Sexuality Research and Social Policy

, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp 58–66 | Cite as

Reinventing Sexual Scripts: Sexuality and Social Change in the Twenty-First Century (The 2008 John H. Gagnon Distinguished Lecture on Sexuality, Modernity and Change)

The John H. Gagnon Distinguished Lecture
First Online:

Abstract

This article focuses on the politics and practice of sexuality in the early twenty-first century. Drawing on a set of case studies from diverse societies in different regions of the world, the author examines both the intersection of and the tension between grassroots struggles for sexual freedom and transnational movements for sexual rights within the broader context of ongoing global transformations. Building on John Gagnon and William Simon's pioneering work on sexual scripts, the author explores the ways in which the rapidly changing politics of sexuality contribute to the reinvention of sexual meanings and intimate relations across a wide range of diverse social settings and contexts. This article is based on the author's presentation for the 2008 John H. Gagnon Distinguished Lecture on Sexuality, Modernity and Change.

Keywords

Politics Social movements Sexual rights Transnational Sexual diversity 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This article was originally prepared for presentation as the second annual John H. Gagnon Distinguished Lecture on Sexuality, Modernity and Social Change, at the invitation of the Department of Human Sexuality Studies and the Institute for Sexuality, Inequality, and Health at San Francisco State University. Special thanks to Professor Gilbert Herdt and his colleagues at San Francisco State University for the invitation, and for their wonderful hospitality. Thanks also to Nancy Worthington from the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University for her extremely helpful editorial assistance.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public HealthColumbia UniversityNew YorkUSA

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