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Beyond Citizenship? Feminism and the Transformation of Belonging pushes debates about citizenship and feminist politics in new directions, challenging us to think 'beyond citizenship', and to engage in feminist re-theorizations of the experience and politics of belonging

Beyond Citizenship? Feminism and the Transformation of Belonging pushes debates about citizenship and feminist politics in new directions, challenging us to think 'beyond citizenship', and to engage in feminist re-theorizations of the experience and politics of belonging. Citizenship is a troubling proposition for feminism -- promising inclusion yet always enacting exclusions. This book asks whether citizenship is a worthwhile object for feminist politics and scholarship, or whether we should find a different language to express our desires to belong, and alternative means to enact our yearnings for equality, justice and reciprocity. Grounded in feminist perspectives that emphasize the importance of affect, subjectivity, embodiment and the collective, it offers important new analyses of the state of citizenship and meanings of belonging in the contemporary globalizing world. This book is key reading for scholars and students of citizenship, social movements, and feminist and gender theory from a wide range of disciplines, including art practice, comparative literature, gender studies, philosophy, political theory, psychosocial studies, social policy, socio-legal studies, and sociology.

"Dieser Aufsatz greift auf Ergebnisse zurück, die für das britische Forschungsprogramm 'The ESRC Research Group for the Study of Care, Values and the Future of Welfare' erarbeitet wurden. In diesem Programm ging es uns darum, Veränderungen der Praxis und der normativen Einstellungen im Bereich der Fürsorge zu untersuchen. Den Hintergrund der Fragestellung bildeten die jüngsten Debatten über die Individualisierung und die mit ihr verbundenen langfristigen Entwicklungen in den Geschlechterbeziehungen und Mustern der Familienbildung. Die vorliegenden Ausführungen basieren auf dem 'Friendship and Non-Conventional Partnership Project'. Dieses Teilprojekt des Forschungsprogramms war darauf angelegt, auch die psychischen und affektiven Dimensionen der Fürsorge sowie unkonventionelle, antiheteronormative Fürsorgepraktiken zu erforschen, die von der Soziologie bislang weitgehend ausgeblendet worden sind. Der theoretische Rahmen des Projekts wurde in der Auseinandersetzung mit soziologischen Theorien der Individualisierung und mit psychoanalytisch informierten psychosozialen Studien gewonnen. Auf der Grundlage einer psychoanalytischen Ontologie untersuchte das Projekt in einer psychosozial ausgerichteten qualitativen Längsschnittstudie Menschen, die als 'besonders individualisiert' gelten können, weil sie nicht in ehelichen Paarbeziehungen zusammenleben." (Autorenreferat)

The contemporary normative model of sexual/ love relationships assumes a teleology in which some time after getting together two people instantiate their state of coupledom by moving in together. As a consequence, those who do not cohabit with a partner are generally thought not to be coupled. Social researchers have largely shared this understanding of intimate relationships, operating with a tripartite model of relationships in which people are single, cohabiting or married. This paper seeks to unpick the assumed contiguity of coupledom and cohabitation, and to deconstruct the category of 'single'. It draws on data from an intensive investigation of the relationship experiences, practices and values of people who are not living with a partner. It starts with a discussion of the prevalence of not living with a partner, offering a commentary on recent demographic data and quantitative research. It then sets out the methodology used in research, and describes the sample, before exploring the diverse practices of partnership and orientations towards (non) cohabitation of those interviewees who were in non-residential couple relationships. Three main orientations are identified amongst the partnered (living apart together, or LAT) interviewees: living apart regretfully; living apart gladly and living apart undecidedly. The individual and relational contexts of these orientations are then discussed.

This paper sets out an argument for the re-imagining of care in social policy on three interrelated grounds: epistemological–theoretical, substantive socio-historical, and normative political–philosophical. It takes up the epistemological challenge offered by queer theory to propose a different gaze be cast on care which recognizes the practices of care which take place outside normative heterosexual couples and families. Following on from this, it suggests that the care that has been the object of study in social policy has failed to keep up with transformations in the realm of sociability which characterize the contemporary world. It outlines findings of research which show the increasing importance of friendship to those at the cutting edge of processes of individualization. Finally, it points to the new and valuable lens that the study of caring practices of friends might cast on the ethics of care, and it ends with some pointers to what it might mean for social policy to take friendship seriously.

'an understanding of virtually any aspect of modern Western culture must be, not merely incomplete, but damaged in its central substance to the degree that it does not incorporate a critical analysis of modern home/heterosexual definition'

This article aims to extend the theorization of postmodernity to consider social changes in the realm of sexuality. It offers a discussion of recent developments in queer theory, which, it is argued, can contribute significant new theoretical frameworks for the analysis of sexuality. It then traces some of the shifts in the organization of sexuality in the second half of the twentieth century, the emergence of modern sexual identities, and the changing relationships between 'the homosexual' and 'the heterosexual', as categories, identities and ways of life. The article then outlines what are conceptualized as the 'queer tendencies' of postmodernity, which it is suggested characterize the contemporary re-organization of relations of sexuality. These queer tendencies are: queer auto-critique, the decentring of heterorelations, the emergence of hetero-reflexivity, and the cultural valorizing of the queer.

In the context of consciousness & identity formation, subjective & cognitive aspects of feminist political action are explored, drawing on participant observation, interviews with 35 women, & media representations of the Women's Peace Camp at Greenham Common, England, which drew several hundred thousand women into feminist & antimilitarist activism in the 1980s. The media tended to characterize the camp as, at best, a form of maternalist & essentialist politics &, at worst, an antifeminist threat to women's liberation. However, it is argued that the actions of women at this camp constituted a powerful challenge to hegemonic constructions of women. Greenham is described as an arena in which alternative conceptions of women were practiced, & a sense of individual & collective agency was formed. The construction of lesbian identities & their unique role at the camp are considered in terms of their identities & the positive meaning attributed to lesbianism. It is concluded that the new identity of woman created at Greenham was closely connected to the possibility of new identities as lesbians. 32 References. D. M. Smith

This collection explores the contested meanings and diverse practices of social research in the context of contemporary theoretical debates in cultural and social theory, addressing fundamental questions facing those working in the social and human sciences today

Social Research after the Cultural Turn explores the contested meanings and diverse practices of social research in the context of contemporary theoretical debates in cultural and social theory. It addresses fundamental questions facing those working in the social and human sciences today. What are the possibilities, and challenges, for social research after the 'cultural turn'? How have the epistemological and political contexts of social research changed? Can we still define a distinct sphere of 'the social' to research? What distinguishes social research from cultural studies and the humanities? What methodologies might critical social research employ, and in what registers should it operate? Social Research after the Cultural Turn brings together leading scholars from a range of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields - including gender and feminist studies, psychosocial studies and psychoanalysis, religious studies, history, development studies, law, critical race and post-colonial studies, and sociology.