentiated perspectives emphasizing intersectionality, complicity and assembly.
Drawing on the assumption that both identity politics and strategic solidarities are usually deeply agonistic in their character, the panel seeks to explore when and how solidarity is practiced transgressing supposedly distinct categories, such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, class, age or common experiences in and out of Europe. By means of ethnographically and theoretically informed case studies, it aims to discuss cooperation across and beyond identity territories and inquire into the actual (im)possibilities of creating "solidarity despite differences" (Mecheril 2014).
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 24 July, 2020, -Paper short abstract:
The paper focuses on the diverging interpretations diaspora and local Lebanese LGBT activists have of 'intersectional organizing'. It analyzes how these different understandings function on the ground in two cases of LGBT organizing in Lebanon in 2019-2020.
Paper long abstract:
The paper focuses on the different, often conflicting understandings of 'intersectional organizing' surrounding Lebanese LGBT organizing. The core argument of the paper will be that both the diaspora and local Lebanese LGBT activists operate under the umbrella of 'intersectional organizing', but give diverging interpretations of the concept due to their different socio-political positionalities. For diaspora activists, 'intersectional organizing' primarily means paying special attention to inequalities within the LGBT community, which is linked to their positionality as both LGBT and people of color in the Western countries they currently inhabit. For local activists, on the other hand, 'intersectional organizing' primarily means alliance building, a conscious strategy to cope with the limited political opportunities LGBT movements face in the region. I will show how these different accounts of 'intersectional organizing' function on the ground by analyzing two episodes of LGBT organizing in Lebanon in 2019-2020: a protest against the ban of a local queer indie rock band, Mashrou' Leila and queer visibility at the anti-government demonstrations of the 'October Revolution'. Based on qualitative research consisting of videophone interviews with key activists in both Beirut and the Lebanese diaspora in Europe, as well as participant observation in online activist communities, I argue that the divergent understandings of 'intersectionality' lead to a series of contestations in the case of the Mashrou' Leila ban, while participation in the anti-government demonstrations was less contested due to the feasibility of integrating both understandings of intersectionality.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the case study of the British queer activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants to explore how political solidarity is being intentionally fostered across identity formations and political constituencies based on shared histories and experiences of structural violence.
Paper long abstract:
This paper seeks to explore how political solidarities form across identities, or the formation of "solidarity despite differences (Mecheril 2014), through examining the case of Lesbian and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSMigrants) in the United Kingdom. This paper is concerned with how LGSMigrants fosters solidarity between local and national queer communities and migrant and refugee communities in the United Kingdom, arguing that the possibility of solidarity despite difference exists in LGSMigrants' cross-identity agenda setting. LGSMigrants organizes around ending the forced removal of migrants from the United Kingdom by the Home Office and has specifically targeted their activist work around ending the contracting of commercial airlines like British Airways for deportation flights.
LGSMigrants' organizing is mindful of the existing political cleavages that have been raised between queer and migrant communities in the United Kingdom and actively seeks to unsettle and contradict media narratives which place queer people and the protection of queer rights in direct opposition to racialized migrants. This paper seeks to explore how political solidarity is being fostered across identity formations, arguing that in this particular case, solidarity in rooted in shared histories and experiences of structural violence in the form of government oppression, demonization in the British media, and shared histories of criminalization.
Paper short abstract:
In the presentation, based on my current research I shed light on these different (dis)identifications available for trans individuals and put them into dialogue with trans lifestories in order to explore questions of solidarity in the field of trans_gender in current Germany.
Paper long abstract:
The situation of trans people has tremendously changed in Germany during the last years. The "popular ideas about gender reassignment [which] reflect[s] the assumption that transness is the same for most people" (Aizura 2018) are challenged and questions around who counts as transgender are discussed in various spheres. In the public sphere, media coverage, public discourse, established politics, medical discourses and legal ones shape the (im)_possibilities of the existence of trans people. 'Transness' in trans internal spaces, such as communities spaces, publications, surveys or trans activism navigates between popular ideas on trans people and trans lifes. Lifestories of trans* people are told through/ around/ among/ in response to these specific forms of identity politics more or less successful.
In the presentation, based on my current research I shed light on these different (dis)identifications available for trans individuals and put them into dialogue with trans lifestories in order to explore questions of solidarity in the field of trans_gender in this specific time where right wing political attitudes are more and more socially acceptable, while at the same time (intersectional) struggles of people beyond the culture of dominance (Rommelspacher) and as such also different trans communities are more present and heard than before.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, following my ethnography, I reconceptualise 'sexual subaltern' as a common ground for feminist-queer solidarity that considers conditions of marginality caused by the 'deviance' from sexual norms instead of the fixed identities based on sexual orientation/practice.
Paper long abstract:
My ethnography examining the perils and pleasures of female sexual subjectivity expressed through a genre of folk songs, Bhawaiya, produced in the margins of Bangladeshi society. Influenced by Spivak's (2008) definition of the subaltern, I used the term subaltern interchangeably with marginalisation while focusing on the sexual desire and anger against marital inequality of women expressed through those songs. While focusing on female sexual subjectivity to oppose sexism is a feminist agenda, I found that heterosexual women are not often considered as a sexual subaltern. 'Sexual subaltern' a concept coined by Ratna Kapur (2000) defined as the opposite of heterosexual, married, monogamous, reproductive and non-commercial sexual orientation leaves no room for my research to see the women of Bhawaiya as a sexual subaltern. Hence, considering the prospect of the concept to enable solidarity within the people of marginalised sexual identities, I propose to redefine it focusing on marginality instead of the binary of identities based on sexual orientation/practices. While intersectionality in identity politics can serve as an important tool to form solidarity despite the difference in identity politics, it also has been problematised for gatekeeping the identity boundaries, especially since the queer subject is against identity (Puar 2018). For feminist-queer solidarity, I, therefore, focus on the process of marginalisation and on the 'subaltern' as the element that consists of the identity, not the identities themselves. It allows us to turn the table of identification to target the gendered power relations and norms as the common enemies and to enable solidarity between all the 'deviances' from these.
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents an approach to sisterhood, a controversial concept in the history of feminism. Based on the last events in Spain, where sisterhood has become a central claim, the paper shows a complex scenario to reflect on identity politics and "alternative" solidarities.
Paper long abstract:
The unprecedented success of Spanish public feminism in the last two years cannot be properly understood unless we consider two events that took place in the fall of 2017: the trial for the gang rape of a young woman at the San Fermín fiestas in Pamplona and the MeToo movement. This connection suggests that rejection of sexual violence is one of the main incentives to join and support the public expressions of feminism in Spain and is standardizing the ideals that attract attention and make visible contemporary feminism in this country. One of these ideals, already classic in Anglo-American feminism, is that of sisterhood. The appeal for solidarity among women has penetrated the feminist movement in Spain, and flourishes through social networks and public demonstrations, generating a great flow of both protest and solidarity messages such as #Sororidad (Sisterhood), #HermanaYoSíTeCreo (Sister, I believe you), #LaManadaSomosNosotras (We are the she-wolf pack), or simply #Juntas (Together). This circumstance has provoked intense debates on the subject of feminism and identity politics.
This paper approaches the theoretical development of sisterhood in feminist literature looking back to the 1970s, when US women took to the streets with the rallying cry "Sisterhood is powerful." It shows that the claim for sisterhood reappeared in Spain in recent years presents significant differences which them and permits us to reflect on the (im)possibilities of opening identity politics to strategic solidarities.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines how Syrian women's solidarity networks in Antakya trouble the prevailing models of feminist solidarity in Turkey, and expand the notion of the political to include material interdependencies that entangle organized acts of care with ambiguity, mistrust, and mutual indifference.
Paper long abstract:
Since the start of the Syrian War in 2011, Turkish-Syrian border cities have been home to over two million refugees. Drawing on ongoing fieldwork in Antakya, the southernmost border city of Turkey with Syria, this paper probes the political possibilities and limits of solidarity as the condition of urban cohabitation between a diverse group of displaced Syrians and Turkish citizens. We ask what solidarity, or lack thereof, signifies for these groups whose lives transcend the right-, status-, or sect-based politics of identity. In particular, we examine Syrian women's solidarity networks that entangle organized acts of support, care, and intimacy with ambiguity, mistrust, or mutual indifference. These networks entail but often also surpass the right-, status-, or sect-based politics of identity underpinning the prevailing models of solidarity and feminist politics in Turkey. Their political significance resides not so much in self-consciously ideological forms of collective action between Syrians and locals, but in their material interdependencies in daily contexts of crisis that frequently traverse the interpersonal, institutional, and national realms. In expanding the realm of politics beyond formal political institutions and mechanisms, these gendered social spaces require us to think beyond not only the humanitarian and state-centered approaches to refugee resettlement and integration in Turkey, but also the conventional domains and practices of solidarity and political action in feminist circles and beyond.
Paper short abstract:
Proposed paper explores the connections between grassroots initiatives, activism, civil society and politics. By analyzing the campaigns of the new MP's who were (or are) involved in activities related to supporting women's rights it asks the question of the role of female subjectivity in politics.
Paper long abstract:
When analyzing non-governmental civic engagement as a form of resistance towards the hegemony of the state the question of the political involvement of the civil society actors is crucial, especially in a country like Poland, where distrust in mainstream politics seems to fuel the production of new hegemonies. Baldez in her work on women's movements points out that the emergence of women's protest relates to the exclusion within the [political] opposition (2003: 258). Last elections proved that there is a space in the mainstream politics for MP's who openly refer to the female subject - some of the 21 Left MP's in the current Polish parliament were (or are) involved in activities related to supporting women's rights, lobbying for more feminist approaches or working in NGO's dealing with women's issues. By analyzing the speeches and interviews with those left MP's who have had an experience with the nongovernmental activism, feminist actions or organizing the black protest (2016-2018) I try to answer the question of the conscious female subjectivity in its role in the last parliamentary elections in Poland. This paper also explores the ways those MP's position themselves in the mainstream politics by using their "civic female engagement" experience. Simultaneously, by using the example of MP's who are rooted in the civil society, this paper asks the question about the interconnections between mainstream politics and civil society and tries to explore it beyond the commonly perceived binary opposition: politician - activist.