The Power of Love and Queering Citizenship: Lgbtqi+ Movements and the Making of Solidarity

Recent sociological debates have increasingly highlighted the public dimension of love as a relational force capable of generating recognition, solidarity, care, and civic engagement beyond the private sphere. Within this framework, Queer movements offer a particularly significant lens through which to examine how struggles for visibility, dignity, and equal rights contribute to broader processes of social transformation.

This session explores the role of Queer and LGBTQI+ movements in fostering cultures of recognition and practices of care that strengthen democratic life and social cohesion. Far from being limited to claims for legal inclusion, these movements have often generated networks of mutual support, collective resilience, and civic participation, producing what may be understood as an “invisible capital” of communities and nations: a set of relational resources that enhances trust, solidarity, and social integration.

The session invites theoretical and empirical contributions addressing the relationship between social love, recognition, citizenship, collective action, and queer activism. Papers may engage with contemporary sociological debates or present case studies from diverse cultural contexts.