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Engaging with visual methodology literature and the concept of 'family display', this article examines how visual methods can generate new ways of understanding the (in)visibility of queer family life. Engaging Chinese lesbians in image-making and photo-elicitation interviews, I illustrate how visual methods give access to different ways of making sense of 'family', including the 'everyday', the 'imaginary', and the 'void'. By exploring the image-maker's intentions, the presence or absence of the image-maker, and diverse ways of displaying family, I show how visual methods can facilitate the display of family ties, tensions, and ideals. Adopted in an open format that allows flexibility and creativity, visual methods generate space for participants to communicate the unrealisable and unseeable and for researchers to examine how dominant heteronormative representations and discourses around the 'family' restrict possibilities of displaying family. I highlight the importance of maintaining openness and sensitivity to cultural peculiarities when adopting visual methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how lesbians and gay men imagine and build their 'intimate networks of care' and negotiate moral expectations towards intergenerational family care as they age. To date, little is known about the strength and complexities of different intimate ties or the role of intergenerational dynamics in shaping ageing sexual minority people's care needs and choices. Based on narrative interviews with ageing Chinese lesbians and gay men, the findings reveal their experiences of constantly juggling their ties with families of origin, moral values around intergenerational care and the urge to receive support from and offer support to chosen networks of people. Participants exercised agency in expanding their networks of care by building friendship and (online and offline) community networks for mutual care and support in later life. Nevertheless, as evidenced by the centrality of ageing with(out) children, and the moral obligation of caring for parents in participants' narratives, participants experienced tensions between enacting what was considered morally right/wrong and developing networks of care that were perceived as emotionally intimate. Linking relational sociology with the sociology of morality, we discuss the conceptual utility of 'intimate networks of care' for sociological theorising of the linkages between sexuality, care and relational lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is intended to explore the link between the study of defamilisation and that of the adult worker model. To meet this purpose, a defamilisation framework for studying issues concerning the adult worker model and defamilisation is developed. To show the empirical significance of these issues, evidence is drawn from a childcare gap typology covering eight European countries. Conducting these analytical tasks provides insights into the development of social work practices for enhancing women's welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the ways in which lesbians' economic and intimate lives are closely intertwined amid neoliberal development in the urban landscape. Previous research on queer urban life has primarily drawn attention to commodified gay neighbourhoods and other sites for sexual consumption, which are often marketised as part of a liberal and queer-friendly urban landscape, in Euro-American contexts. Such a focus is not adequate, however, to capture the complex interplay between intimacy and commodification in contemporary societies. Drawing upon interviews with 35 lesbians in Beijing, this study shows how the market is experienced by lesbians as a site of queer agency and vulnerability under neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics. The findings reveal 'commodified forms of intimacy', through which lesbians actively engage in the labour market and (queer-targeted) pink market in order to develop their intimate relations. Meanwhile, 'intimatised forms of commodification' illustrate how women's gendered and sexual expressions are closely policed and evaluated in the workplace as a site of both economic production and the reproduction of social norms. Participants were conscious of their vulnerable position as women and lesbians in the marketplace, but they were active in strategising ways to navigate urban landscapes of heteronormativity and gender inequalities. This article helps to develop a deeper understanding of the complicated and contradictory impacts of neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics on queer communities. It contributes to urban sociology and sexuality studies by mapping the multiple connections between commodified relations and intimate relations in the neoliberal city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines underexplored aspects of family imaginaries by examining lesbians' ways of thinking and feeling about having children. Drawing on in-depth interviews with lesbians in Beijing, China, I illustrate their agency and difficulties in pursuing parenthood through assisted reproductive technology or other unconventional means and redrawing the boundaries of the family. Building on the concept of family imaginaries and insights into relational selfhood, I identify three types of 'dialectical family imaginaries' in lesbians' accounts of reproductive decision making: imaginaries of bridging, bonding and self-fashioning. These imaginaries are dialectical in the sense that they reproduce cultural ideals of what it means to be related and simultaneously generate new ways of pursuing parenthood while lesbians juggle filial affection and personal, pragmatic goals. This article highlights the sociological utility of 'dialectical family imaginaries' for exploring different forms and meanings of relatedness negotiated between the self, family and intergenerational relations, and wider society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines older women's experiences of searching for face masks and handling mask-related issues during COVID-19. Set within the context of the Hong Kong government's policy reaction to the shortage of masks in early 2020, the article draws on interviews with 40 older women in Hong Kong to identify their various forms of vulnerability to welfare threats and their active and diverse responses in times of crisis. The findings reveal the implications of the government's residual policy response for people's vulnerability to welfare threats. They also carry practical implications for the support that social workers can provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been identified as a public health issue among both heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) populations. While attention has often been paid to IPV among heterosexual couples, there is limited research on the causes of and interventions for IPV confronting same-sex couples, especially those in non-Euro-American contexts. This article highlights the "double closet" nature of same-sex IPV, and, in particular, the triply marginalized position of lesbian victims of IPV due to their gender, sexuality, and experiences of violence in China. Extending ongoing discussions about minority stress faced by sexual minority people, it reveals how the daily stressors associated with identity concealment, coupled with relational selfhood and heteronormative institutional constraints, complicate lesbian relationships and violence in China. Focusing on the family-centered context provides an important window into the ways in which the perceived need to stay in the closet (hide one's sexual identity) and rejection from the family of origin and the state influence lesbians' experiences of IPV and inhibit many of them from disclosing violence. This article builds a dialogue between discussions of the closet and existing literature on IPV. It concludes by drawing attention to the need to break the silence around IPV and build alliances for developing culturally sensitive interventions aimed at addressing IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how Chinese lesbians and gay men make sense of the prospect of growing old and plan for later life in Hong Kong, where same-sex relationships are yet to be legally recognized. Drawing on in-depth narrative interviews, the results show that lesbians and gay men in midlife reported a range of previous, current, and anticipated challenges associated with the stigma attached to homosexuality. These, in turn, shaped their ways of perceiving and planning for later life. Three forms of reflexivity in response to minority stress and the prospect of aging were identified: coping with fears of aging alone, striving for self-mastery, and planning ahead with feelings of wariness. Participants' concerns and plans around aging demonstrated differing degrees of reflexivity, through which they attempted to navigate family norms and structural constraints and find ways to accumulate resources for later life. Meanwhile, their heightened sense of uncertainty and insecurity showed that their perceptions and experiences of aging were influenced by minority stress and material, familial, and socio-political circumstances. This article builds a constructive dialogue between sexuality and aging studies by unraveling both the aging insecurity and capacities for reflexive planning among an oft-neglected group of sexual minority people in midlife.

There have been ongoing discussions about the ways in which the Internet has created new spaces for sexual minority individuals to meet, communicate, and build their communities in recent decades. Nevertheless, previous studies have paid disproportionate attention to identity politics, civil society, and rights-based movements. They have largely overlooked other possible forms of, and orientations toward, engagement with cyberspace, particularly those that have emerged and been restricted in non-Western contexts. This article examines Chinese lesbians' experiences of using cyberspace and the extent to which these experiences help them develop their intimate and family lives. Drawing on interview data and developing a framework that combines queer counterpublics scholarship with insights drawn from the notion of relational selfhood, this study reveals a wide range of personal, familial, and socio-political motivations for (not) engaging in cyberspace and the mixed feelings of connection and distance experienced by participants. By identifying three forms of (dis)engagement with cyberspace: those demonstrated by 'pioneers', 'skeptics', and 'conflicted pragmatists', this study expands the notion of queer counterpublics beyond its focus on civic and political participation and illustrates the contested and contingent nature of Chinese queer counterpublics. It shows that Chinese lesbians' interactions in cyberspace enable them to explore non-traditional paths to family formation and motherhood. Meanwhile, these interactions expose them to tensions between the new possibilities revealed by online spaces and established socio-political and familial norms. I argue that prevailing heterosexual norms, coupled with material concerns and the regulatory power of the family and the state, continue to restrict the transformative potential of cyberspace and push some lesbians to withdraw from cyberspace into themselves and refrain from taking part in collective action. The article concludes with some reflections on queer counterpublics and the complex interplay between online and offline lives in the digital age., (© 2021 The Author. The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science.)