PLUGGING IN TO QUEER IN GOTHENBURG. An Emotion and Power-Sensitive In-depth Group Study on Being Queer in Gothenburg

Abstract: This study aims to extend the existing knowledge of how different queer persons experience being queer in Gothenburg and in extension, attend to emotions and power relations in the process of knowledge production. The study applies Donna Haraway’s situated knowledge, Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology and theory on what emotions do, and Karen Barad’s theory of intra- action and diffraction. The study is based on an in-depth group consisting and of four queer persons living in Gothenburg and the individual journals that were written by the participants after each of the four meetings. With its basis in the report Norm-breaking Lives in Gothenburg, the in depth-group discussions revolved around experiences of being queer in Gothenburg. The material from the in-depth group and the journals is analysed through a diffractive reading by applying the process of plugging in. The study concludes that Gothenburg is still a straight and cis space where some queer bodies feel more comfortable and are able to affect the city’s work with questions regarding LGBTQ more than others. Further, the study forms an understanding of the importance of attending to emotions and power relations in the process of knowledge production to enable an understanding of why a certain knowledge is produced in place of another.