Social Beings, Future Belongings: Reimagining the Social (Sociological Futures)

Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasingly relevant matter: what does belonging look like in the twenty-first century? The book critically explores the concept of belonging and how it can respond to contemporary problems in not only the traditional domains of citizenship and migration, but also in detention practices, queer and feminist politics, Australian literature and fashion, technology, housing and rituals. Drawing on examples from Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, each topic is examined as a different kind of problem for the future – as a toil, an intensity or a promise. Ultimately, the collection argues that creating new ways to belong in contemporary times means reimagining the traditional terms on which belonging can happen, as well as the social itself. Read on their own, each chapter presents a compelling case study and develops a set of critical tools for encountering the empirical, epistemological and ontological challenges we face today. Read together, they present a diverse imagination that is capable of answering the question of belonging in, to and with the future.Social Beings, Future Belongings shows how belonging is not a static and universal state, but a contingent, emergent and ongoing future-oriented set of practices. Balancing empirical and theoretical work, this book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners alike. Cover 1 Half Title 4 Series Title 5 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 8 List of figures 10 Notes on contributors 11 Introduction: belonging unbound 14 Part I: toils 19 Part II: intensities 20 Part III: promises 20 Belonging in academia 21 References 22 Part I: Toils 24 1 Naming belonging: when national vocabularies fail 26 Introduction 26 Belonging and its conflation with identity 26 The asymmetry of belonging and the national 27 The asymmetry of belonging defined by us and others 29 Naming, being named and its consequences for belonging 30 Not being from here: rupture, othering and double alienation 31 Taxonomies of belonging 34 Conclusion 36 References 36 2 ‘Their time and their story’: inscribing belonging through life narratives and role expectations in wedding videography 39 Introduction 39 Conclusion 52 Note 53 References 53 3 Academics anonymous: blogging and feminist ‘be/longings’ in the neoliberal university 56 Introduction 56 Belonging in the academy as a feminist killjoy 58 Blogging, belonging and everyday activism 59 Calling out sexism 62 Speaking into the silence 65 Humour and belonging 67 Conclusion 69 References 69 Part II: Intensities 72 4 Transforming belongings in Guantánamo Bay 74 Previous studies 75 An intensive approach 78 Fleshing out the enactments of subject status in Guantánamo Bay 80 Conclusion 83 Notes 84 References 85 5 Belonging in the future? 88 Introduction 88 The neglected future temporality of belonging 89 Belonging and place: putting down roots as future-oriented 90 When anticipation turns to open-ended waiting 93 Concluding thoughts: belonging in the (un)making? 98 Notes 99 References 99 6 Costumes of belonging: ‘fitting in’ circus fabrics in the novels The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith by Peter Carey and The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott, and the costume-cum-body art of Leigh Bowery 102 ‘Case study’ 1: a Trojan rodent 104 ‘Case study’ 2: rocket fuel for the body 106 ‘Case study’ 3: costume-cum-body art 108 Costume-cum-bodies of belonging – conclusion on somatic hyperboles and physicus fiction 112 Notes 114 References 115 Part III: Promises 118 7 Beyond human (un)belonging: intimacies and the impersonal in Black Mirror 120 Introduction 120 Desiring a human future 120 Black Mirror and bad intimacy 123 Individuation, the impersonal and intimacy 127 Rethinking intimacy with impersonality 129 Impersonal futures 131 Note 132 References 132 8 Belonging, place and identity in the twenty-first century 135 Introduction 135 Uprooting 136 Background 137 Changing transitions to adulthood 138 Class, place and belonging 140 Subversion, symbolic violence and habitus clivé 142 Conclusion 144 Notes 145 References 146 9 Femininity isn’t femme: appearance and the contradictory space of queer femme belonging 148 Introduction 148 Defining the utopic femme online 151 Embodying femme offline 155 Conclusion 158 References 159 Index 161 Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasingly relevant matter: what does belonging look like in thetwenty-first century? The book critically explores the concept of belonging and how it can respond to contemporary problems in not only the traditional domains of citizenship and migration, but also in detention practices, queer and feminist politics, Australian literature and fashion, technology, housing and rituals. Drawing on examples from Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, each topic is examined as a different kind of problem for the future- as a toil, an intensity or a promise. Ultimately, the collection argues that creating new ways to belong in contemporary times means reimagining the traditional terms on which belonging can happen, as well as the social itself. Read on their own, eachchapter presents a compelling case study and develops a set of critical tools for encountering the empirical, epistemological and ontological challenges we face today. Read together, they present a diverse imagination that is capable of answering the question of belonging in, to and with the future. Social Beings, Future Belongings shows how belonging is not a static and universal state, but a contingent, emergent and ongoing future-oriented set of practices. Balancing empirical and theoretical work, this book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners alike Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasingly relevant what does belonging look like in the twenty-first century? The book critically explores the concept of belonging and how it can respond to contemporary problems in not only the traditional domains of citizenship and migration, but also in detention practices, queer and feminist politics, Australian literature and fashion, technology, housing and rituals. Drawing on examples from Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, each topic is examined as a different kind of problem for the future as a toil, an intensity or a promise. Ultimately, the collection argues that creating new ways to belong in contemporary times means reimagining the traditional terms on which belonging can happen, as well as the social itself. Read on their own, each chapter presents a compelling case study and develops a set of critical tools for encountering the empirical, epistemological and ontological challenges we face today. Read together, they present a diverse imagination that is capable of answering the question of belonging in, to and with the future. Social Beings, Future Belongings shows how belonging is not a static and universal state, but a contingent, emergent and ongoing future-oriented set of practices. Balancing empirical and theoretical work, this book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners alike.