V Annual Cycle Young Social Scientists
2009-2010

November 18th, 2009, 17:00, CES Seminar Room
 
Ana Cristina Santos (Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, University of London; CES)

Activism and sexual citizenship: political, judicial and social impacts of Portuguese LGBT activism

Abstract: Based on the study of the Portuguese lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement, this seminar examines the role of activism while political, judicial and social change promoter in a Southern Europe country, marked by a conservative political past and catholic hegemony.

Sustained on a vast empirical and analytical work, in the extent of my doctoral degree in Gender Studies, I propose the usage of a tripartite theoretical model able to explain the transformations that occurred in the field of sexual citizenship in Portugal. According to this model, the law should be seen as a decision–making area, politics as an arena of negotiation and media as the centre of social representation. As they are not mutually exclusive, the identification and analysis of these three areas has come to demonstrate  the importance of using a relational approach, that takes into account networks of social actors in interaction, for a better understanding of activism while social transformation motor.  

Parting from specific forms of activism, I argument that the Portuguese case constitutes an important contribute regarding decision-making processes, strategic design and output assessments in the field of social movements. More specifically, I suggest the concept of ‘syncretic activism’, with multiple combined strategies and a multifaceted proactive agenda, as a third way to understand the theoretical-empirical debate between assimilationism  and radicalism that part of the literature on social movements has been focused on. As we shall see, the syncretic character of the Portuguese LGBT activism, while abiding to objectives, more than to ideologies, is in large extent responsible for the political, judicial and social transformation that has occurred during the course of the last decade.

Biographic note: Ana Cristina Santos. Sociologist. Holds a Doctoral Degree in Gender Studies at the University of Leeds (2008) and a Master Degree in Sociology at the University of Coimbra (2004). Researcher at the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, University of London, and at CES. Recent publications include Bound and Unbound: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Genders and Sexualities (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008, Co-org), Estudos Queer: Identidades, Contextos e Acção Colectiva (Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 76, 2006, Org.) and A Lei do Desejo: Direitos Humanos e Minorias Sexuais em Portugal (Afrontamento, 2005).