Richardson, ‘Sexual politics and knowledge production’, 2025

Diane Richardson, ‘Sexual politics and knowledge production’, Sexualities, 2025

Abstract

This paper analyses the constitutive effects of ‘progressive’ sexual politics at international and national levels on sexual epistemology. It contributes to longstanding and continuing debates regarding social constructionist and essentialist approaches, arguing that both oppositional and ‘progressive’ approaches to ‘sexual democracy’ have resulted in a revitalisation and increasing authoritative use of the concept of sexual orientation. The paper critically reflects on both global and state level incorporation of this category into ‘progressive’ laws and policies, recognising that this has important implications for theory and practice. It does so through an examination of four key sites of contemporary knowledge production about sexuality associated with rights-based politics: struggles over sexualities equalities in relation to citizenship status, the adoption of the SOGI framework in human rights discourse, immigration and the claiming of asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation, and population level data collection on sexuality.