Scenes - A prototypical social field for (re-)negotiating gender arrangements?

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Michael Meuser; Dr. Arne Niederbacher
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 265265754

Individuals can participate in scenes regardless of their social origins, meaning the focus of participation is on the respective topic of a scene (topical focus). The position in which an individual participates results from scene-relevant skills and engagement in the topic of the scene. To such an extent, scenes ideally constitute social spaces where social origin is no criterion for access and an individual can "realize its own potential" without having to extensively commit. Whether or not the position in which an individual participates (somehow) ascribes relevance to gender, and whether scenes can be understood as a prototypical field for (re-)negotiating gender arrangements shall be explored on the basis of three scenes: Rockabilly, Visual Kei, and Sport Climbing. Those scenes distinguish 1) in how far their respective traditional gender patterns are being reproduced or gender borders are being transcended, 2) whether gender can be regarded as meaningless for scene-participation, or whether the scene is connoted clearly male or female, and 3) whether gender is explicitly scene-themed, or whether an implicit renegotiating of gender arrangements takes place. Gender orientations and gender arrangements shall be reconstructed on the basis of group discussions. Furthermore, by means of biographic-narrative interviews with selected members of the discussion groups the potential for implementation of scene-typical gender orientations outside the scene context shall be explored; that is whether and to what extent the scene-internal gender arrangement occurs in everyday life.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants