Queer temporality

We are pleased to announce the publication of the report Families of Choice in Poland. Family Life of Non-heterosexual Persons prepared by Prof. Joanna Mizielińska, Marta Abramowicz, and Agata Stasińska.

In the quantitative part of the research team approached 3038 people from all over Poland of various ages (between 18 and 61 years of age), living in relationships of various duration (from 6 months to 42 years). 9% of the respondents live in families with children (from one to four children). It is the first time so much data concerning children raised by non-heterosexual people was collected.

Perhaps some of the most interesting recent developments in queer studies are those books criticizing the U.S. American bias within the discipline (e.g. Hemmings 2007; Mizielinska 2010; Downing and Gillett 2011), and a move towards embracing "non-Western" geographical others (e.g. Patton and Sánchez-Eppler 2000; Altman 2001; Cruz-Malavé and Manalansan 2002; Binnie 2004). But as much as these steps are welcomed, we should also notice the limitations of these advances, specifically the predominant focus on the "post-colonial" cultures. Working with/in the "Central and Eastern European" ("CEE") geo-temporal paradigm, we feel that there is more to the "non-West" than just "post-colonial". Consequently, we want to focus this chapter on the exploration of sexual politics in "CEE", and ponder the queer possibilities of "queer" outside the "Western"/American/English-speaking contexts. As such, this article remains in a dialogue, as much as it is a continuation of a volume "De-Centring Western Sexualities" (2011b) edited by Kulpa and Mizielinska. In this anthology, the gathered authors assessed the current state of knowledge about sexualities outside/within the "West", by focusing on "CEE" examples. In a way, the book attempted to diagnose the over-determination of the queer studies and LGBT activism in "Central and Eastern European" by the "Western"/American historical models. In doing so, although trying to show "what is local", how queer is different in Europe/"CEE" to the "West"/America, the book was more focused on what is lost in the process of differentiation/translation.
The aim of this chapter is to expand on this notion, and search for what can be found in translation that does not exist in either cultural context. Thus we focus on what is brought to life through cultural permeability, exchange, influence, or simple coexistence. The chapter is composed in three parts. Firstly, we provide the reader with a theoretical framework. Secondly, we exemplify the impossibility of the simple cultural translation of "queer" (understood as the predominantly "Western"/American project) into "CEE" realities by analyzing activities of the NGO "Campaign Against Homophobia" (CAH) . Finally, we show strategies that make a productive use of the "locality" in order to mobilize the queer possibilities of activism in "CEE"/Poland, without necessarily attaining to "Western"/American narrations on the example of the on-going campaign "Love Does Not Exclude".

"De-Centring Western Sexualities critically assesses the current state of knowledge about sexualities outside the framings of 'The West', by focusing on gender and sexuality within the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Providing rich case studies drawn from a range of "post-communist" countries, this interdisciplinary volume brings together the latest research on the formation of sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe, alongside analyses of the sexual and national identity politics of the region. Engaged with current debates within queer studies surrounding temporality and knowledge production, and inspired by post-colonial critique, the book problematises the western hegemony that often characterises sexuality studies, and presents local theoretical insights better attuned to their geo-temporal realities. As such, it offers a cultural and social re-evaluation of everyday life experiences, and will be of interest to sociologists, queer studies scholars, geographers and anthropologists.
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Contents:


Introduction: why study sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe;
Contemporary peripheries': queer studies, circulation of knowledge, and East/West divide, Joanna Mizielinska and Robert Kulpa;
Between walls. Provincialisms, human rights, sexualities and Serbian public discourses on EU integration, Jelisaveta Blagojevic;
Nations and sexualities – 'West' and 'East', Robert Kulpa;
A short history of the queer time of 'post-socialist' Romania, or, are we there yet? Let's ask Madonna, Shannon Woodcock;
Travelling ideas, travelling times. On the temporalities of LGBT and queer politics in Poland and in the 'West', Joanna Mizielinska;
Researching transnational activism around LGBTQ politics in Central and Eastern Europe: activist solidarities and spatial imaginings, Jon Binnie and Christian Klesse;
Rendering gender in lesbian families: a Czech case, Katerina Nedbálková;
The heteronormative panopticon and the transparent closet of the public space in Slovenia, Roman Kuhar;
Heteronormativity, intimate citizenship and the regulation of same-sex sexualities in Bulgaria, Sasha Roseneil and Maryia Stoilova;
Situating intimate citizenship in Macedonia – emotional navigation and everyday queer/KVAR grounded moralities, Alexander Lambevski;
Index.
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Reviews:

'De-Centring Western Sexualities advances critical studies of sexualities and sexual politics in significant and inspiring ways. The authors provocatively question the "Western" focus of sexuality studies and highlight the consequences of Central and Eastern Europe's absence from recent queer critiques. This valuable collection offers essential new perspectives on the marketization of (homo)sexuality and the functioning of heteronormativity in these countries.'

Gavin Brown, University of Leicester, UK, co-editor of Geographies of Sexualities

'De-Centring Western Sexualities is a landmark volume in the study of gender and sexuality. Kulpa and Mizielinska have gathered here and framed some of the very best essays on discourses of sexuality in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Not content to simply mark distinctions between East and West, the US and the rest, local and global, the editors' introduction and many of the essays here actually retheorize concepts of temporality, spatiality and sociality in the process of asking after the meaning of sexuality outside of its framing in "the West". Ranging in topic from heteronormativity to lesbian families, from transnational activism to queer temporalities and combining social science methodologies with theoretical inquiries, this collection is as broad as it is deep and it creates many new contexts for rethinking sexuality and de-centering the West.'

Judith Halberstam, University of Southern California, USA, author of In a Queer Time and Place

'There are few publications of which one could say one had waited for them to appear for ten years. This is even less the case with regard to academic publications. This moment of enthusiasm results from the fusion of geo-political, temporal and activist criticism in the book 'De-centring Western sexualities', edited by Robert Kulpa and Joanna Mizielinska. The book explores the question of the relationship of Western European and so-called post-communist countries to sexual politics. While there may have been continuous, emancipatory developments in LGBTIQ politics in west Europe, all activist strategies and all theoretical developments seem to have coincidentally impacted on the diverse communities of the East since the fall of the wall. Robert Kulpa and Joanna Mizielinska literally talk of a 'knot' of geo-temporal coincidences which spilled over the wall: homophile movements, identity-political gay and lesbian organisations which are primarily interested in legal equality and inclusion into a (hetero) normality, as much as queer approaches and groups, which are less interested in assimilation than for the destabilisation of societal walls. (...) This is a necessary book which achieves to document the complex nature of hegemonic structures in a way that allows to unsettle the representation of 'inside and outside'.
Marty Huber (2011), 'Shaking (Stone-) Wall. An (East) enlarged, decentralising book review'. Kulturisse. Zeitschrift für radikaldemokratische Kulturepolitik. No. 1 2001, (IG Kultur Österreich), pp. 20-21.
   
'The dual timelines of development between the Queer movements in Western and Central/Eastern Europe's mean that polarized nationalism(s), the desire(s) for cultural independence(s), differing political loyalties, and differences in language, culture, and legislation further complicate the idea of complete homogeneity in European Queer activist movements. This socio-political soup seems to ensure that the lived experiences of Queer citizens in neighboring countries can be almost completely oppositional. Coupled with huge differences in the rights for men and women, and considering how this interacts with the positioning of rights in regards to intimate citizenship, 'De-centering Western Sexualities' is a necessary academic ear trumpet for us to learn to listen in, for particular ideas present in cacophony of 'Western' Queer voices that are shouting out for their rights. (...) 'De-centering Western Sexualities' gives an excellent insight and attempts a historical overview which asks academics to consider dual timelines of development, for which without an understanding of, the current conflicts within specific European Queer cultures and movements appear overly confusing and incongruent.'
Stefanie Petrik (2011), 'Go West: Queer in Europe and De-Centring Western Sexualities'. Media and Culture Reviews (online).
   
'The editors make a good effort to shatter and rebuild reader's assumptions about the CEE region, which has experienced a "tectonic restructuring" since 1989. They do that in particular by complicating the ideas about European time and space. How come, for example, that we don't think of Germany as a post-communist European country? While doing that they are also able to give some (indispensable) remediation about the geo-spatial and geo-political context the individual texts explore in more details. (...) All in all the collection De-Centring Western Sexualities managed to provide a host of unpredictable angles and new information. While doing that it was also able to inspire some thrilling ideas to be incorporated in novel research projects – something most of the Western queer anthologies that evoke only the "been there, done that" sentiment fail to do. Hence I would suggest that you not just read the volume when you have time, but actually make time to read what Central and Eastern European perspectives could offer you in terms of revitalizing queer theory.'
Tuula Juvonen (2011), 'Where Stonewall Never Happened': Theorizing Queer in Central and Eastern Europe'. SQS Journal of Queer Studies in Finland, No 2.
   
De-Centering Western Sexualities is a valuable and overdue collection of ten essays which address non-normative sexualities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual/transgender and queer (LGBTQ) activisms and politics in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) context. The book’s relevance is two-fold. On the one hand, it provides theoretical and analytical tools to critically assess the hegemony and influence of “Western” knowledge production in relation to (homo)sexual identities, communities and practices in CEE. On the other hand, by presenting intrinsic examples and local case studies of sexual politics, the volume marks a significant step in the theory production of queer and sexuality studies. (...)
Amir Hodžic (2011), 'Review of De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Südosteuropa. Zeitschrift für Politik und Gesellschaft, Issue 59.

OTHER REVIEWS:
Richard C.M. Mole (2012), 'Review: De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Slavonic and East European Review, Vol 90, No 3, pp. 590-592.

Emma Spruce (2012), 'review of de-centring western sexualities: Central and Eastern European perspectives'. Feminist Review', Vol 101, No 1, pp. e3-e4.

Subhadra Mitra Channa (2012), 'Review: De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Anthropological Notebooks, Vol XVIII, Issue 1, pp. 109-110.

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FOR SAMPLE CHAPTERS PLS VISIT:
http://robertkulpa.com/index.php?/published-articles/books/

CONTENTS:
http://robertkulpa.com/images/stories/docs/De_Centring_Western_Sexualities_TOC.pdf

INTRODUCTION:
http://robertkulpa.com/images/stories/docs/De_Centring_Western_Sexualities_Intro.pdf

INDEX:
http://robertkulpa.com/images/stories/docs/De_Centring_Western_Sexualities_Index.pdf""

Following debates surrounding the anti-social turn in queer theory in recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the role of activism, the limits of the political, and the question of normativity and ethics. Queer Futures engages with these concerns, exploring issues of complicity and agency with a central focus on the material and economic as well as philosophical dimensions of sexual politics. Presenting some of the latest research in queer theory, this book draws together diverse perspectives to shed light on possible ‘queer futures’ when different affective, temporal, and local contexts are brought into play. As such, it will appeal to scholars of cultural, political, literary, and social theory, as well as those with interests in gender and sexuality, activism, and queer theory.