Not gay as in happy, but queer as in fuck you : an examination into how subaltern counterpublics contribute to understanding social change towards commons management

Abstract: Optimal management of the commons to ensure sustainability relies on community management. Despite widespread knowledge of this, conventional wisdom is locked into how much the state should regulate the market. Free market ideology, defined as neoliberalism, promotes a culture of extreme competition and individualism which stand in contrast to the needed cultures of participation and inclusion for commons management. In this way, pervasive cultures of neoliberalism undermine society’s ability to address sustainability issues. Extensive scholarship on commons management has proven it to be a feasible alternative of governance, but the state is yet to consider the alternative. This thesis explores the practices of a community who have experienced oppression to determine how they organise in the face of a hostile socio-political context. Framing the queer community play parties as a case of subaltern counterpublic demonstrates the influence these spaces have on creating social change. Using tendencies for inclusion as a framework obtained through research, I was able to demonstrate the ways the queer party would ensure inclusion through discursive exchange. Results illustrated that meeting the needs of the community means ensuring participation by creating inclusive social structures. This case study presents valuable insights for sustainability issues in two ways. On the one hand, these spaces promote cultures that push back against the neoliberal influence. While on the other, the spaces create substantive measures of participation and inclusion, principles called for in commons management.