Affective Activisms and the Right to Have Rights in Turkey
Description
This book presents a novel approach to the study of contemporary social movements and activism. Based on extensive ethnographic research of the life and politics of feminist, LGBTQI+, and women's religious groups in Istanbul from 2007 to 2015, it explores the affects, meanings, and interpretations these groups express in their activism-in particular, their strategic use of human rights' language to claim institutional and social legitimacy and their reinterpretation of gender/queer theory across politics of difference to make sense of global dynamics that affect their everyday lives. Chapters interweave personal accounts and life histories of individual activists with specific historical events to demonstrate the activists' dissidence regarding the conditions that have defined their differently marginalised positions in Turkey and the significance of the formation of unexpected alliances. The ambivalent, yet inescapable, bargaining tool of rights is analysed as a demand over affective democratic visions, citizenship and a life worth living, and thus the right to have rights, as it is argued, pushes us to reflect on how power works when the political and affective surplus value invested in the need to rethink of rights (even beyond human rights themselves) lies both in the search for ways of institutionalising and implementing rightful demands, as well as in outlining more affective visions of political resistance.
By arguing that activism is a performative and affective language that is defined by intersectional hopes, desires and dreams, as much as it engages with legal battles that define who or what might appear as being broken under specific historical and social settings, Affective Activisms employs gender and sexuality as analytical tools to make sense of local and transnational politics of resistance in the face of the re-emergence of authoritarian regimes, sexual harassment, gender violence, homo/trans phobia, and Islamophobia in Turkey and worldwide. It will be of interest to students and scholars across the fields of women's, gender and sexuality studies, queer theory, critical human rights and political theory, sociology, and social anthropology.
Reviews / Votes
"An eloquent and moving account of collective struggles for rights, recognition and "a liveable life",
Affective Activisms
explores the fraught yet tenacious collaborations of feminists, LGBTQI+ activists and female religious activists who decide, despite deep disagreements, to become allies in their demands toward the Turkish state and in the face of its ongoing violence. Through an analysis richly in dialogue -like her interlocutors- with feminist and political theory, Avramopoulou powerfully illuminates the quest of precarious subjects to create new forms of living." (Jane K. Cowan, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of Sussex)
"A fantastic contribution to the study of feminist and LGBTQI+ activist worlds in Turkey that is both stunningly original in its ethnographic observations and tremendously generative in its theoretical pursuits. A must read for scholars and students of social movements' claims for rights in authoritarian political atmospheres." (Yael Navaro, Professor of Social, Political and Psychological Anthropology, University of Cambridge)
"
Affective Activisms
provides a richly ethnographic and powerfully original analysis of activism in contemporary Istanbul. Based on research and regular visits to Turkey between 2007 and 2015, the book centres on the actions of, and occasional unlikely alliances between, LGBTQI+ groups, feminist groups, and women defending their right to wear a headscarf. The book describes how they challenge taken for granted binary differences between Islamism and secularism, east and west. Through deeply conceptually and ethnographically engaged description, the book provides a powerfully original understanding of the ways that affect and activism ambivalently intersect, while being buffeted by the ongoing political, economic and social changes that shape these activists' worlds.
Affective Activisms
provides essential reading for understanding contemporary social and political struggles." (Sarah Green, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki)
"
Affective Activisms
offers a rich, interdisciplinary analysis of contemporary gender and queer activism in Istanbul. Drawing from nearly a decade of comprehensive ethnographic research, the book intricately weaves together personal narratives, historical contexts, and theoretical insights to explore the dynamics of feminist, LGBTQI+, and religious activism. Through the lens of affect theory, the study highlights the emotional dimensions of activism, making a significant and original contribution to the fields of gender studies, political sociology, and activism. Its nuanced exploration of the intersections between local and global activism is both timely and relevant, offering valuable insights for scholars and activists alike."
(Aslı Kotaman, CAIS Alumni)
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Person
Eirini Avramopoulou is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece. Her research interests include anthropology of human rights, social movements, and activism; feminist and psychoanalytic approaches to subjectivity, biopolitics, and affect; queer theory and postcolonial studies. She is the author of Pornographics and Porno-tactics: Desire, Affect and Representation in Pornography (co-edited with Irene Peano, 2016, Punctum Books), Affect in the Political: Subjectivities, Power and Inequalities in the Modern World , 2018, Nisos: Athens (in Greek), S exuality's Object(ion)s. Critical Theories, Interdisciplinary Readings (co-edited with Pako Chalkidis), 2022, Topos: Athens (in Greek) and Critical Public Anthropology and Gender Studies (co-edited with Eleni Papagaroufali), 2024, Topos: Athens (in Greek).
Content
Chapter 1. Introduction: The affective language of human rights' activism.- Chapter 2. Queer activism between demands and desires.- Chapter 3. Feminist grammars and (lost) hopes.- Chapter 4. Religious confrontations with (secular) affects.- Chapter 5. The right to have rights and precarious political subjectivities.- Chapter 6. Marching right through the affective economy of the public sphere.- Chapter 7. Epilogue On dreams (before and after the Gezi protests): The right to a livable death.