‘Intersectionality’, Socialist Feminism and Contemporary Activism: Musings by a Second‐Wave Socialist Feminist

1970s socialist feminist theory in the USA, like older socialist feminisms, anticipated much of today's ‘intersectionality’ by recognising multiple forms of domination and refusing to rank them in importance. Today's intersectionality has gone further in incorporating LBGTQ values and in the term's use by many activist groups. That activist appropriation of an originally academic term, arising from critical legal feminism, illustrates a striking example of a feminist label moving outward, no doubt partly through women's studies programmes. At the same time, the concept, in both academic and activist usage, has drifted toward emphasising some aspects of domination while occluding others, especially economic inequality, and occasionally emphasising a pluralist, empiricist understanding of diversity that omits matters of power. This article proceeds by tracing the precursors to intersectionality in second‐wave feminism, notably its socialist feminist stream; then considering its development in academic women's/gender studies scholarship; and finally, surveying its use by activists in recent years.     

Can Lost Maps Speak? Toward a Cultural History of Map Reading in Medieval China

Despite the fact that virtually no Chinese maps have survived from the first millennium, it is nonetheless possible to reconstruct a rich context associated with their production, use and perception from a variety of written sources. Three cases from the Tang dynasty (618–907 ce) are presented in this article in which the characteristics of the missing maps emerge through their associated texts, which have outlasted them. These examples include two documents that once accompanied maps presented to the emperor and an anecdote that refers to a map of the remote southern frontier. They demonstrate that the maps were designed not only to encapsulate imperial territory but also to serve as guideposts for aspirational travel. They were also perceived by their users as invitations to experiences both desirable and undesirable.     

A trip to the library: homelessness and social inclusion

This article explores homeless men's visits to a public library. It shows how homeless men identified the library as a space for safety and social participation, at a time when the regional newspaper published an item questioning the appropriateness of their presence in the library. The news report promotes universal narratives that would exclude homeless people, showing the intimate relationship between the symbolic space of news, the material space of the local library, and the lifeworlds of homeless men. We report fieldwork in which we interviewed homeless men, library staff and patrons. In addition, we worked with journalists on follow-up articles foregrounding the positive function of the library in homeless men's lives, and to challenge existing news narratives that advocate the exclusion of ‘the homeless’ from prime public spaces.     

Stories of lifestyle mobility: representing self and place in the search for the ‘good life’

In recent decades, mobility researchers have paid increasing attention to the flows of relatively privileged individuals whose mobility practices are largely understood to be lifestyle-motivated, consumption-led and tourism-induced (e.g. Benson, M., & O'Reilly, K. (Eds.). (2009). Lifestyle migration: Expectations, aspirations and experiences. Surrey: Ashgate; King, R., Warnes, A. M., & Williams, A. M. (2000). Sunset lives: British retirement migration to the Mediterranean. Oxford: Berg). Situated within the context of lifestyle mobilities, this paper aims to analyse the significance of place and representations of place in the movers' stories of mobility. The mobility experiences of Swedish retirees practicing routinised and seasonal mobility between Sweden and Malta have been analysed, and this paper explores how they actively give meaning to their choices and decisions. In their narratives, the movers express their representations of themselves in relation not only to their imaginings of places and to their belongings to and engagements with these places, but also to their mobility practices. The findings contribute to a discussion of how place imaginaries and self-identities are constructed through lifestyle mobility practices.