
Sexual Citizenship and Social Change
A Dialectical Approach to Narratives of Tradition and Critique
Darren Langdridge(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 19. June 2024
Book
Hardback
216 pages
978-0-19-992631-2 (ISBN)
Description
Over the last thirty years in the West, there has been enormous change in social and state acceptance regarding sex and sexualities, with an apparent new acceptance and openness towards diverse sexual practices and sexualities. Much of this change has come about through community claims for rights grounded in critical social theory and the language of citizenship. While accepting that much of the critique has been valuable in advancing rights for sexual minorities, Sexual Citizenship and Social Change argues that the mode of critique itself may become problematic. Examining the use and abuse of critique in contemporary sexuality scholarship and associated activism, Darren Langdridge implicates a particular form of critique that is detached, unfettered, and set loose from the usual anchor of tradition. Even the most ostensibly well-meaning critic--and associated critique--can become problematic when their arguments are detached from tradition. Further, the book shows that this unrestrained excess of critique is particularly dangerous because it emerges from within minority sexual communities and their allies, not from the usual conservative opposition to progressive change. Theoretically and empirically grounded, Sexual Citizenship and Social Change draws on ideas and findings from psychology, sociology, politics, and philosophy and offers a radical challenge to the unfettered adoption of a critical approach in sexualities scholarship and activism. It highlights why we need to shine a critical lens on critique itself, while also anchoring it in a more constructive relationship with its natural opposite: tradition.
Reviews / Votes
This is a profoundly significant book: timely and brave. Langdridge demonstrates precisely why courage is needed to discuss rationally the current state of sexuality and gender politics. His call for balancing critique with tradition may properly be seen as a necessary-and a counterintuitively radical-position in our contemporary context." -Lisa Downing, University of Birmingham, and author of Selfish WomenMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 218 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
431 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-992631-2 (9780199926312)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Darren Langdridge
Sexual Citizenship and Social Change
A Dialectical Approach to Narratives of Tradition and Critique
E-Book
03/2024
OUP eBook
€57.99
Available for download

Darren Langdridge
Sexual Citizenship and Social Change
A Dialectical Approach to Narratives of Tradition and Critique
E-Book
03/2024
OUP eBook
€57.99
Available for download
Person
Darren Langdridge is Professor of Psychology at the Open University (UK), and a United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy accredited existential psychotherapist working in private practice. For many years Darren has researched and written on sexualities, health, phenomenological methodology, critical theory and psychotherapy, publishing numerous books, papers and book chapters. He is the author or co-editor of a number of books, including Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy (2012), Phenomenological Psychology: Theory, Research and Method (2007), Safe, Sane and Consensual: Contemporary Perspectives on Sadomasochism (2007, with M.J. Barker), and Understanding Non-monogamies (2010, with M.J. Barker).
Content
Section 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: On Sexual Citizenship
Chapter 3: The Narrative Nature of Sexual Life
Section 2
Chapter 4: Sexual Citizenship and a Clash of Rights
Chapter 5: Conservative Claims for Citizenship
Chapter 6: Spectacular Critique and Abject Citizenship
Section 3
Chapter 7: Towards a Politics of Hospitality
Appendix I: A Dialectic of Ideology and Utopia
References
Notes
Index
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: On Sexual Citizenship
Chapter 3: The Narrative Nature of Sexual Life
Section 2
Chapter 4: Sexual Citizenship and a Clash of Rights
Chapter 5: Conservative Claims for Citizenship
Chapter 6: Spectacular Critique and Abject Citizenship
Section 3
Chapter 7: Towards a Politics of Hospitality
Appendix I: A Dialectic of Ideology and Utopia
References
Notes
Index