Tensional resonance
Queerness as praxis in grassroots queer spaces
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24020060 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Heini Salminen (0000-0002-1302-6539, Center for the Study of Democracy, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3921 • E-ISSN: 1461-7064 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00113921261466777 |
| OpenAlex | W7172130079 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 36 |
Research on queer urban life has richly captured the construction, claiming, and contestation of diverse queer identities and boundaries of belonging within queer spaces. Yet, it has often overlooked the practice of queerness beyond identity. This article shifts the empirical and analytical focus from identity narratives to queerness as praxis: a collective commitment to shared values, purpose, and action in pursuit of more inclusive and expansive political communities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in grassroots queer spaces and communities in Helsinki, the article demonstrates how queerness is both enacted and experienced through practices that resist categorical boundaries, instead fostering a reflexive and relational mode of engagement and experimentation. The article introduces the concept of tensional resonance as a key feature of queer praxis, capturing the generative friction that arises not despite but because of the tensions and messiness inherent in translating ideals into action. In doing so, it argues for framing tension not as a failure to overcome but as a productive force that can shape how communities hold together and imagine otherwise. The article contributes to broader sociological debates on how marginalized communities negotiate solidarity, community, and collective action in increasingly hostile sociopolitical climates.
Ethnography · Framing (construction) · Grassroots · Narrative · Politics · Praxis · Queer · Reflexivity · Temporality · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Urban Planning and Governance
Cistem Failure
Abductive Analysis
Volatile Bodies
Trans Femme Futures
Black Trans Feminism
The Geography of Research on LGBTQ Life
Queer Pop–Ups
Institutional racism, inclusivity and colour-blindness in the Finnish police
How We Do the Work Is the Work
The whiteness of gay urban belonging
Toronto's gay village (1969–1982)
Sexualities, subjectivities and urban spaces
It’s good to be exclusive’—the political landscape of queer nightlife in vienna
Critical geographies and the uses of sexuality
Safe Space
Finding oneself, losing oneself
Practicing Love
Hope and hopelessness
Mutinous Eruptions
Reclaiming raunch'? Spatializing queer identities at Toronto women's bathhouse events
Flexible Queers, Serious Bodies
Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens
Creating a safer space
Resonance as a Social Phenomenon
No girls allowed
A Theory of Resonance
Everyday utopias and social reproduction
Forging Feminist Identity in an International Movement
As queer refugees, we are out of category, we do not belong to one, or the other
Uncertain Belonging
Patterns of engagement
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |