Sexuality and Citizenship in Europe: Socio-Legal and Human Rights Perspectives
Social & Legal Studies, 2018, Issue 2 (Forthcoming)
14 Pages Posted: 22 Aug 2017
Date Written: April 2017
Abstract
In her first monograph, European Sexual Citizenship: Human Rights, Bodies and Identities, Francesca Ammaturo offers us an authoritative and fluid analysis of the intersections between citizenship, human rights and sexual minorities. The book has a strong Foucauldian flavour, exploring the ways in which power relationships are produced in this context. Ammaturo crafts a smooth flow of ideas, arguments and sources that address in a comprehensive fashion how these intersections need to be unpacked, dissected and brought to daylight for everyone’s benefit. And she does so in an accessible and ambitious way, without ever becoming simplistic or obscure – no mean feat. In this review essay, I will explore some of the book’s key arguments and touch on some differences of opinion. Perhaps these differences are mostly the result of different disciplinary backgrounds: whilst Ammaturo is fundamentally an international relations and social sciences scholar – thus perhaps more concerned with broader policy and institutional mechanisms – I am fundamentally a lawyer – thus more inclined by training to concentrate on particular policy-making areas and require strong evidence to substantiate final conclusions. This review essay will thus reflect the challenges faced by all of us academics in the field of socio-legal studies and inter-disciplinary research more generally.
Keywords: citizenship, sexuality, gender identity, LGBT, human rights, asylum, refugees, European Union, ECHR
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