Signifying Laws: Regulating Sex and Sexuality in the Global Field of Nations

• In Event: 594 - Regular Session. Sociology of Sexuality: Sexualities, Social Movements, and the Law

Abstract

What drives the regulation of sex and sexuality across nations and across time? My aim in this paper is to understand the role geo-political factors play in shaping law. Most literature describes sexual regulation as domestic in scope, discounting the relational positions of nation-states within the global field. Neo-institutional scholars, however, suggest nations are influenced not only by internal culture, but also by relationships to a larger geo-political community. Drawing upon and pushing further this literature, I argue that to understand fully how nations regulate sex and sexuality, we must look beyond their internal cultures, beyond their religious traditions and social mores, toward their geo-political, relational position in a global field of nations. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and John Meyer, and analyzing data from over 100 countries using multiple correspondence analysis and event history analysis, I investigate the complex relationship between a country’s laws and its geo-political position.

Author

• Jason L Ferguson, University of California-Berkeley