Genders, Sexualities and Cities: Global Contexts and Local Possibilities

This article is primarily a review of international research-based literatures that explore the three areas of genders, sexualities and cities and the intersections between them. Its purpose is to explore the ways in which diverse literatures bring gender and sexuality studies to the city, and city studies to exploration of genders and sexualities. The article intends to locate this special issue, informing those interested in widening the field, and generating new questions for conceptualisation, research and writing in the coming decades. It draws cautiously on global conceptualisation of the issues, then sets out a variety of approaches including feminist, gay, queer and related perspectives. It moves on to the ways in which gender and sexualities research might contribute to “better cities”. The article also outlines contributions to this special issue of the journal on “Genders, sexualities and place: (Re)Imagining and (re)making urban spaces”, relating them to themes in global literature.