Gender Fields

by Sofia Aboim, Pedro Vasconcelos

Exploring gender through the lens of field theory, Gender Fields proposes a new framework for understanding the social organisation of gender identity. In conversation with Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, the book conceptualises under-theorised situated dimensions of gender, bridging the gap between macro and micro theories of gender. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted over five years in several countries in Europe and beyond, the authors situate gender as a critical site of autonomous socio-political struggle and highlight the centrality of the transgender experience in redefining gendered personhood and freedom. Increased trans visibility catalysed new social and political arenas of contestation that expanded the potential for reimagining gender norms and identities. The authors examine political and legal arenas, the medical field and health markets, gender naming, individual practices, and material-discursive embodiments, offering new insights into gender change. While numerous explanations have been proposed, this book offers a fresh perspective on these revolutionary developments. Gender Fields characterises gender as a field of struggle through a set of basic tools that can be usefully applied to studies in diverse settings. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with an interest in issues of gender, social theory and identity.

262 pages, Hardcover

Published September 30, 2024

About the author

SOFIA ABOIM é doutorada em Sociologia da Família e da Vida Quotidiana pelo ISCTE, em 2004. Licenciou-se em Sociologia no ISCTE em 1995 e fez o Mestrado em 2000 no ICS-UL, na especialização de ?Família, Olhares Interdisciplinares? É Investigadora Auxiliar no Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa e membro do GEXcel − International Collegium for Advanced Transdisciplinary Gender Studies, sediado nas Universidades de Linköping, Karlstad e Örebro na Suécia. Tem desenvolvido investigação sobre família e mudança social, trajectórias e modelos conjugais, relações e identidades de género, curso de vida e processos de modernização social.Tem publicado livros e artigos sobre estas temáticas, coordenando actualmente o projecto TRANSRIGHTS − Gender citizenship and sexual rights in Europe: Transgender lives from a transnational perspective, financiado pelo European Research Council.