Pinkwashing Policies or Insider Activism? Allyship in the LGBTIQ+ Governance-Activism Nexus

While there has been an increase in the rights and visibility of LGBTIQ+ people in (most) European countries, critiques of what is denounced as instrumentalization by public policies of LGBTIQ+ issues have also developed. In this context, one can ask how to qualify the strengthened relationships between governance and activism. In this article, I propose to explore the paradoxical articulation of the multiple sites from where the cause support can be enacted. Drawing on a Geneva-based ethnographic research project, I use the concept of governance–activism nexus to reflect on the liminal position of public officials in charge of implementing equality agendas. Troubling further the insider–outsider binary divide, I argue that they act towards a discrete queering of municipal governance from the inside, through the practice of allyship in solidarity. In so doing, this article offers future research perspectives for the study of urban/regional LGBTIQ+ activism and politics, while allowing us to question our own position as critical or activist researchers in the field of feminist and queer geographies

What Would an Inclusive City for Gender and Sexual Minorities Be Like? You Need to Ask Queer Folx!

From fights against racism to women’s inclusion, from access to education to integration of migrants: “Inclusion” and the “inclusive city” have been used in many ways and at different scales, running the risk of becoming a kind of catchall. Following increasing use by public authorities, media, and urban professionals, the inclusive city now serves as a normative framework for urban development. Although it is aimed at social cohesion, one nevertheless wonders whether it has not become more of a buzzword that obfuscates the reproduction of power relations. Moreover, while being somehow mainstreamed into institutional discourses, the inclusive city has been quite overlooked so far by academics, and an effort is needed to clarify its conceptualisation and democratic potential. This article provides a theoretical and critical perspective on how the concept of inclusion is used in urban public policies in relation to gender, by examining the public these policies address. Using a multiscalar analysis and drawing on Warner’s framework of publics and counterpublics, I examine more specifically which public is targeted in inclusive policies, concerning gender and sexualities, and how this participates in the reshaping of (urban) citizenship and sense of belonging, as well as the implications this has for social justice. Thus, I argue that while the inclusive city has become a normative idiom imbued with the neoliberal grammar of public politics, it also offers a paradoxical framework of democratic cohesion that promotes consumption‐based equality. A focus on (counter)publics serves to highlight the need for a more queerly engaged planning practice—one that draws on insurgent grassroots movements—to seek to destabilise neoliberalism’s attempt at pacification in its use of inclusion and citizen participation

Devenir 'expat' Pratiques de l'espace du quotidien de femmes en situation de mobilité transnationale à Luxembourg

Positioned in both critical mobility and migration studies, and studies on gender and sexualities, this PhD dissertation in political and cultural geography aims at unveiling the hidden double face of expatriation. For one part, it focuses on women’s daily practices during their international mobility cycle. It thus examines how these translocal practices fit within a multiscale mobility lifestyle. For another part, it places the body as the primary space of the analysis through the concept of performance. It shows of expatriate women play out specific sexual and gender norms and roles that contribute to the (re)production of a localised transnational space. This research seeks to reveal expatriation as a distinctive mobility practice, weaving from gender coercion to emancipation, which contributes to the reproduction and the spread of heteronormativity in a context of growing globalisation. It is settled in Luxembourg, which can be characterised as an emerging metropolitan capital, where the subjective experience of globalisation can be felt. Based on in-depth reflexive ethnographic researches, combining participant observations and semi-structured interviews, in articulation with a statistical analysis and a large panorama of Luxembourg's expatriate places and institutions, this thesis helps to define expatriation as a category of practice of globalisation in place of a category of analysis, which would contribute to an unquestioned reproduction of social inequalities.Cette thèse en géographie politique et culturelle s’inscrit au sein des approches critiques de mobilités et des migrations et des études sur le genre et les sexualités. Centrée sur les individues, elle vise à éclairer la double face cachée de l’expatriation en s’intéressant au rapport à l’espace de femmes en situation de mobilité internationale, à travers l’analyse de leurs pratiques du quotidien. Elle étudie la façon dont ces pratiques translocales s’agencent, de façon multiscalaire, en un mode de vie dans la mobilité. La dimension du corps, échelle de pratique spatiale et surface d’inscription des normes de sexe et de genre, y est posée de façon centrale, autour de la notion de performance, dans la (re)production d’un espace transnational localisé. Cet angle dévoile l’expatriation comme une pratique de mobilité distinctive, oscillant entre contrainte de genre et émancipation, tout en prenant part à la reproduction et à la diffusion de l’hétéronormativité dans un contexte d’essor de la mondialisation. La méthodologie de la thèse repose sur une enquête ethnographique approfondie mêlant observation participante et entretiens semi-directifs dans un souci constant de réflexivité et en articulation avec une analyse de données statistiques et la présentation d’un large panorama de structures et lieux expatriés en présence. Basée à Luxembourg, capitale en métropolisation émergente, cette thèse se présente comme une étude de cas élargie invitant à prendre en compte les expériences subjectives de la mondialisation tout en invitant à prendre en compte l’expatriation comme une catégorie de pratique de l’espace mondialisé plutôt que comme une catégorie d’analyse, qui contribuerait à reproduire aveuglément les inégalités sociales

Les géographies des sexualités et la géographie française peuvent-elles faire bon ménage ?

Les géographies des sexualités de langue anglaise mettent en avant un nouvel objet de recherche, à savoir la dimension spatiale de la sexualité. Elles s’intéressent également aux concepts, démarches et méthodologies déployés au sein de la discipline. Cet article se présente comme un état des lieux critique de ces géographies des sexualités, longtemps délaissées par la géographie française. Il vise à rendre compte des évolutions et de la progressive constitution de ce champ d’études. L’accent est mis sur la multiplicité des influences depuis le tournant culturel, comme autant de savoirs concomitants ayant contribué à la construction de ce champ. Je distinguerai trois moments : 1) la géographie de l’homosexualité, qui émerge dans les années 1980 et se développe autour du rapport à la ville des populations gaies nord-américaines, 2) les géographies de femmes, dont l’ancrage profondément féministe marquera de façon importante les apports épistémologiques, 3) la mouvance queer en géographie des sexualités, envisagée comme une orientation critique dans le champ. Cette présentation permettra d’interroger les liens possibles entre ces géographies et les travaux en cours au sein de la géographie française.Geographies of sexualities highlight the spatial dimension of sexuality as a new object of study. They also focus on concepts, approaches and methodologies that are developed within the discipline. Up to recently, those works have been overlooked by French geography. This article presents itself as a critical review of the Anglo-American geographies of sexualities, whose aim is to enlighten the different phases and transformations it went through. The emphasis is on the multiple influences that had contributed, since the cultural turn, to the creation of this field of study. Three periods are identified: 1) geography of homosexuality, which enters the discipline in the 1980’s and focuses on gay relationship to the city in North America; 2) geography of women, which was strongly influenced by feminist movements and which has greatly enriched epistemologies in geography; 3) queer orientation in geography, seen as a critical orientation within the field. The goal of this paper is to question the possible links between these geographies of sexualities and the ongoing works produced in French geography

Shaping the Inclusive City: Power Relations, Regulations, and the Role of Social Work

While being celebrated as the ideal of inclusiveness, cities also constitute the place of different types of discrimination, which some public policies intend to tackle. The “urban” has also been pointed out as the locus where vice and lust concentrate, leading public policies to develop regulations for public space aiming to maintain the social order of the city. This, in turn, contributes to the definition of the contours of urban moral economies, which are continuously shaped by processes of in/exclusion. Hence, crucial is the need to further explore how cities can be welcoming to their dwellers and newcomers, as well as the role public policies (have to) play in the vision of the future of an open and inclusive city. In so doing, social work is certainly called upon to play a major role based on its historical presence in cities and its know‐how in accompanying transitions. How does social work contribute to the definition of an inclusive city? By presenting new and original research that draws on various case studies as well as theoretical reflections across disciplines, this thematic issue aims to provide answers to this question to better understand the role of social work in the shaping of an open and inclusive city

Anticipated effects of burosumab treatment on long-term clinical sequelae in XLH: expert perspectives

X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is a rare, progressive, genetic disease with multisystem impact that typically begins to manifest in early childhood. Two treatment options exist: oral phosphate in combination with active vitamin D (“conventional therapy”) and a fully human monoclonal anti-FGF23 antibody, burosumab. The clinical benefit of conventional therapy in adults is limited, and poor tolerance and complications are common. Burosumab was first approved as a treatment for XLH in 2018 and its disease-modifying benefits in clinical trials in children suggest burosumab treatment could also alter the disease course in adults. Without long-term clinical data on multiple XLH-related sequelae available, the results of an elicitation exercise are reported, in which eight global experts in XLH posited how long-term treatment with burosumab is anticipated to impact the life course of clinical sequelae in adults with XLH. Based on their clinical experiences, the available evidence and their disease understanding, the experts agreed that some long-term benefits of using burosumab are likely in adults with XLH even if they have a misaligned skeleton from childhood. Burosumab treatment is anticipated to reduce the incidence of fractures and halt the progression of clinical sequelae associated with conventional therapy. While the trajectories for established dental abscesses are not expected to improve with burosumab treatment, dental abscess development may be prevented. Starting treatment with burosumab in childhood to increase the likelihood of an aligned skeleton and continuation into and throughout adulthood to maintain euphosphatemia may optimize patient outcomes, although future real-world investigation is required to support this hypothesis

To (be)come an ‘expat’ : women’s everyday practices of space during international mobility in Luxembourg

Cette thèse en géographie politique et culturelle s’inscrit au sein des approches critiques de mobilités et des migrations et des études sur le genre et les sexualités. Centrée sur les individues, elle vise à éclairer la double face cachée de l’expatriation en s’intéressant au rapport à l’espace de femmes en situation de mobilité internationale, à travers l’analyse de leurs pratiques du quotidien. Elle étudie la façon dont ces pratiques translocales s’agencent, de façon multiscalaire, en un mode de vie dans la mobilité. La dimension du corps, échelle de pratique spatiale et surface d’inscription des normes de sexe et de genre, y est posée de façon centrale, autour de la notion de performance, dans la (re)production d’un espace transnational localisé. Cet angle dévoile l’expatriation comme une pratique de mobilité distinctive, oscillant entre contrainte de genre et émancipation, tout en prenant part à la reproduction et à la diffusion de l’hétéronormativité dans un contexte d’essor de la mondialisation. La méthodologie de la thèse repose sur une enquête ethnographique approfondie mêlant observation participante et entretiens semi-directifs dans un souci constant de réflexivité et en articulation avec une analyse de données statistiques et la présentation d’un large panorama de structures et lieux expatriés en présence. Basée à Luxembourg, capitale en métropolisation émergente, cette thèse se présente comme une étude de cas élargie invitant à prendre en compte les expériences subjectives de la mondialisation.Positioned in both critical mobility and migration studies, and studies on gender and sexualities, this PhD dissertation in political and cultural geography aims at unveiling the hidden double face of expatriation. For one part, it focuses on women’s daily practices during their international mobility cycle. It thus examines how these translocal practices fit within a multiscale mobility lifestyle. For another part, it places the body as the primary space of the analysis through the concept of performance. It shows of expatriate women play out specific sexual and gender norms and roles that contribute to the (re)production of a localised transnational space. This research seeks to reveal expatriation as a distinctive mobility practice, weaving from gender coercion to emancipation, which contributes to the reproduction and the spread of heteronormativity in a context of growing globalisation. It is settled in Luxembourg, which can be characterised as an emerging metropolitan capital, where the subjective experience of globalisation can be felt. Methodologically speaking, this thesis is based on in-depth reflexive ethnographic researches, combining participant observations and semi-structured interviews, in articulation with a statistical analysis and a large panorama of Luxembourg's expatriate places and institutions

Discriminations intersectionnelles dans l’espace public

La notion d’espace public suppose un espace ouvert à tout le monde. Toutefois, force est de constater que certains espaces demeurent investis de façon différentielle selon les personnes et leurs caractéristiques sociales, amenant à questionner la supposée accessibilité pour tous·tes·x de l’espace dit public et, par là-même, la dimension démocratique de notre société. Comment penser les discriminations dans l’espace public ? Cette courte note vise à esquisser des éléments de réflexion en la matière. Pour cela, elle propose dans un premier temps de poser des éléments de définition de ce que revêt la notion d’espace public. Nous verrons ensuite comment opèrent des différences dans l’accès à cet espace. Enfin, des réflexions seront proposées afin de penser ensemble les formes imbriquées de discriminations qui y opèrent.</p