Periodic Reporting for period 4 - BeyondOpposition (Sexual and gender contestations in everyday spaces and the possibilities of moving beyond opposition)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2024-04-01 do 2025-03-31
Social polarisation is a defining issue of our time, threatening democratic foundations and civil societies within the EU and beyond. A key aspect of contemporary polarisations are positions on abortion, same sex marriage, trans inclusions and, more broadly, 21st century legal and social changes to gender, sexuality and/or abortion. While these issues are widely debated from different angles, there is a lack of engagement with the ordinary lives of people directly affected by debates and discussions, and, perhaps more crucially, a dearth of responses to polarisation and division themselves. Moreover, polarisation is predominantly and often exclusively discussed in relation to the USA, which has very specific party political factions that are directly associated with, and deploy, social divisions to drive political agendas.
This project answered the pressing need to both understand social divisions around sexualities, genders and abortion, and to address them in Ireland, Canada and Great Britain. This was a high risk endeavour, where polarisations are driving these arenas in ways that can refuse engagement and understanding for fear of ceding ground. The project:
1.Explored the experiences of everyday spaces (work, home, public spaces) for those opposed to or concerned about social and legal changes to gender, sexuality and/or abortion.
2. Experimented with addressing polarisation/division by developing novel methodologies that created new engagements beyond current oppositional binaries. This did not seek to ‘find middle ground’, debate the issues or make others agree with ‘us’ by changing their minds.
Beyond Opposition showed the importance of understanding everyday spaces in considering social polarisation. It developed novel methodological practices to work across division, showing that polarisations can be addressed in ways that do not require resolution.
This project answered the pressing need to both understand social divisions around sexualities, genders and abortion, and to address them in Ireland, Canada and Great Britain. This was a high risk endeavour, where polarisations are driving these arenas in ways that can refuse engagement and understanding for fear of ceding ground. The project:
1.Explored the experiences of everyday spaces (work, home, public spaces) for those opposed to or concerned about social and legal changes to gender, sexuality and/or abortion.
2. Experimented with addressing polarisation/division by developing novel methodologies that created new engagements beyond current oppositional binaries. This did not seek to ‘find middle ground’, debate the issues or make others agree with ‘us’ by changing their minds.
Beyond Opposition showed the importance of understanding everyday spaces in considering social polarisation. It developed novel methodological practices to work across division, showing that polarisations can be addressed in ways that do not require resolution.
Data collection was in 2 phases of work.
1: 161 Interviews undertaken 2020 to 2022 across Ireland, Canada and Great Britain undertaken between 2020-2023. 942 online questionnaires were completed in this period. Participants were recruited through groups and organisations, direct contact, snowball sampling and facebook/social media advertising. They were promised a respectful engagement with the researchers to understand their experiences, with a focus on everyday spaces. The purpose was not to question their positions or seek to convince them otherwise, instead researchers listened with curiosity. This ethos is followed in all writing from the project. Alongside the risk of this work, COVID public health measures prevented face-to-face data collection and engagements, resulting in changes to recruitment possibilities and anticipated face-to-face interviews.
2: Bringing people together across divisions around gender, sexuality and/or abortion, three discussion groups and three creative artist-led workshops using visual art, sound and theatre) were carefully created in Dublin, Vancouver and Glasgow. These in-person events were very carefully handled. Those who had participated in interviews were invited to take part, and our own networks and social media adverts were used to ask people to participate. Each person who expressed an interest in taking part received an email, and then a set number of planned phone calls to talk through the research guidelines and explore their specific position on the issues, so that every activity would include people with a diversity of positions. These events brought people together to imagine new worlds in which to live and create across division, without changing minds or debating the issues.
Results:
Those who are opposed to or concerned about socio-legal changes to gender, sexuality and/or abortion are not all the same. Their everyday lives can be affected, particularly at work and home. Some participants were careful about where they went and what they said regarding their positions. They found support and developed their activisms because of their experiences, including confrontations. Negative experiences can embolden and entrench positions that oppose socio-legal changes on gender, sexuality and/or abortion.
It is possible to bring some, but not all, people together in workshops that include those who disagree on gender, sexuality and/or abortion, and there is a desire to engage beyond division around gender, sexuality and/or abortion. Art can be used in ways that work across division in gender, sexuality and/or abortion. Yet, the ideal worlds we want to live in are sometimes incompatible with diverging positions on gender, sexuality and/or abortion.
Through curating research via the imperfectutopias.eu virtual exhibition, the project seeks to spark conversations and experiences beyond reporting on findings.
These findings were developed through 9 academic publications, 3 forthcoming and 2 under review, 50 conferences, events and seminar presentations, 17 media publications, appearances and press releases, 11 formal meetings with international experts, on various aspects of the project, a regularly updated website, a virtual exhibition (www.imperfectutopias.eu) a CSO event and a final conference, all which ensured that a broad range of audiences were reached.
1: 161 Interviews undertaken 2020 to 2022 across Ireland, Canada and Great Britain undertaken between 2020-2023. 942 online questionnaires were completed in this period. Participants were recruited through groups and organisations, direct contact, snowball sampling and facebook/social media advertising. They were promised a respectful engagement with the researchers to understand their experiences, with a focus on everyday spaces. The purpose was not to question their positions or seek to convince them otherwise, instead researchers listened with curiosity. This ethos is followed in all writing from the project. Alongside the risk of this work, COVID public health measures prevented face-to-face data collection and engagements, resulting in changes to recruitment possibilities and anticipated face-to-face interviews.
2: Bringing people together across divisions around gender, sexuality and/or abortion, three discussion groups and three creative artist-led workshops using visual art, sound and theatre) were carefully created in Dublin, Vancouver and Glasgow. These in-person events were very carefully handled. Those who had participated in interviews were invited to take part, and our own networks and social media adverts were used to ask people to participate. Each person who expressed an interest in taking part received an email, and then a set number of planned phone calls to talk through the research guidelines and explore their specific position on the issues, so that every activity would include people with a diversity of positions. These events brought people together to imagine new worlds in which to live and create across division, without changing minds or debating the issues.
Results:
Those who are opposed to or concerned about socio-legal changes to gender, sexuality and/or abortion are not all the same. Their everyday lives can be affected, particularly at work and home. Some participants were careful about where they went and what they said regarding their positions. They found support and developed their activisms because of their experiences, including confrontations. Negative experiences can embolden and entrench positions that oppose socio-legal changes on gender, sexuality and/or abortion.
It is possible to bring some, but not all, people together in workshops that include those who disagree on gender, sexuality and/or abortion, and there is a desire to engage beyond division around gender, sexuality and/or abortion. Art can be used in ways that work across division in gender, sexuality and/or abortion. Yet, the ideal worlds we want to live in are sometimes incompatible with diverging positions on gender, sexuality and/or abortion.
Through curating research via the imperfectutopias.eu virtual exhibition, the project seeks to spark conversations and experiences beyond reporting on findings.
These findings were developed through 9 academic publications, 3 forthcoming and 2 under review, 50 conferences, events and seminar presentations, 17 media publications, appearances and press releases, 11 formal meetings with international experts, on various aspects of the project, a regularly updated website, a virtual exhibition (www.imperfectutopias.eu) a CSO event and a final conference, all which ensured that a broad range of audiences were reached.
Beyond Opposition developed groundbreaking understandings that have shifted the state-of-the-art, including conceptualisations of polarisation, paradigm shifting explorations of lived experiences between marginalisation/privilege, and methodological innovation.
1. Beyond Opposition has created new empirical and theoretical work that has developed new understandings of social polarisations around LGBTQIA+ equalities. This progress can be seen through moving beyond locating polarisation within USA structures and assuming that they apply to all, without negating the importance that the USA continues to hold in sexual and gendered landscapes.
Addressing social polarisations without changing minds on key issues is also at the centre of the project and formed the basis of workshops that push current conceptualisations of division around sexuality, gender and abortion in new directions.
2. It’s unique engagement with the experiences of those who are concerned about/opposed to socio-legal change, has created new empirical insights that drives theoretical development. This includes new understandings of how labelling people within egregious groups, and everyday experiences in spaces such as work, home and public space creates animosity, develops solidarities and can lead to activism. It offers a paradigm shift that moves beyond framings such as ‘marginalisation’ or ‘privilege’ to understand early 21st century power relations.
3. Beyond Opposition has developed groundbreaking methodologies that allow for engagement across division. This enabled interviews to be undertaken with those who can hold fundamentally different perspectives on gender, sexuality and abortion that created important insights into how this can be done and the limitations of this work. It also created methodologies that both cross difference and do not seek to resolve division to address social cohesion and polarisation through living within division.
Beyond Opposition offers cutting edge insights into societal cohesion and offers innovative potentials in creating solutions without resolution around sexual and gendered differences.
1. Beyond Opposition has created new empirical and theoretical work that has developed new understandings of social polarisations around LGBTQIA+ equalities. This progress can be seen through moving beyond locating polarisation within USA structures and assuming that they apply to all, without negating the importance that the USA continues to hold in sexual and gendered landscapes.
Addressing social polarisations without changing minds on key issues is also at the centre of the project and formed the basis of workshops that push current conceptualisations of division around sexuality, gender and abortion in new directions.
2. It’s unique engagement with the experiences of those who are concerned about/opposed to socio-legal change, has created new empirical insights that drives theoretical development. This includes new understandings of how labelling people within egregious groups, and everyday experiences in spaces such as work, home and public space creates animosity, develops solidarities and can lead to activism. It offers a paradigm shift that moves beyond framings such as ‘marginalisation’ or ‘privilege’ to understand early 21st century power relations.
3. Beyond Opposition has developed groundbreaking methodologies that allow for engagement across division. This enabled interviews to be undertaken with those who can hold fundamentally different perspectives on gender, sexuality and abortion that created important insights into how this can be done and the limitations of this work. It also created methodologies that both cross difference and do not seek to resolve division to address social cohesion and polarisation through living within division.
Beyond Opposition offers cutting edge insights into societal cohesion and offers innovative potentials in creating solutions without resolution around sexual and gendered differences.