Abstract
In this chapter I outline my understanding of how sociologists have contended with the challenges that queer theories present for sociological (especially intersectional) research about sexualities. I begin by tracing the conversation about how (and whether it is necessary) to do both poststructuralist and deconstructive queer work and empirical sociology about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) lives (synthesized or not). Ultimately, I demonstrate how recent work points to a fruitful strategy of viewing queer deconstructive work as different from but intersecting with empirical sociological research. In that spirit, I therefore discuss two recent developments in qualitative methodologies as important resources for doing empirical research on sexualities that can attend to intersectional questions and observe intersectionality in practice. These, I argue, are valuable strategies of inquiry that can be used to produce situated knowledges that intersect with important (but different) deconstructive knowledges.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Armstrong, E. A. (2002) Forging Gay Identities: Organizing Sexuality in San Francisco, 1950–1994. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Atkinson, P. A., Coffey, A. J. and Delamont, S. (2001) “A Debate about our Canon,” Qualitative Research 1(1): 5–21.
Berbrier, M. and Pruett, E. (2006) “When Is Inequality a Problem? Victim Contests, Injustice Frames, and the Case of the Office of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Student Support Services at Indiana University,” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 35(3): 257–84.
Broad, K. L. (2002) “Social Movement Selves,” Sociological Perspectives 45(3): 317–36.
Broad, K. L. (2004) “Institutional Selves in Social Movements: The Interpretive Production of FTM/Transmen,” Research in Political Sociology 13(1): 225–55.
Broad, K. L., Crawley, S. L. and Foley, L. (2004) “Doing ‘Real’ Family Values: The Interpretive Practice of ‘Families’ in the GLBT Movement,” The Sociological Quarterly 45(3): 509–27.
Charmaz, K. (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Clarke, A. E. (2005) Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory After the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Clarke, A. E. and Montini, T. (1993) “The Many Faces of RU486: Tales of Situated Knowledges and the Technological Contestations,” Science, Technology and Human Values 18(1): 42–78.
Crawley, S. L. and Broad, K. L. (2008) “The Construction of Sex and Sexualities,” in J. F. Gubrium and J. A. Holstein (eds) Handbook in Constructionist Research. New York: Guilford Press.
Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (2008) “Introduction,” in N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials: Third Edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Escoffier, J. (1990) “Inside the Ivory Tower: The Challenges Facing Lesbian/Gay Studies,” Out/Look 10: 40–8.
Epstein, S. (1994) “A Queer Encounter: Sociology and the Study of Sexuality,” Sociological Theory 12: 188–202.
Gagnon, J. H. and Simon, W. (1973) Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality. Chicago: Aldine.
Gamson, J. and Moon, D. (2004) “The Sociology of Sexualities: Queer and Beyond,” Annual Review of Sociology 30: 47–64.
Green, A. I. (2002) “Gay but not Queer: Toward a Post-Queer Study of Sexuality,” Theory & Society 31: 521–45.
Green, A. I. (2007) “Queer Theory and Sociology: Locating the Subject and the Self in Sexuality Studies,” Sociological Theory 25(1): 26–45.
Guba, G. and Lincoln, Y. S. (2004) “Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues,” in S. N. Hesse-Biber and P. Leavy (eds) Approaches to Qualitative Research: A Reader on Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gubrium, J. F. and Holstein, J. A. (1994) “Grounding the Postmodern Self,” The Sociological Quarterly 35(4): 685–703.
Gubrium, J. F. and Holstein, J. A. (1997) The New Language of Qualitative Method. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gubrium, J. F. and Holstein, J. A. (1999) “At the Border of Narrative and Ethnography,” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 28(5): 561–73.
Gubrium, J. F. and Holstein, J. A. (2000) “The Self in a World of Going Concerns,” Symbolic Interaction 23(2): 95–115.
Gubrium, J. F. and Holstein, J. A. (eds) (2001) Institutional Selves: Troubled Identities in a Postmodern World. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gubrium, J. F. and Holstein, J. A. (2009) Analyzing Narrative Reality. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Hill Collins, P. (1998) Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Hill Collins, P. (2000) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, Second Edition. New York: Routledge.
Hines, S. (2005) “‘I am a feminist but …’: Transgender Men, Women and Feminism,” in J. Reger (ed.) (2005) Different ferent Wavelengths: Studies of the Contemporary Women’s Movement. London: Routledge.
Hines, S. (2007) TransForming Gender: Transgender Practices of Identity and Intimacy. Bristol: Policy Press.
Holstein, J. A. and Gubrium, J. F. (2000) The Self We Live By: Narrative Identity in a Postmodern World. New York: Oxford University Press.
Irvine, J. M. (2003). “Introduction to ‘Sexual Scripts: Origins, Influences and Changes,’” Qualitative Sociology 26(4) 489–90.
McIntosh, M. (1968) “The Homosexual Role,” Social Problems 16: 182–92.
Namaste, V. (2000) Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Plummer, K. (1975) Sexual Stigma: An Interactionist Account. Boston: Routledge & K. Paul.
Plummer, K. (1995) Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds. London: Routledge.
Plummer, K. (1998) “Afterward: The Past, Present and Futures of the Sociology of Same-Sex Relations,” in P. Nardi and B. E. Schneider (eds) Social Perspective in Lesbian and Gay Studies: A Reader. New York: Routledge.
Plummer, K. (2003) “Queers, Bodies and Postmodern Sexualities: A Note on Revisiting the ‘Sexual’ in Symbolic Interactionism,” Qualitative Sociology 26(4): 515–30.
Plummer, K. (2005) “Foreward: Permanence and Change: Sexual Conduct — Thirty Years On,” in J. H. Gagnon and W. Simon (eds) Sexual Conduct. New Burnswick, NJ: AldineTransaction.
Richardson, D., McLaughlin, J. and Casey, M. (2006) Intersections Between Feminist and Queer Theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rubin, G. (1989) “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality,” in C. Vance (eds) Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. London: Pandora.
Seidman, S. (1996) Queer Theory/Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Seidman, S. (2003) The Social Construction of Sexuality: Contemporary Societies Series. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Shapiro, E. (2009) Gender Circuits: The Evolution of Bodies and Identities in the Technological Age. London: Routledge.
Smith, D. (1987) The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Stryker, S. (2006) “(De)subjucated Knowledge: An Introduction to Transgender Studies,” in S. Stryker and S. Whittle (eds) The Transgender Studies Reader. New York: Routledge.
Valocchi, S. (2005) “Not Yet Queer Enough: The Lessons of Queer Theory for the Sociology of Gender and Sexuality,” Gender & Society 19(6): 750.
Ward, J. (2008) Respectably Queer: Diversity Culture in LGBT Activist Organizations. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Weeks, J. (1998) “The ‘Homosexual Role’ after 30 Years: An Appreciation of the Work of Mary McIntosh,” Sexualities 1(2): 131–52.
Whittle, S. (2006) “Foreword,” in S. Stryker and S. Whittle (2006) The Transgender Studies Reader. New York: Routledge.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2010 Kendal Broad
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Broad, K. (2010). Sexualities Sociologies and the Intersectional Potential of Two Qualitative Methodologies. In: Taylor, Y., Hines, S., Casey, M.E. (eds) Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality. Genders and Sexualities in the Social Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304093_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304093_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-31070-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-30409-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)