Journal
SEXUALITIES
Volume -, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/13634607231221993
Keywords
Belonging; community; lesbian; participatory mapping; queer space; urban
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This paper presents findings from a project exploring how lesbians make community in Southampton. The study used collaborative participatory mapping techniques and found a diffuse and multi-layered understanding of lesbian community in the city. The paper focuses on crafting 'safe' spaces, terminology, and finding and creating places of community. It concludes that finding an explicitly lesbian identity space can be fraught but is deeply valued and carefully negotiated. Collaborative mapping is shown to be a valuable tool for inclusive research into LGBTQ communities and spaces.
This paper presents findings from a project exploring how lesbians make community in the 'ordinary city' of Southampton on the South coast of England. In the context of trans-exclusionary debates and the supposed demise of lesbian spaces, we sought to discover how self-identified lesbian people in Southampton conceptualised the location and boundaries of their community. The study used collaborative participatory mapping techniques, which resulted in a diffuse and multi-layered understanding of lesbian community in the city. The paper focuses on three key themes: (1) crafting 'safe' spaces; (2) terminology: naming 'lesbians' and (3) finding and creating places of community. The paper concludes that finding a space to articulate an explicitly lesbian identity can be fraught, but is deeply valued, continually becoming, and carefully negotiated both between peers and within urban space. Collaborative mapping is shown as a valuable tool in delivering more inclusive participatory research that can help foster transformative and emancipatory research into LGBTQ communities and spaces.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available