Manchester has been the cultural heart of the United Kingdom for decades. Facilitating a vibrant nightlife for so many different types of partygoers. Especially the LGBTQIA+ scene in Manchester’s...Show moreManchester has been the cultural heart of the United Kingdom for decades. Facilitating a vibrant nightlife for so many different types of partygoers. Especially the LGBTQIA+ scene in Manchester’s Gay Village was the driving force behind Manchester acquiring the title of the cultural heart. From the early fifties onwards, the neighborhood now known as the Gay Village has been the home of many establishments wherein community was built. The contribution to the liberation of rights for the LGBTQIA+ Britain’s by Manchester’s LGBTQIA+ community have been immense. After many years of great success, the number of gayborhood establishments in Manchester are now declining. This trend can be identified in gayborhoods in and around the Global North. Gentrification and the hybridization of physical space can be held responsible for this disappearance of gayborhoods and LGBTQIA+ safe spaces. The shift in demand for the type of safe space can be attributed to digitalization and technological advancements paired with the growing need for intersectional discourse.Show less
In the former Dutch East Indies, a large group of mixed-race Indo-Dutch people resided through years of mixed-race relations between European men and Indonesian women. In the colony, they had a...Show moreIn the former Dutch East Indies, a large group of mixed-race Indo-Dutch people resided through years of mixed-race relations between European men and Indonesian women. In the colony, they had a distinct place in society, although the community was widely diverse in economic and social status as well as the way in which they ethnically defined themselves. After the Second World War and subsequent Indonesian independence, many Indo-Dutch people relocated to the Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, other countries. In this postcolonial society, Indo-Dutch people were forced to renegotiate their social identity. This happened not only in correspondence with their receiving societies but also within the context of the diaspora and Indo-Dutch community life. It is precisely the implications of the latter that this thesis aims to explore through an intersectional lens, focusing mainly on notions of gender, race, and class. It draws on interviews with eleven Indo-Dutch people, as well as newspaper articles from the magazine Tong Tong and other primary source materials. It was found that there is a wide array of self-identifications and perceived identities of Indo-Dutch people, further enhanced by the in-group power dynamics brought about by gender, class, and (perceived) racial differences. Because of this, certain individuals were not only forced to renegotiate their social identities in the context of the receiving societies but were further marginalized within the context of the diaspora. Further, it was found that it was this variety of identities as well as these (internal) power dynamics that made it difficult to create and cultivate a unified Indo-Dutch (diasporic) identity.Show less
In dit essay heb ik geanalyseerd welke rol zwart activisme speelde in de Nederlandse lhbt-emancipatie in de jaren tachtig. Ik concludeer dat het verschillende rollen heeft gespeeld. Allereerst...Show moreIn dit essay heb ik geanalyseerd welke rol zwart activisme speelde in de Nederlandse lhbt-emancipatie in de jaren tachtig. Ik concludeer dat het verschillende rollen heeft gespeeld. Allereerst richtte zwart activisme zich op het vergroten van de zichtbaarheid van homoseksualiteit binnen eigen culturen, bijvoorbeeld door uit te komen voor hun seksualiteit tegenover familie en vrienden en hier met hen over te praten. Ten tweede waren zwarte lhbt-organisaties fundamenteel in het faciliteren van contacten binnen en tussen verschillende minderheidsgroepen door het organiseren van sociale bijeenkomsten en verenigingen waar deze groepen elkaar konden ontmoeten. Zoals D’Emilio stelde, waren de gezelligheidsverenigingen en gespreksgroepen even belangrijk voor de emancipatie van homoseksuelen als de formele vormen van activisme, omdat ze zichtbaarheid en herkenning boden aan minderheidsgroeperingen. Ten derde heeft zwart activisme bijgedragen aan de emancipatie van zwarte lhbt’ers door informatievoorzieningen en archieven op te zetten in Nederland, waar informatie over de geschiedenissen van verschillende culturele achtergronden in Nederland toegankelijk werd voor het bredere publiek. Ten slotte hebben zwarte activisten een belangrijke rol gespeeld in bestrijden van racisme en (seksuele) vooroordelen binnen de witte homogemeenschap. De Afro-Amerikaanse lhbt-activist Marscha P. Johnson zei: ’No pride for some of us, without liberation for all of us’. Deze bekende uitspraak benadrukt het belang van racismebestrijding binnen de lhbt-gemeenschap: witte lhbt'ers zijn niet vrij totdat zwarte lhbt'ers dezelfde vrijheid delen.Show less
This research aims to understand the process of belonging by analysing where and how Syrian refugees experience belonging in the Netherlands. Against the background of national integration debates...Show moreThis research aims to understand the process of belonging by analysing where and how Syrian refugees experience belonging in the Netherlands. Against the background of national integration debates that have defined belonging and integration in the Netherlands in synonymity with being able to culturally assimilate, it is argued that that seeing belonging in terms of cultural assimilation has led to heavy focus on integration criteria like language acquisition, labour market entry, and education as conditions for being able to feel “at home”. As the data collected from semi-structured interviews show and by using Antonsich’ conceptualisation of place-belongingness as a foundation from which the process of belonging is explored, it is emphasised that feeling “at home” is a multidimensional process that stretches between and beyond different locations, with refugees developing different methods to adapt to new environments, circumstances, and communities in order to be able to feel “at home”. Apart from the physical home functioning as a safe and private environment where one can be ‘at ease’ in, the data gathered from the interviews show that experiencing feeling “at home” within the physical home is under constant negotiating with the neighbourhood environment as social connections and encounters in the direct neighbourhood affect feeling “at home” in the physical home itself, showing that the physical home is not merely an impermeable private stronghold but rather a starting point from which other places in the wider neighbourhood environment are explored. In addition to the analysis of this feeling “at home” in the physical home, concrete public places are explored for their unique qualities and provide a person with possibilities to attach to new places when such qualities are recognised. Specifically, places of restoration and places of sociality are claimed to enable belonging by their capabilities to increase self-awareness through active participation. Exploring public spaces like buurthuizen and nursing homes enabled the respondents to be a caregiver instead of a care-receiver, adding an existential dimension to their perception on how belonging is experienced and meaningful place-attachment is effectuated on a local scale.Show less
