Western Leveraged Pedagogy of Central and Eastern Europe: Discourses of Homophobia, Tolerance, and Nationhood

Kulpa, Robert

Abstract

This article focuses on the relations between the two geo-temporal categories – Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and West/Europe – in discussions about sexual politics, homophobia, tolerance, and nationhood. It contributes to the existing literature about homonationalism and sexual nationalisms by introducing CEE to the debate's geographical loci, so far mostly invested in West/Europe and its relations to Islam. It argues that it is important to consider CEE in sexual nationalism debates because of its framing as the European (homophobic) Other in the emerging discourses of ‘homoinclusive Europe’. This article introduces the concept of leveragedpedagogy, which captures the specificity of the West/Europe – CEE discourses of sexual liberation, advancement, and backwardness. Leveraged pedagogy is a hegemonic didactical relation where the CEE figures as an object of the West/European ‘pedagogy’, and is framed as permanently ‘post-communist’, ‘in transition’ (i.e. not liberal, not yet, not enough), and homophobic. Such ‘taking care of’ CEE, it is argued, is a form of cultural hegemony of the Western EUropean liberal model of rights as the universal.

Citation

Kulpa, R. (2014). Western Leveraged Pedagogy of Central and Eastern Europe: Discourses of Homophobia, Tolerance, and Nationhood. Gender, Place and Culture, 21(4), 431-448. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.793656

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 25, 2012
• Online Publication Date: May 23, 2013
• Publication Date: 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 7, 2021
• Print ISSN: 0966-369X
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 431-448
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.793656
• Keywords: leveraged pedagogy, homonationalism, sexual nationalism, Central and Eastern Europe, West, European parliament,
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2713802
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2013.793656