Researchers: Principal Investigator: Alison Bain (91ÑÇÉ«), Co-Investigator: Julie Podmore (John Abbott College)
Cultural infrastructure – the physical, economic, commercial, creative, institutional, and digital foundations of community life – can be a source of more substantive municipal social inclusions for marginalized groups. Queer cultural infrastructure (QCI), an emerging target of social inclusion policy, provides vital social support, organizational structure, cultural expression, and social opportunities for urban LGBTQ+ communities. However, its possibilities are often underappreciated and variable. How can we best reconcile the socio-spatial disparities generated by urban neoliberalism’s performative policy agendas for creative and inclusive cities that prioritize the needs of investors, tourists, and skilled workers?
This four-year research program (2025-2029) advances knowledge on the role of QCI in municipal social inclusion agendas by comparing the governance regimes of cities inside and outside the international LGBTQ+ urban policy Rainbow Cities Network (RCN). It challenges scholars, urban practitioners, and the public to imagine how QCI can augment LGBTQ+ recognition, wellbeing, and belonging in cities. It also explores the many modalities of inclusion-enhancing QCI through a set of eight global urban case studies that bridge global North/South geographies and linguistic contexts. It traces four pairs of cities in terms of QCI initiatives in the production/performance/consumption/collection cycle: production (sites of creative experimentation and expression) focuses on queer artist-run studio and exhibition spaces; consumption (time-limited and visceral embodiments on front and back stages) attends to queer indie theatres; consumption (community disruptions to place- and lifestyle-branding opportunities) considers queer radical bookstores; and collection (institutional reconfigurations of community memory) studies queer community archives. International variations at each stage in the production/performance/consumption/collection cycle will advance societal understandings of the place of QCI in LGBTQ+ inclusion, offering civic benefit through the diversification and comparison of policies and practices.
This project has been made possible through a financial contribution from, and the associated universities and partners. The views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of those involved.
