Radboud University Nijmegen
Human Geography
Human mobility does not occur without social and spatial friction. This is particularly articulated in the context of an increasing securisation of migration whereby states and supra-states tend to frame international migration as a... more
Human mobility does not occur without social and spatial friction. This is particularly articulated in the context of an increasing securisation of migration whereby states and supra-states tend to frame international migration as a homeland security problem, leading to enhanced border control and the combatting of human smuggling, normalized in the everyday of host societies through television reality programmes like Border Security (Australia), UK Border Force, etc. At the same time, human right organisations and critical scholars have emphasized the human insecurity involved with migration flows and point to the countless deaths of innocent people simply looking for better futures abroad (Ferrer-Gallardo and Van Houtum 2014) as well as the exploitative acts of corrupt border guards and smugglers that are hereby produced (e.g. Triulzi and McKenzie 2012; Van Reisen, Estefanos and Rijken 2014). Moreover, when we look at the dynamics in the destination countries, we see that migrants continue to find themselves in precarious social-economic conditions and legal situations (Schuster 2005; Lucht 2012) with a substantial number of migrants facing the risk of deportation every single day (De Genova and Preutz 2010). Other forms of friction exist in the transnational space between the country of origin and destination locations. The frictions produced concern, among others, contestations over dual citizenship versus senses of loyalty, and the political engagement of diaspora communities on site and elsewhere. Moreover, migrant investments may reproduce, or even exacerbate social inequalities and divisions in countries of origin, not least if they are based on persistent social and cultural obligations.
Yet, the notion of friction is not to be understood in a negative manner only. Frictions can also have profound effects, resulting in new societal directions, or in affirmations of particular social institutions, creating incentives that may be sustainable, because of the hard questions asked on their role and impact along the way. Yet in all cases it does require critical thinking, and analyses that take on various perspectives, are steeped in insights of more holistic developments (geo-political, economic or otherwise), and which maintain an open perspective to temporal and spatial dimensions. This conference consists of the following eight different panels.
Yet, the notion of friction is not to be understood in a negative manner only. Frictions can also have profound effects, resulting in new societal directions, or in affirmations of particular social institutions, creating incentives that may be sustainable, because of the hard questions asked on their role and impact along the way. Yet in all cases it does require critical thinking, and analyses that take on various perspectives, are steeped in insights of more holistic developments (geo-political, economic or otherwise), and which maintain an open perspective to temporal and spatial dimensions. This conference consists of the following eight different panels.
YOU ARE BUT YOU ARE NOT è un’audioguida sul tema dei confini e dell’ospitalità. Il testo trilingue, suddiviso in tre capitoli, è stato concepito come una traccia audio permanente per la città di Bolzano. YOU ARE BUT YOU ARE NOT è un... more
YOU ARE BUT YOU ARE NOT è un’audioguida sul tema dei confini
e dell’ospitalità. Il testo trilingue, suddiviso in tre capitoli, è stato
concepito come una traccia audio permanente per la città di Bolzano.
YOU ARE BUT YOU ARE NOT è un progetto di Kolar Aparna, geografa,
e Beatrice Catanzaro, artista, curato e prodotto da Lungomare
nell’ambito della residenza di ricerca artistica 2016-2017. Il
testo dell’audioguida è stato scritto in collaborazione con la drammaturga
Elena Pugliese.
YOU ARE BUT YOU ARE NOT interseca l’indagine teorica sul fenomeno
della migrazione con una pratica di produzione artistica
partecipativa. È il risultato di un processo di analisi e di lavoro
condiviso con rappresentanti delle organizzazioni impegnate nell’accoglienza
sul territorio, migranti, attivisti, studiosi e politici.
L’audioguida segue un itinerario nello spazio pubblico della città
di Bolzano. Inizia alla stazione ferroviaria, prosegue lungo i “margini”
della città attraverso l’area della stazione e si conclude nel
parco Rosegger, davanti alla questura.
Il testo che segue esplora alcune delle intenzioni, intuizioni e immagini
che ci hanno guidato attraverso il processo di ricerca e produzione svolto a Bolzano in seguito all’invito, da parte dell’associazione
Lungomare, ad affrontare il tema della migrazione in relazione
al confine italo-austriaco in Sud Tirolo.
e dell’ospitalità. Il testo trilingue, suddiviso in tre capitoli, è stato
concepito come una traccia audio permanente per la città di Bolzano.
YOU ARE BUT YOU ARE NOT è un progetto di Kolar Aparna, geografa,
e Beatrice Catanzaro, artista, curato e prodotto da Lungomare
nell’ambito della residenza di ricerca artistica 2016-2017. Il
testo dell’audioguida è stato scritto in collaborazione con la drammaturga
Elena Pugliese.
YOU ARE BUT YOU ARE NOT interseca l’indagine teorica sul fenomeno
della migrazione con una pratica di produzione artistica
partecipativa. È il risultato di un processo di analisi e di lavoro
condiviso con rappresentanti delle organizzazioni impegnate nell’accoglienza
sul territorio, migranti, attivisti, studiosi e politici.
L’audioguida segue un itinerario nello spazio pubblico della città
di Bolzano. Inizia alla stazione ferroviaria, prosegue lungo i “margini”
della città attraverso l’area della stazione e si conclude nel
parco Rosegger, davanti alla questura.
Il testo che segue esplora alcune delle intenzioni, intuizioni e immagini
che ci hanno guidato attraverso il processo di ricerca e produzione svolto a Bolzano in seguito all’invito, da parte dell’associazione
Lungomare, ad affrontare il tema della migrazione in relazione
al confine italo-austriaco in Sud Tirolo.
Emerging from a discomfort with the blind spots encountered within and across theorizations of language and space in the field of human geography, in this article, we argue for “making space” for conceptualizations that speak from and... more
Emerging from a discomfort with the blind spots encountered within and across
theorizations of language and space in the field of human geography, in this article, we argue for “making space” for conceptualizations that speak from and through the everyday territories of migrants in Europe today. Inspired by a range of writers thinking postcolonially and multi/trans-lingually, the authors draw on their own embodied migrant experience to argue for re-envisioning Europe’s borders through multiple languaging practices. “Languaging”, in this view, takes linguistic practices in a migrant context as an inherently prosthetic activity, whereby any dominant, national host language is inevitably subject to the subterranean rumblings of all the languages a migrant brings with her on her global journeys. Conceived as being saturated with prosthetic “absence(s)”, migrant languaging practices rework cultural geography’s bounded, inward-looking, and security-fixated understanding of the language/territory nexus, the better to open a vital space for re-envisioning language’s everyday territories as sites for translational solidarity and becoming.
theorizations of language and space in the field of human geography, in this article, we argue for “making space” for conceptualizations that speak from and through the everyday territories of migrants in Europe today. Inspired by a range of writers thinking postcolonially and multi/trans-lingually, the authors draw on their own embodied migrant experience to argue for re-envisioning Europe’s borders through multiple languaging practices. “Languaging”, in this view, takes linguistic practices in a migrant context as an inherently prosthetic activity, whereby any dominant, national host language is inevitably subject to the subterranean rumblings of all the languages a migrant brings with her on her global journeys. Conceived as being saturated with prosthetic “absence(s)”, migrant languaging practices rework cultural geography’s bounded, inward-looking, and security-fixated understanding of the language/territory nexus, the better to open a vital space for re-envisioning language’s everyday territories as sites for translational solidarity and becoming.
- by Kolar Aparna and +1
- •
- Social Sciences
At a time of heightened anxiety, fear and need to fix «the Other» – the Stranger – in place occasioned by unprecedented inflows of refugees into Europe, we pose the question to what extent, and in what productive manner, Europe might... more
At a time of heightened anxiety, fear and need to fix «the Other» – the Stranger
– in place occasioned by unprecedented inflows of refugees into Europe, we
pose the question to what extent, and in what productive manner, Europe
might «get lost» in the world today. Starting from a fraught moment of racialized
interrogation of supposedly «mistaken identity/location» experienced by
one of the authors along the Dutch/German border of Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
and Kleve (Germany), we contextualize such an encounter within a
modernist tradition of Situationist dérive, the better to tease out the political
potentiality inherent in the act of «getting lost» in an urbanized cross-border
region such as the one we collectively inhabit. Placing intra-European
avant-garde spatial practices critical of capitalist modernity in dialogue with
postcolonial writings on 18th-century slave maroon societies at the so-called
peripheries of European empire, we explore to what extent the act of «getting
lost» conjoined with «going maroon» may be recuperated today by refugee
and migrant solidarity groups within Europe’s borderlands so as to open up
emotional pathways beyond fear, partition, isolation and the need for purified
spaces of security. To empirically substantiate our argument, we build on a
multitude of everyday spatial practices of migrant solidarity networks in which
we are actively engaged astride our Dutch/German border. We conclude by
re-positioning a 17th century «Map of Love» (inspirational to the Situationists) through a maroon border lens to imagine futuristic territories of Lost
Europe(s).
– in place occasioned by unprecedented inflows of refugees into Europe, we
pose the question to what extent, and in what productive manner, Europe
might «get lost» in the world today. Starting from a fraught moment of racialized
interrogation of supposedly «mistaken identity/location» experienced by
one of the authors along the Dutch/German border of Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
and Kleve (Germany), we contextualize such an encounter within a
modernist tradition of Situationist dérive, the better to tease out the political
potentiality inherent in the act of «getting lost» in an urbanized cross-border
region such as the one we collectively inhabit. Placing intra-European
avant-garde spatial practices critical of capitalist modernity in dialogue with
postcolonial writings on 18th-century slave maroon societies at the so-called
peripheries of European empire, we explore to what extent the act of «getting
lost» conjoined with «going maroon» may be recuperated today by refugee
and migrant solidarity groups within Europe’s borderlands so as to open up
emotional pathways beyond fear, partition, isolation and the need for purified
spaces of security. To empirically substantiate our argument, we build on a
multitude of everyday spatial practices of migrant solidarity networks in which
we are actively engaged astride our Dutch/German border. We conclude by
re-positioning a 17th century «Map of Love» (inspirational to the Situationists) through a maroon border lens to imagine futuristic territories of Lost
Europe(s).
Speaking from our recent engagements (peaking in early 2015) in student struggles on campus (as part of transnational movements resisting financialisation of knowledge production and non-transparent managerial structures of... more
Speaking from our recent engagements (peaking in early 2015) in student struggles on campus (as part of transnational movements resisting financialisation of knowledge production and non-transparent managerial structures of universities), alongside struggles demanding equal rights for and by newly arriving asylum-seekers and long-staying undocumented inhabitants across our borderlands (straddling the Dutch/German border), we develop what we call an ‘asylum university lens’. Rather than simply being associated with confinement, asylum serves as a symbolic and powerful metaphor for speaking from a space of refuge. In a similar way, where the university is more often associated with the closed-off ‘ivory tower’, this reconceptualisation enables it to serve as a space of solidarity for knowledge exchange. In this way, everyday interactions of classroom debates and academic writing processes emerge as embodied conversations, relationalities (also part of conflicts, tensions and paradoxes as much as of affective ties) and transformations both on campus and outside in a global context of migration and cross-border movements of refugees. Using such a lens gives us power to call attention to the instability and uncertainty of borders and boundaries while acting and situating knowledge production from such embodied relationalities that are nevertheless sensitive to differential privileges and conflicting ambitions.
Hospitality as a notion has emerged as a critical philosophical category in human geography for addressing various issues around asylum migration and citizenship. In this paper, we identify two major limitations of empirical studies... more
Hospitality as a notion has emerged as a critical philosophical category in human geography for addressing various issues around asylum migration and citizenship. In this paper, we identify two major limitations of empirical studies focusing on hospitality in this context. First, empirical studies tend to investigate relations
between pre-known guests (“migrants”) and pre-defined hosts (states, local organisations, activist movements, churches), thereby overlooking shifting dynamics of social relations. Second, although critical geographers have emphasised a relational sense of place in their empirical discussions on hospitality (in the context of asylum migration), observations are mostly place-based and focus on how different cities or organisations provide hospitality (or not). To re-think hospitality, we instead start from negotiating our own practices as researchers in relation with actors in the field of refugee support, actively forging and navigating shifts in these relations,
thereby creating action research processes under the title of ‘Asylum University’. In so doing, we re-position Derrida’s concept of ‘cities of refuge’ in the in-between spaces of shifting roles, (un)certain (im)mobilities, border-crossings and tensed emotional geometries that intertwine in an entangled web of hospitality, in ways that are yet-to-be-known. In other words, we challenge researchers that investigate hospitality in the context of asylum migration to apply a process geographical approach that actively follows guest-host relations (including the ones they become entangled with) instead of freezing them in time and space. This allows for an approach that is more self-critical and sensitive to what we call “asylumscapes” - the dynamic processes of refugee hospitality.
between pre-known guests (“migrants”) and pre-defined hosts (states, local organisations, activist movements, churches), thereby overlooking shifting dynamics of social relations. Second, although critical geographers have emphasised a relational sense of place in their empirical discussions on hospitality (in the context of asylum migration), observations are mostly place-based and focus on how different cities or organisations provide hospitality (or not). To re-think hospitality, we instead start from negotiating our own practices as researchers in relation with actors in the field of refugee support, actively forging and navigating shifts in these relations,
thereby creating action research processes under the title of ‘Asylum University’. In so doing, we re-position Derrida’s concept of ‘cities of refuge’ in the in-between spaces of shifting roles, (un)certain (im)mobilities, border-crossings and tensed emotional geometries that intertwine in an entangled web of hospitality, in ways that are yet-to-be-known. In other words, we challenge researchers that investigate hospitality in the context of asylum migration to apply a process geographical approach that actively follows guest-host relations (including the ones they become entangled with) instead of freezing them in time and space. This allows for an approach that is more self-critical and sensitive to what we call “asylumscapes” - the dynamic processes of refugee hospitality.
Les territoires frontaliers entre les États-Unis et le Mexique forment une scène grandiose pour l'expérimentation géopolitique contemporaine. Des développements paradoxaux tels que les accords bi ou internationaux sur l'intégration... more
Les territoires frontaliers entre les États-Unis et le Mexique forment
une scène grandiose pour l'expérimentation géopolitique contemporaine.
Des développements paradoxaux tels que les accords bi ou internationaux
sur l'intégration économique et la coopération régionale transfrontalière
se font en même temps que la militarisation de ces régions frontalières. Le
processus d'urbanisation rapide de ces régions limitrophes a déclenché
des débats houleux sur le fait que des visions telles que des « villes jumelles », « une métropole transfrontalière », « une ville post-frontalière»
s'appliquent ou non à ces régions. Tandis qu'en effet de telles perspectives
bi-internationales et mondiales soulignent le macro-contexte plus large de
ces régions, elles ont tendance à brouiller ou à marginaliser les forces des
espaces vécus quotidiens. Ce chapitre part d'une critique des visions académiques
« descendantes » (top down) sur les régions frontalières, en
particulier la région de Tijuana-San Diego, pour souligner l'importance
des perspectives du vécu quotidien. À partir des travaux de Lefebvre sur la
vie quotidienne et la trialectique spatiale, de la « fabrique quotidienne de
la géographie » de Benno Werlen et de la méthodologie de Kevin Lynch
sur les cartes mentales, en adoptant en même temps une perspective géopolitique
critique, notre travail suit les cartes mentales des trajets quotidiens,
les microdiscours et les représentations de « la frontière » qu'en ont
ceux qui vivent à Tijuana, dans le cadre de la région frontalière Tijuana-
San Diego. Ainsi, de telles « vues d'en bas » traduisent des processus de
remondialisation (reworlding), des visions recomposées du monde, qui
disloquent avec persistance à la fois les visions stato-centrées et les visions
trans ou post-frontalières des régions frontalières. Cet article appelle à
une nouvelle optique de la frontière, qui se focalise sur les expériences
vécues à la frontière, qui prenne en compte la dialectique des géographies
silencieuses et des mentalités cachées des espaces vécus quotidiens,
face aux pratiques étatiques de fabrique et d'ordonnancement des
frontières (b/ordering), et qui applique cette vision aux urbanismes
(trans)frontaliers.
une scène grandiose pour l'expérimentation géopolitique contemporaine.
Des développements paradoxaux tels que les accords bi ou internationaux
sur l'intégration économique et la coopération régionale transfrontalière
se font en même temps que la militarisation de ces régions frontalières. Le
processus d'urbanisation rapide de ces régions limitrophes a déclenché
des débats houleux sur le fait que des visions telles que des « villes jumelles », « une métropole transfrontalière », « une ville post-frontalière»
s'appliquent ou non à ces régions. Tandis qu'en effet de telles perspectives
bi-internationales et mondiales soulignent le macro-contexte plus large de
ces régions, elles ont tendance à brouiller ou à marginaliser les forces des
espaces vécus quotidiens. Ce chapitre part d'une critique des visions académiques
« descendantes » (top down) sur les régions frontalières, en
particulier la région de Tijuana-San Diego, pour souligner l'importance
des perspectives du vécu quotidien. À partir des travaux de Lefebvre sur la
vie quotidienne et la trialectique spatiale, de la « fabrique quotidienne de
la géographie » de Benno Werlen et de la méthodologie de Kevin Lynch
sur les cartes mentales, en adoptant en même temps une perspective géopolitique
critique, notre travail suit les cartes mentales des trajets quotidiens,
les microdiscours et les représentations de « la frontière » qu'en ont
ceux qui vivent à Tijuana, dans le cadre de la région frontalière Tijuana-
San Diego. Ainsi, de telles « vues d'en bas » traduisent des processus de
remondialisation (reworlding), des visions recomposées du monde, qui
disloquent avec persistance à la fois les visions stato-centrées et les visions
trans ou post-frontalières des régions frontalières. Cet article appelle à
une nouvelle optique de la frontière, qui se focalise sur les expériences
vécues à la frontière, qui prenne en compte la dialectique des géographies
silencieuses et des mentalités cachées des espaces vécus quotidiens,
face aux pratiques étatiques de fabrique et d'ordonnancement des
frontières (b/ordering), et qui applique cette vision aux urbanismes
(trans)frontaliers.
Squatting is often seen as an 'illegal' occupation from a state-centric perspective in terms of not abiding to formal procedures and laws of claiming space. This often leads to a classic purification state policy, in which the... more
Squatting is often seen as an 'illegal' occupation from a state-centric perspective in terms of not abiding to formal procedures and laws of claiming space. This often leads to a classic purification state policy, in which the (undocumented) inhabitant-migrant is unilaterally accused, criminalized and made to feel 'out of place', without looking beyond the binary of state versus migrant, and without critically looking at the state's own practices in systematically reproducing the legal/illegal divide as fixed and static. In this chapter we attempt to deconstruct this postulated illegality of squatting places in a state. We will do so by turning the gaze back to the state. We ask, to what extent may the state lay claim, in today’s globalized and interconnected world, as the only legitimate ‘occupier' of space. What does legality morally mean if this implies a misrecognition, criminalisation, dehumanisation, and even ‘collateral-ising’ the deaths of people who travel without the documents requested by the state, going thereby discriminating between human beings and going against international human rights? What is more, this illegalization by the legal entity of the state is powerful, yet, in reality the difference between legal and illegality is obscured , dynamic, and shifting in practice. For, in daily urban practice the acclaimed illegal migrants are at the same time actively leading and engaged in transnational social movements for the right to 'be here', and are even passively allowed (‘‘gedoogd’’) to make or squat places and seek shelters in cities in which they are often helped and supported by actions of various state citizens and municipalities of that very same state with whom they form lived relations based on solidarity, despite also confronting exclusion, hostility, and rejection at the everyday level . However,we investigate and choose to focus on what we call 'strategies of spatialisations' emerging from everyday relational practices of undocumented migrants alongwith fellow inhabitants that break or go beyond the legal/illegal, inclusion/exclusion binary frameworks of spatial relations. These strategies, we argue, together make up the ‘Undocumented Territories’, the territories created by and for human beings illegalized by states, but which are not on the state map.
- by Henk van Houtum and +1
- •
- Urban Geography, Squatting
Today, images of boundary walls and fences are back on the world’s stage. Cases where walls or fences are being built or planned to be built make borders physical and visible again - In the contemporary geopolitical situation of the... more
Today, images of boundary walls and fences are back on the world’s stage. Cases where walls or fences are being built or planned to be built make borders physical and visible again - In the contemporary geopolitical situation of the world, a hardening of borders is taking place (Paasi, 2009). Not only in a physical sense are borders hardening. In addition to their more frequent physicality, borders are also subject to a less material, rather invisible transformation.
What are the reasons for hardening borders? Who hardens them and how? And, most importantly, what are the consequences of this development? As will be shown is this essay, the practice of hardening in/visible borders has harmful consequences for a large group of people.
What are the reasons for hardening borders? Who hardens them and how? And, most importantly, what are the consequences of this development? As will be shown is this essay, the practice of hardening in/visible borders has harmful consequences for a large group of people.
This paper will embrace the possibility of new insights about today’s world that a look at and from borderlands can provide us with. It is an attempt to scrutinize and bring together borderland stories from the edge, within and beyond... more
This paper will embrace the possibility of new insights about today’s world that a look at and from borderlands can provide us with. It is an attempt to scrutinize and bring together borderland stories from the edge, within and beyond Europe and its nation states. It does so by embedding contemporary bordering practices in a longue duree of bordering practices through reflecting upon how their often neglected colonial past might continue to live on today, by shedding light also on less visible bordering practices and borderlands, and by giving attention to how borderlands are negotiated by people on the on the ground.
Most attention in Berlin goes out either to its history of division between East and West Berlin, or to its diverse, exiting and ´hip´ centre, where ´everything is possible´. Berlins is often presented as ‘the capital of freedom’, a... more
Most attention in Berlin goes out either to its history of division between East and West Berlin, or to its diverse, exiting and ´hip´ centre, where ´everything is possible´. Berlins is often presented as ‘the capital of freedom’, a representation wherein the supposed freedom of today – ‘in all areas and at all levels’ – is opposed to the city’s divided past. When looking closer however, various bordering and ordering dynamics are present on the stage of urban space Berlin. These borders are not as physically present as the past Berlin Wall, but rather they are interwoven into different levels of life in the city, affecting mostly those people that have been living there the longest and those that do not possess much money or the ‘right’ citizenship. Given their invisible nature, it is not only challenging to put a finger on these present b/ordering dynamics and to show their hierarchical, categorical and excluding consequences. Also identifying the various working mechanisms that create, facilitate, sustain or even exacerbate them, asks for a look behind Berlin’s stage into particular policy instruments and strategies, regulations and rhetoric.
This research deals with the multiple present b/ordering dynamics and their working mechanisms in Berlin. Furthermore, it explores creative forms of border deconstruction that can contribute to ´put a finger´ and deal with these complex interwoven dynamics and mechanisms in yet another manner. It does not seek to find precise numbers, but rather it presents stories, opinions and experiences deriving from various places of the city. Used for this aim is a mix of qualitative research methods: ethnographic flâneries, interviews with City Locality Coordinators and various creatives, participations in creative projects, analysations of official Berlin documents and the city website, observations and photography.
The idea is adopted that one should no longer understand the border as a static clear-cut line, but rather as a dynamic process and as a verb; bordering. A process that needs certain symbolisations and imaginations in order to function and have a meaning. By looking at the city as a whole through a border lens, this research provides a unique insight into how developments taking place in different parts of urban space Berlin relate to each other and how various phenomena that are generally studied apart interact, collide and cohere. Rather than zooming into one specific place of phenomenon, it thus offers a look on ´the bigger picture´. Thereby, it sheds light on those developments and dynamics that should gain more attention, because they rather invisibly border and order the various areas and actors on the stage of urban space Berlin today.
This research deals with the multiple present b/ordering dynamics and their working mechanisms in Berlin. Furthermore, it explores creative forms of border deconstruction that can contribute to ´put a finger´ and deal with these complex interwoven dynamics and mechanisms in yet another manner. It does not seek to find precise numbers, but rather it presents stories, opinions and experiences deriving from various places of the city. Used for this aim is a mix of qualitative research methods: ethnographic flâneries, interviews with City Locality Coordinators and various creatives, participations in creative projects, analysations of official Berlin documents and the city website, observations and photography.
The idea is adopted that one should no longer understand the border as a static clear-cut line, but rather as a dynamic process and as a verb; bordering. A process that needs certain symbolisations and imaginations in order to function and have a meaning. By looking at the city as a whole through a border lens, this research provides a unique insight into how developments taking place in different parts of urban space Berlin relate to each other and how various phenomena that are generally studied apart interact, collide and cohere. Rather than zooming into one specific place of phenomenon, it thus offers a look on ´the bigger picture´. Thereby, it sheds light on those developments and dynamics that should gain more attention, because they rather invisibly border and order the various areas and actors on the stage of urban space Berlin today.
In feminist studies, the figure of the mermaid has long been regarded as flawed, disabled and less-than-human. Her theoretical counterpart in that respect would be the cyborg, an image used to show that with the aid of robotics, humankind... more
In feminist studies, the figure of the mermaid has long been regarded as flawed, disabled and less-than-human. Her theoretical counterpart in that respect would be the cyborg, an image used to show that with the aid of robotics, humankind could be larger than life. What would happen if we could combine those two images and apply them to create " super love " more-than-human relationships? This article explores the possibilities of technology for " mermaids " , people who normally fall outside the norm, to satisfy human desires in a new way. Two case studies will be presented, first we will look at people who identify as having ASD (Autism Spectre Disorders) and second we explore the use of technology for people who have BDSM-oriented desires (related to Bondage and Discipline (B&D), Dominance and Submission (D&S), and Sadism and Masochism (S&M)). We briefly discuss the added value of practice theory for exploring how people are altered by technè.
Geographies of sexualities mainly focusses on the lived experiences and sexual identity negotiations of gay men and lesbian women in a society based upon binary divisions of sex, gender, and sexualities. This review article wants to... more
Geographies of sexualities mainly focusses on the lived experiences and sexual identity negotiations of gay men and lesbian women in a society based upon binary divisions of sex, gender, and sexualities. This review article wants to consider a more theoretically informed relational approach to understand the creation and sustaining of the binary system, and the everyday lived experience of bisexuals. This article will review contemporary studies on queer space and studies on the intersections of bisexual theory and queer theory. Drawing inspiration from queer theory, speech act theory, and relational geographies, I propose a focus on encounters, language, embodied practices, and embodied experiences to understand the lives of sexual minorities, and bisexuals in particular. While heteronormativity and monosexuality are important factors (or contexts) in the everyday lived experience, they are not all determining for the everyday experiences of people who desire more-than-one gender.
Open Access
Open Access
Since the 1990s, geographies of sexualities have evolved into a body of work which is able to provide an overview of everyday life experiences of sexual minorities, especially of gay men and lesbians. A review of the literature, however,... more
Since the 1990s, geographies of sexualities have evolved into a body of work which is able to provide an overview of everyday life experiences of sexual minorities, especially of gay men and lesbians. A review of the literature, however, observes that bisexuality is often neglected. I argue that this is the result of an approach to sexualised space that immediately links the sexual coding of space with the dominant sexual identity. This paper aims to theorise bisexual spaces as a result of bisexual practices, which are derived from the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid. I will also stress the importance of linguistic practices in practicing (or doing) bisexuality. This paper concludes with a call to investigate bisexual geographies in the mundane, everyday realities of bisexual citizens.
Open access
Open access
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