Sexuality and democracy: Exploring the links and re-thinking the concepts for feminist politics (SEXDEM)

Application summary

SEXDEM project starts from the premise that in the contemporary moment when sexuality stands in the centre of political struggles in Europe, and when populist discourses are rapidly contesting the dominant regimes of liberal democracy, it is of crucial importance to rethink the connection between sexual emancipation and democracy, and to explore potential feminist responses to these challenges. In this regard, the project has two main aims. The first objective is to provide new perspectives on the interconnections created between sexual emancipation and democracy as historicised and localised phenomena, showing that the link between the two is contingent and contextual. At the same time, the project aims at offering new vocabularies, arguments and methods for feminist sexual politics in these challenging times. To achieve these objectives this interdisciplinary project creatively interweaves together three individual subprojects, each of which explores, unpacks and re-thinks the link between sexuality and democracy from different perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds: through analysis of Estonian and Swedish political debates on same-sex sexuality (c. 1987-2014) (Taavetti); through analysis of the interplay between sexuality and populism in both right-wing populist discourses and in the feminist re-appropriations of populism (Kahlina); and through analysis of the politics of feminist fiction and theory interweaving sexual and political agency (Rundgren).