Rambarran-Gill, Nastassia Sharana (2024) A comparative analysis of Barbados and Guyana with respect to colonial legacies, transnational processes and decolonizing activities involved in queer activism. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
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Abstract
This study offers an examination of queer social movements through an analysis of both transnational and decolonizing relations. It does this through a systematic comparative analysis of queer (or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer plus (LGBTQ+)) activism in the two Caribbean countries of Barbados and Guyana. These sites share historical and cultural similarities, but differ geopolitically and demographically, with one important demographic difference being the presence of Indigenous peoples in Guyana. This context lent to a distinctive decolonizing methodology and the engagement of varying strands of social movement theory to examine how the trajectories of queer activism have been influenced by the overlapping forces of British colonialism and transnationalism, as well as other internal factors. The thesis advances the central argument that while the general queer activism arcs, movement dynamics and transnational relations in the two countries bear many commonalities, early key differences in the colonial milieu have resulted in moderate but significant and demonstrable divergences in particularities like strategies, political opportunities, funding landscapes, collective identity, movement cohesion, transnational engagements and interactions with Indigeneity. Queer activists’ transnational engagements with Global North actors occurred on a spectrum of power hierarchies and decolonizing considerations. Activists also utilized more implicit decolonizing praxes while proffering other paths of resistance to coloniality’s multi-pronged presence. Within these navigations, it is argued that deeper attention can be paid to decolonizing, and enhancing relational interactions, at both the transnational and local levels. These arguments emerged from online and archival research, participant observation and qualitative semi-structured qualitative interviews with forty-two activists in Barbados, Guyana and representatives from collaborating organizations in the Global North. Overall, this research makes a notable contribution to queer sociological analysis in the Global South by addressing both transnational and decolonizing elements of queer activism simultaneously. Grounded in activist realties, it also illustrates the critical necessity of contextual decolonial considerations around Indigeneity and the continuing effects of coloniality in queer activism, while offering possibilities for reorientations.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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Qualification Level: | Doctoral |
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
Colleges/Schools: | College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences |
Supervisor's Name: | Waites, Dr. Matthew and Hume, Professor Mo |
Date of Award: | 2024 |
Depositing User: | Theses Team |
Unique ID: | glathesis:2024-84629 |
Copyright: | Copyright of this thesis is held by the author. |
Date Deposited: | 23 Oct 2024 15:17 |
Last Modified: | 30 Oct 2024 09:55 |
Thesis DOI: | 10.5525/gla.thesis.84629 |
URI: | https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84629 |
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