Mapping Queer Relationalities: An Exploration of Communication at the Edges of Cultural Unintelligibility

• Published in: Journal of homosexuality Vol. 70; no. 1; pp. 1 - 16
• Main Authors: Yep, Gust A., Chrifi Alaoui, Fatima Zahrae, Lescure, Ryan M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Routledge 02-01-2023; Taylor & Francis LLC
• Subjects: Communication; cultural intelligibility; epistemic justice; Heteronormativity; Mapping; normative violence; Organizational communication; queer relationality; sexual minorities; Sexuality; unintelligibility
• ISSN: 0091-8369; 1540-3602
• DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2022.2103875

Focusing on queer relationality, broadly conceptualized as minoritarian subjects' modes of relating, engaging, and connecting with others in a symbolic and material landscape of erasure and cultural unintelligibility, this special issue highlights their communication practices and relational experiences. In so doing, it attempts to mitigate epistemic injustice, a wrong perpetrated against minoritarian subjects in their capacity as knower and legitimate source of their own experiences, by making their practices and experiences known and legible in mainstream heteronormative culture. The purpose of our article is to offer a preliminary mapping of queer relationalities, ranging from communication practices to modes of sociality and relational formations that exist at the edges of mainstream cultural unintelligibility. To do so, we first explore the vast domain of queer relationality. Next, we identify and examine multiple ways of thinking, doing, and imagining queer relationality. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical, methodological, and political implications of current work on queer relationality assembled in this issue and explore future directions for research.