Mapping lesbians’ everyday community-making in a small city: (in)visibility, belonging and safety
Mapping lesbians’ everyday community-making in a small city: (in)visibility, belonging and safety
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.
Lesbian community, belonging, participatory mapping, queer space, urban, lesbian, Belonging, community
Reed, Elizabeth
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Paddon, Laura
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Wilkinson, Eleanor
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MacLeod, Cathryn
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Reed, Elizabeth
06fc34da-5626-478a-9c54-327cf6e82f50
Paddon, Laura
16f841fe-388e-4a6e-a93e-a7300ac0191a
Wilkinson, Eleanor
b4e83f65-1c06-4c86-b70c-4cd307d2738a
MacLeod, Cathryn
011907d2-b446-4435-917c-ba38af13cc12
Reed, Elizabeth, Paddon, Laura, Wilkinson, Eleanor and MacLeod, Cathryn
(2023)
Mapping lesbians’ everyday community-making in a small city: (in)visibility, belonging and safety.
Sexualities.
(doi:10.1177/13634607231221993).
Abstract
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.
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Sumbitted proof 28th Nov - Sexualities
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reed-et-al-2023-mapping-lesbians-everyday-community-making-in-a-small-city-in-visibility-belonging-and-safety
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 28 November 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 December 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the University of Southampton (WSI Stimulus Fund).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords:
Lesbian community, belonging, participatory mapping, queer space, urban, lesbian, Belonging, community
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 485170
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/485170
ISSN: 1363-4607
PURE UUID: 6dd39b76-1177-4d44-9004-723a1bcb459d
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Date deposited: 30 Nov 2023 17:52
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:52
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Author:
Cathryn MacLeod
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