Joanna Sadgrove

Lived Difference: A Narrative Account of Spatiotemporal Processes of Social Differentiation

This paper draws on empirical research conducted as part of a study funded by the European Research Council to explore how individuals understand and live processes of social differentiation. Specifically, it draws on a case-study-life story narrative to examine how social identifications unfold across biographical time, examining the spatiotemporal complexity of experiences of differentiation, and the marginalization of self and/or others. In doing so, it contributes to the geographies of encounter literature by exploring the implications of insights from an individuals narrative of lived experiences of difference for group politics and the management of prejudicial social relations.

Consuming campus: geographies of encounter at a British university

In this paper, we extend recent discussions on the geographies of encounter to examine how students and staff narrate their experiences of cross-cultural contact on a British university campus. In theory, the campus environment offers opportunities for more intense and prolonged forms of contact than the ephemeral micro-scale forms of interaction that have dominated much of the literature on encounters. In practice, however, our interviews suggest that many respondents tend to self-segregate, or in some instances are prevented from mixing with ‘others’ through institutional arrangements. As we also illustrate, the pressures posed by commercial forces on campus orientate certain students towards lifestyle choices and expectations which exclude others.

Morality plays and money matters: towards a situated understanding of the politics of homosexuality in Uganda

Since the drafting of Ugandas anti-homosexuality bill in 2009, considerable attention has been paid both in Uganda and across the African continent to the political and social significance of homosexual behaviour and identity. However, current debates have not adequately explained how and why anti-homosexual rhetoric has been able to gain such popular purchase within Uganda. In order to move beyond reductive representations of an innate African homophobia, we argue that it is necessary to recognise the deep imbrication of sexuality, family life, procreation and material exchange in Uganda, as well as the ways in which elite actors (including government officials, the media and religious leaders) are able to manipulate social anxieties to further particular ends. We employ a discourse analysis of reporting in the state-owned newspaper New Vision , first considering how the issue of homosexuality has been represented in relation to wider discourses regarding threats to public morality and national sovereignty. Then, through fieldwork undertaken in Uganda in 2009, we explore three key themes that offer deeper insights into the seeming resonance of this popular rhetoric about homosexuality: constructions of the family, the nature of societal morality, and understandings about reciprocity and material exchange in contemporary Ugandan society.

Biographical narratives of encounter: : the significance of mobility and emplacement in shaping attitudes towards difference

This paper is located within work in urban studies about the significance of contact with difference as a means for reducing prejudice and achieving social change. Recent approaches, influenced by theories of affect, have emphasised non-conscious everyday negotiations of difference in the city. In this paper it is argued that such approaches lose sight of the significance of the subject: of the reflective judgements of ‘others’ made by individuals; of our ability to make decisions around the control of our feelings and identifications; and of the significance of personal pasts and collective histories in shaping the ways we perceive and react to encounters. Rather, this paper uses a biographical approach focusing on interviewees’ narratives of encounter. Through its attention to processes of mobility and emplacement, it contributes to debates about when contact with difference matters by highlighting the importance of everyday social normativities in the production of moral dispositions.

New York Encounters: Religion, Sexuality, and the City:

This paper explores questions of sexual difference and religious belief in relation to recent debates in urban studies and geography on urban encounters. Although it has been widely suggested that increased contact between members of different groups is an important driver for tolerant and respectful intergroup relations, there is need for more careful consideration of the kinds of sites that actually facilitate ‘meaningful encounters’. Specifically, we draw on empirical research in Episcopalian churches in New York City and examine how straight-identified parishioners and clergy narrate and perceive their encounters with the citys LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) population. Moving beyond the traditional focus on public space in the literature on cosmopolitan urbanism, we examine how churches serve as ‘micropublics’ which organize, facilitate, and/or limit encounters with sexual difference. To capture the tension between orthodox theological understandings of human sexuality and lived experiences in a metropolitan context where homosexuality is expressed relatively openly, the discussion focuses in particular on an evangelical case-study parish, where the church leadership is opposed to full LGBT inclusion in the church.

Sexuality, Activism, and Witness in the Anglican Communion: The 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops

The international Anglican Communion is a key site for struggles over the status of gays and lesbians within Christian churches. This article examines the forms that movements for gay and lesbian inclusion have taken in the Communion through an analysis of collective action at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, a central event in Anglicanisms institutional structure. The analysis builds on recent critiques of the state-centric orientation of much social movement research, arguing that intrareligious movements provide important sites for understanding contemporary processes of social change. Although prior accounts of the sexuality debates within Anglicanism have tended to provide relatively monolithic portrayals of a “gay rights lobby,” activists at Lambeth employed diverse and contested repertoires of action. Although some use was made of conspicuously oppositional protest, many campaigners framed their activities as forms of Christian witness emanating from within the boundary of Anglicanism (rather than the field of secular politics). Gay and lesbian groups sought to complicate overly binaristic notions of conservative (or traditional) versus liberal Christians, stressing aspects of their Christian orthodoxy and their commitment to patterns of lifelong partnership and monogamy. At a moment when many secular gay and lesbian organizations are taking more notice of religion, there is a need for future research to consider how gay and lesbian Christian movements will engage with and influence wider equality struggles.

Constructing the boundaries of Anglican orthodoxy: An analysis of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON)

Abstract This article examines the evolution of the transnational orthodox Anglican movement through the lens of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON)—the movements most significant public expression to date. GAFCON represented the first large‐scale event at which a sizable number of Anglicans (ordained and lay) from both the global North and global South gathered to galvanise an ‘orthodox’ response to the current ‘crisis’ in the Anglican Communion (a crisis precipitated by debates over the status of homosexuality). The analysis is based upon fieldwork conducted at GAFCON, a review of a range of documentary sources, and retrospective interviews with several attendees. The article argues that GAFCON constituted a key moment for the attempted framing of movement objectives for participants, other Anglicans, and outside observers, fixing a standard of orthodoxy in the final Jerusalem Declaration. While attempting to project an image of orthodox unity to outsiders, GAFCON leaders also made the negotiation of certain aspects of cultural difference central to the events purpose. Detailed examinations are provided of two topics (homosexuality and female ordination) that exemplify the ongoing negotiation of the boundaries of orthodoxy within the movement. The article concludes with reflections on the significance and further development of the movement

Emplacements: The Event as a Prism for Exploring Intersectionality; a Case Study of the Lambeth Conference

This article addresses the intersection of sexual orientation and religion and belief through a focus on a specific religious community — the worldwide Anglican Communion. It does so by unpacking a particular event within this Communion debate: the decennial Lambeth Conference, at Canterbury, UK. Events have received little attention within sociology, yet case studies of particular events potentially represent an effective way of empirically researching the complexity of the ways that intersections of categories, such as sexual orientation and religion and belief, are experienced in everyday life. By focusing on the strategies of pro-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) groups at Lambeth, this article demonstrates how, in the material space of an ‘event’, abstract discourses and positionings in diffuse social networks become transformed into tangible emplaced social relations where power is outworked.

The Meanings of Communion: Anglican Identities, the Sexuality Debates, and Christian Relationality

Recent discussions of the international Anglican Communion have been dominated by notions of a ‘crisis’ and ‘schism’ resulting from conflicts over issues of homosexuality. Existing accounts of the Communion have often tended to emphasise the perspectives of those most vocal in the debates (particularly bishops, senior clergy, and pressure groups) or to engage in primarily theological analysis. This article examines the nature of the purported ‘crisis’ from the perspectives of Anglicans in local parishes in three different national contexts: England, South Africa, and the United States. Unusually for writing on the Communion, attention is simultaneously given to parishes that have clear pro-gay stances, those that largely oppose the acceptance of homosexual practice, and those with more ambivalent positions. In doing so, the article offers new insights for the growing body of literature on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians, as well as wider discussions about the contested nature of contemporary Anglican and other Christian identities. Key themes include the divergent ways in which respondents felt (and did not feel) connections to the spatially distant ‘others’ with whom they are in Communion; the complex relationships and discordances between parish, denominational, and Communion-level identities; and competing visions of the role of the Communion in producing unity or preserving diversity amongst Anglicans.

Same sex marriage, civil rights rhetoric, and the ambivalent politics of Christian evangelicalism in New York City

This article extends recent discussions about the variegated character of American evangelicalism through a qualitative analysis of how issues of same-sex marriage (and gay rights more broadly) were viewed by one group of self-identified Christian evangelicals worshipping in New York City. Specifically, we draw on parish-based interviews and participant observation in one Episcopalian evangelical parish to discuss the extent to which its members accepted the framing of gay rights as civil rights, and how this framing allowed some parishioners to separate personal religious views from secular politics.