Great Queer Provocation: The Seriously Playful Recognition Game

Queer cultures are vibrant components of the constantly transforming societies of the 21st century. This is both socially and anthropologically recognizable, as well as individually readable. Categories such as wealth, success, amusement, but also sexuality and beauty have undergone major changes within queer subcultures and have influenced the reality of life for the general public. The entanglements in heteronormative systems and capitalist orders are increasingly putting a queer point of view under pressure, so that the question seems justified: What makes someone or something queer? Martin Gössl reflects on the possibilities of queer recognition in different social contexts.

Martin J. Gössl (Dr. phil.), born in 1983, is a professor of gender/queer studies at the Institute of Social Work at Fachhochschule Joanneum - Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften in Graz (Austria). He is also the Women, Gender and Sexuality Network Representative of the Social Science and History Association (SSHA). His research interests include queer cultural and social dimensions in post-modern, virtualized societies.