Session-Organisation 'Sexualität(en) im Wandel', ÖGS Kongress 2019

From September 26th to 28th 2019, together with Kathrin Gärtner (FH Wiener Neustadt) and Martin Gössl (FH Joanneum Graz), Stefan Ossmann wrote the call and hosed the panel 'Sexuality and change' at the Kongress der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Salzburg.

Here is the Call, all details how to apply here.

Sexuality and change

While biological and psychological approaches of sexuality emphasize its presupposed inevitable and unchangeable nature, sociology focuses on how society not only influences, but also constructs sexuality. In doing so, the focus shifts away from the presumption of universality and stability towards the diversity and changeability of sexuality as well as sexualities. Social change with its changing conditions, concepts and constructions of family, kinship, partnership, and intimacies thus implies a change in sexual practices and sexual identities. Given that sexuality is still considered as something inherently private in modern societies, it can be assumed that changes in sexual practices and identities follow a different dynamic over time than changes in other social spheres. Furthermore, negotiations of sexual scripts, norms and identities are typically carried out implicitly and not as part of the public discourse, which can make it difficult to detect the exact mechanisms of change.

The proposed session invites submissions which highlight changes of sexual scripts, identities, attitudes, cultures and actions and which ideally connect these to social change in general. Of special interest are intermediate mechanisms connecting more general social processes with individual as well as partner sexuality. Possible topics could be recent developments like the rise of consensual non-monogamous relationships, current discussions on consent in sexual encounters or the increased visibility of various sexual identities, as well as less visible changes, shifts, breaks or continuities within this range of topics. As the time dimension of observing processes of social change empirically poses substantial methodological challenges as well as issues of data availability, the proposed session shall also include studies linking current data with older evidence or reconstructing the link between society and sexuality on a general level, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the interplay between social and sexual change.