Call for submission

While the first two biennials were mainly dedicated to the gender issue, it seems appropriate that questions on sexualities – a scientific topic still barely tackled in French human and social sciences in general but in geography in particular, should be condensed during the 3rd biennial Masculine/Feminine organized by UMR 6590 ESO at the University of Angers the 16th and 17th December 2014.

Indeed, during the second biennial in particular organized in Grenoble in 2012, numerous presentations highlighted the perpetuation of the effects of gender domination and the key role of heteronormativity in regard to the access for all to places and their resources and the opportunity to move around on various scales. Those different results stressed the importance of the thoroughgoing questioning of the relations between space and sexualities.

Even though sexuality is everywhere every time relating to both intimacy and “extimacy”, politics and biology, sexuality studies have only been approached from the standpoint of social norms and deviance. However, for many years philosophers, psychoanalysts, sociologists and historians have shown how essential the display of sexuality is in the construction of social realities. And if coercive measures were implemented in all societies –  for if societies cannot exist without sexualities, they cannot dispense with the control of sexualities – there remain to a large extent different forms of these measures to be studied  in this day and age (marriage, heteronormativity, masculine domination, diverse discriminations,...).

It has to be noted that research, particularly in geography, has been barely interested so far in sexual behaviors and differences by way of explanation, especially in comparison with more "classical" indicators (social, demographic, economic indicators...). Although there has been an unquestionable and very promising evolution for a few years, it remains true that the knowledge of sexualities with regard to space is sparse – and not only in southern countries where there is often a lack of information. That knowledge and our reflections on discrimination, violence and deviance are still strongly correlated whereas a scientific approach exempt from normative ideologies would probably allow for efficient analysis why there are collective resistances to sexual diversities. Besides, we are firmly convinced that space and places are important factors to explain sexual behaviors and the construction of sexual identities and their unceasing evolution.

That is the reason why this moment seems favorable to organize a major scientific event in order to rectify the prevailing views on space, especially in urban areas and debunk truisms. Thus, both experienced and young researchers and their studies on the relations between sexualities and space carried out in France or abroad would be more noticeable. Besides, it will be the first important meeting on this topic for French geographers. This international symposium, which will have a set of plenary sessions and work groups, has several goals: contribute to the national and international recognition of studies on sexualities in France and show how diverse they can be, facilitate the coordination between institutions carrying out these studies and initiate new partnerships, promote and raise the profile of new themes and interdisciplinary approaches within human and social sciences.

Not only is this call for abstracts intended for geographers but also all the researchers interested in the relation between sexualities and space: sociologists, urban planners, architects, historians, psychologists, anthropologists, economists, political scientists... The contributors shall propose case studies, theoretical and conceptual reflections, or emphasize methodological inputs due to the complexity of the facts to comprehend. Young researchers and PhD students are strongly invited to present abstracts, posters, movies and/or other performances. Questions on inequalities and discriminations, norms and taboos, in an interdisciplinary way in particular, are requested and so are theoretical questions on desire and pleasure for instance, the reason for curbing them and their major social roles.

Many scopes of research are listed but this list is by no means exhaustive:

• Sexualities, norms and taboos: territorialization from above – institutional actors, sexualities and cultural and religious contexts, urban policies on sexualities, role of legal measures on public and private space and control of the public space, invisibilization of the "submissive", place of "deviance" in cities, ...

• Sexualities and spatial justice: spatiality of social relations regarding sex and masculine domination, negotiation between the norms and the place of "other people", the right to centrality and visibility for all, residential migrations regarding sexuality, sexual identities and mobility, primacy of  big cities,..

• Sexualities and appropriation of public space: territorialization from the bottom and collective creation of ephemeral places, modes of the constitution of a  "spatial capital", the eroticization of space and changing geography of pleasures, transgression of the common use of public space (cruising, stripping, anonymous sexual interactions, libertinism,...), mobile and/or interrelated spatial practices, ...

• Sexualities and "elsewhere" : relations between postcolonial areas and the North/South domination, globalization and harmonization of sexual practices and representations (hybridization of global and local features), search for a "paradise lost" (honeymoon, romance tourism, gay tourism, spring break,...) and creation of sexual heterotopias, exoticization, colonization and eroticization of the "other one" and their body, homonationalism,...

• Sexualities and physical or symbolical violence: phobias related to sexualities, traffic in the commercialization of bodies and sex, sexual harassment and violence, forced prostitution, rape as weapon of war, sex tourism, forced marriage and polygamy, spatiality of STIs/STDs and stigmatization of the sick, ...

• Sexualities and innovations: spatial impact of new modes of unions (civil partnership, marriage equality, new forms of relationships and sexual intercourses...) and new technological devices (new ways of socialization, new sexual fantasies, modification of the perception of space with geolocalization, new ways of meeting people via the Internet, cybersex,...)

   

You must have or set up an account to propose a contribution. 

Proposal submission policies:  2,000-3,000 characters (no references), a short introduction of the contributor(s) and, if applicable, the mention of the affiliated institution they are assigned to and their contact information.

Posters presentation policies: 1,000 characters to introduce the key question, a short introduction of the author(s) and, if applicable, the mention of the affiliated institution and contact information.

Full paper policies: 30,000 characters (tables or images do not count).

Deadline for the submission of proposals: May 30, 2014 on this platform (click on "Submit" in "My space").

Deadline for the submission of full papers: November 10, 2014 on this platform (click on "Submit" in "My space").

Scientific coordinator of the symposium: Stéphane Leroy, geography professor, UMR CNRS 6590 ESO, Angers.