Lexington Books Sexuality, Rurality, and Geography

This international edited collection contributes to knowledge about the geographies of sexualities experienced and imagined in rural spaces. The book draws attention to the heterogeneity of rural contexts and the diversity of meanings about sexualities within and across these spaces. The collection examines four key themes. First, 'Intimacies and Institutions' focuses on how intimate relationships are governed by societal, discursive and institutional structures, and regulated by social, political and legal frames of citizenship and belonging. The chapters present historical and contemporary case studies of the constitution and management of intimate sexual lives and relationships in rural and non-metropolitan spaces. Second, 'Communities' explores how sexual identities are socially-constructed and relationally-performed in rural communities, scrutinizing the complex interplay of belonging and alienation, inclusion and exclusion, for sexual subjects and communities within rural spaces. Analyzing films, literature and interviews, the chapters examine sexuality and community, and "queer" notions of rural family and community. Third, 'Mobilities' examines movement/migration at different scales. Cross-national data provides insights into similarities and differences in rural migration and homemaking for lesbians, gay men and same-sex families. The chapters consider how movement, coming out and memories of time and place inflect home, identity and belonging for rural lesbians and gay men. Fourth, 'Production and Consumption' investigates the commodification of rural sexualities. The chapters interrogate the management of animal bodies and sexualities in industrial agriculture for consumer pleasure and commercial ends; how heterosexuality and sexual relations are transacted in mining communities; and the global commodification of rural masculine sexualities. This book is timely. It provides important new insights about ruralities and sexualities, filling a gap in theoretical and empirical understandings about how sexualities in diverse rural spaces are given meaning. This collection begins the processes of furthering discussion and knowledge about the inherently dynamic and constantly changing nature of the rural and the multiple, varied and complex sexual subjectivities lived through corporeal experiences and virtual and imagined lives. Review This timely book brings to center stage an array of complex issues around sexuality as it is experienced, represented, and experimented within rural locales. From the deep south of the United States, to the valleys of mid-Wales, to the heat of the Australian tropics, and the ice of Nordic countries comes a wealth of thoughts and reflections on a wide panoply of intimate relationships. This will be a must-read for all those interested in geographies of desire and how they are complicated and lived by rural inhabitants. It will be a definitive statement of the wonderful queerness of the rural.--Elspeth Probyn Sexuality, Rurality, and Geography is . . . a timely and provocative collection of essays on space and sexuality in dynamic, transnational context . . . . [T]he volume provides an excellent overview of the state of the field for anyone interested in understanding the geographies of sexualities through the lens of the rural. In particular, the volume works very well as a textbook for undergraduate teaching due to its accessible language, exhaustive references and topical diversity. The volume is also warmly recommended to anyone interested in geographies of sexualities.--Lambda Nordica Diverse registers of rurality and sexuality are uniquely placed in this innovative, international collection. 'Global Cowboys' entice as mobile masculinities 'coming out', while 'respectable country girls' suggest mis-fitting femininities. Intimate rural interfaces are richly complicated, embedded in cultural economies and (non)human landscapes of production and consumption, and ex