Vol. 15 No. 30 (2025): Teoria queer e scienze sociali: tra sfide e prospettive
Monographic Section

Queer oltre l’urbano: spazi periferici, Sud globale e nuove regionalità sessuali

PDF
  • Fabio Corbisiero
Fabio Corbisiero
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/cambio-18582

Published 2026-02-11

Keywords

  • anti-urbanism,
  • metronormativity,
  • decoloniality,
  • rural,
  • transregional

How to Cite

Corbisiero, F. (2026). Queer oltre l’urbano: spazi periferici, Sud globale e nuove regionalità sessuali. Cambio. Rivista Sulle Trasformazioni Sociali, 15(30), 19–32. https://doi.org/10.36253/cambio-18582

Copyright (c) 2025 Fabio Corbisiero

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This article offers a critical re-reading of contemporary queer geographies by questioning the metronormative paradigm that has historically associated LGBTQIA+ experiences with Western urban space. Drawing on a dialogue between queer theory, the sociology of space, and decolonial studies, the article examines how non-heteronormative subjectivities are also produced and negotiated in rural, peripheral, and Mediterranean contexts. It weaves together the concepts of queer ruralities, queer anti-urbanism, and critical queer regionalities to show how non-metropolitan areas function as active spaces of resistance, belonging, and social innovation. Particular attention is given to the Italian and Mediterranean contexts, understood as laboratories for the experimentation of situated queer practices, in which tourism, mobility, and family models contribute to reconfiguring visibility, intimacy, and agency. The article argues that a genuinely critical perspective requires the decolonization of the sociological gaze, capable of decentering itself from Euro-American trajectories and of recognizing the plurality of queer temporalities, scales, and forms of life. It concludes by proposing a transscalar research agenda that values territorial differences and promotes a situated, intersectional, and territorially grounded queer sociology.

PDF

References

  1. Ahmed S. (2006), Queer phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others, Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388074 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822388074
  2. Ammaturo F. R. (2025), The politics of pride events: Global and local challenges, Bristol: Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529238693 DOI: https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529238693
  3. Ammaturo F. R. (2025), Queering Southern Italy: Towards a conceptualisation of ‘Meridian Sexualities’, in «The Sociological Review», 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261251359869 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261251359869
  4. Baker K. (2012), Taking new directions: How rural queerness provides unique insights into place, class, and visibility, in «The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology», 20, 1. https://doi.org/10.5206/uwoja.v20i1.8919 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5206/uwoja.v20i1.8919
  5. Bento B. (2006), A reinvenção do corpo: Sexualidade e gênero na experiência transexual, Rio de Janeiro: Garamond Universitária.
  6. Brown G. (2007), Mutinous eruptions: Autonomous spaces of radical queer activism, in «Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space», 39, 11, 2685-2698. https://doi.org/10.1068/a38385 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1068/a38385
  7. Binnie J. (2014), Neoliberalism, class, gender and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer politics in Poland, in «International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society», 27, 2, 241–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-013-9153-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-013-9153-8
  8. Brown R. (2000), Social identity theory: Past achievements, current problems and future challenges, in «European Journal of Social Psychology», 30, 6, 745–778. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0992(200011/12)30:6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0992(200011/12)30:6<745::AID-EJSP24>3.0.CO;2-O
  9. Corbisiero F. (2016), Sociologia del turismo LGBT, Milano: Franco Angeli.
  10. Corbisiero F., Monaco S. (2017), Città arcobaleno: Una mappa della vita omosessuale nell’Italia di oggi, Roma: Donzelli.
  11. Corbisiero F., Monaco S. (2024), Manuale di studi LGBTQIA+, Milano: UTET.
  12. Corbisiero F., Monaco S. (2020), The right to a rainbow city: The Italian homosexual social movements, in «Society Register», 4, 4, 69–86. https://doi.org/10.14746/sr.2020.4.4.03 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/sr.2020.4.4.03
  13. Corbisiero F., Monaco S. (2021), Omosessuali contemporanei: Identità, culture, spazi LGBT+, Milano: Franco Angeli.
  14. Duckett C. C. (2021), Downtowns and diverted dollars: How the metronormativity narrative damages rural queer political organizing, in «Tulane Journal of Law & Sexuality», 30.
  15. Ghaziani A. (2014), Measuring urban sexual cultures, in «Theory and Society», 43, 3, 371–393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-014-9225-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-014-9225-4
  16. Gorman-Murray A. (2012), Queer politics at home: Gay men’s management of the public/private boundary, in «New Zealand Geographer», 68, 2, 111–120. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-7939.2012.01225 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-7939.2012.01225.x
  17. Gray M. L. (2009), Out in the country: Youth, media, and queer visibility in rural America, New York: New York University Press.
  18. Gray M. L., Johnson C. R., Gilley B. J. (eds.) (2016), Queering the countryside: New frontiers in rural queer studies, New York: New York University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479895250.001.0001
  19. Hartman S. (2008), Venus in two acts, in «Small Axe», 12, 2, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1215/-12-2-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/-12-2-1
  20. Herring S. (2010), Another country: Queer anti-urbanism, New York: NYU Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/11135
  21. Human Rights Watch (2018, 16 April), Audacity in adversity: LGBT activism in the Middle East and North Africa. https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/04/16/audacity-adversity/lgbt-activism-middle-east-and-north-africa
  22. Johnson M., Jackson P., Herdt G. (2000), Critical regionalities and the study of gender and sexual diversity in South East and East Asia, in «Culture, Health & Sexuality», 2, 4, 361–375. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3986696 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691050050174396
  23. Kazyak E. (2011), Disrupting cultural selves: Constructing gay and lesbian identities in rural locales, in «Qualitative Sociology», 34, 4, 561–581. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-011-9205-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-011-9205-1
  24. Kuhar R., Švab A. (2014), The only gay in the village? Everyday life of gays and lesbians in rural Slovenia, in «Journal of Homosexuality», 61, 8, 1091–1116. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2014.872492 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2014.872492
  25. La Voz de Asturias (2022, 23 agosto), El “Orgullo de Pueblo” llega a Pola de Allande para dar a conocer el sexilio, in «La Voz de Asturias», 1.
  26. Lewis C., Markwell K. (2021), Drawing a line in the sand: The social impacts of an LGBTQI+ event in an Australian rural community, in «Leisure Studies», 40, 2, 261–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1831049 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1831043
  27. LGBTI Support Center Skopje (2016), Analysis of the legal framework for LGBTI people in North Macedonia, Skopje: Civica Mobilitas.
  28. Lugones M. (2007), Heterosexualism and the colonial/modern gender system, in «Hypatia», 22, 1, 186–209. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/HYP.2007.22.1.186
  29. Manalansan M. F. IV (2003), Global divas: Filipino gay men in the diaspora, Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822385172 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12101tn
  30. Moussawi G. (2017), Queer exceptionalism and exclusion: Cosmopolitanism and inequalities in “gay-friendly” Beirut, in «The Sociological Review», 66, 1, 174-190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026117725469 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026117725469
  31. Moussawi G. (2015), (Un)critically queer organizing: Towards a more complex analysis of LGBTQ organizing in Lebanon, in «Sexualities», 18, 5, 593-617. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460714550914 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460714550914
  32. Papanikolaou D., Kolocotroni V. (2018), New queer Greece: Performance, politics and identity in crisis, in «Journal of Greek Media & Culture», 4, 2, 143–150. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgmc.4.2.143_2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/jgmc.4.2.143_2
  33. Puar J. K. (2007), Terrorist assemblages: Homonationalism in queer times, Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822390442 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1131fg5
  34. Revathi A. (2010), The truth about me: A hijra life story, New Delhi: Penguin Books India.
  35. Cusicanqui, S. R. (2010). The notion of “rights” and the paradoxes of postcolonial modernity: Indigenous peoples and women in Bolivia, in «Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences», 18, 2, 29-54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5250/quiparle.18.2.29
  36. Ruspini E. (2019), Millennial men, gender equality and care: The dawn of a revolution?, in «Teorija in Praksa», 56, 4, 985–1000. https://hdl.handle.net/10281/259240
  37. Tellis A. (2012), Disrupting the dinner table: Re-thinking the “queer movement” in contemporary India, in «Jindal Global Law Review», 4, 1, 142–156.
  38. Thomsen T. (eds) (2021), Visibility Interrupted. Rural Queer Life and the Politics of Unbecoming, London: University of Minnesota. Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv1t2mzb8
  39. Valentine G., Skelton T. (2003), Finding oneself, losing oneself: the lesbian and gay “scene” as a paradoxical space, in «International Journal of Urban and Regional Research», 27, 849-866. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0309-1317.2003.00487.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0309-1317.2003.00487.x
  40. Valentine G. (2002), Queer bodies and the production of space, in Richardson D., Seidman S. (eds.), Handbook of lesbian and gay studies, London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 145–160. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608269.n10 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608269.n10
  41. Waitt G., Gorman-Murray A. (2011), “It’s about time you came out”: Sexualities, mobility and home, in «Antipode», 43, 1380-1403. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00876.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00876.x