Niko Antalffy | Macquarie University (original) (raw)

Papers by Niko Antalffy

What does the lived experience of polyamorous people look like in Australia and the US? And who a... more What does the lived experience of polyamorous people look like in Australia and the US? And who are these poly folk demographically? ‘Poly lives’ is an Australian based research project that provides an international comparative analysis of polyamorous people and their everyday lived experience. 20 in-depth structured interviews were carried out, 10 in each country, with a medium length survey attached to each. In this paper I will first present the demographic information from the surveys and analyse the issue of obtaining a representative sample when we know so little about the overall distribution of polyamorous individuals. Secondly, I will present preliminary results from the qualitative analysis of the in-depth interviews, including poly values, safer sex negotiations and jealousy. These together give a rich depiction of poly folk in the two countries: their diversity, self-understanding, strategies and everyday life practices.

Sociological inquiry into the natural sciences has shown that they are contingent, social constru... more Sociological inquiry into the natural sciences has shown that they are contingent, social constructions. However, Science Studies research has been obstructed by epistemological conflicts about the nature of science and theoretical perspectives upon studying it. Bourdieu’s sociology of science is under-utilized in this field, as he addresses these obstructions and offers a way forward. Bourdieu argues that researchers have failed to distinguish between sociological and philosophical approaches in social science, thus committing the ‘scholastic fallacy’. In conjunction with this fallacy, the logic of the Science Studies field produces a tendency towards disciplinary confusion, philosophical radicalization, and crisis. These patterns were expressed in the ‘science wars’. The field has followed a philosophical path rather than a sociological one, and its progress has been obstructed. While some of Bour- dieu’s philosophical arguments remain problematic, his reflexive sociology allows us to differentiate philosophical from sociological approaches, providing an alternative direction for Science Studies.

Taking as its point of departure Christine Beasley’s provocation that heterosexuality has been ... more Taking as its point of departure Christine Beasley’s provocation that heterosexuality has been addressed in scholarly literature as something that is “nasty, boring and normative” (Beasley et al. 2012), this conversation inquires into whether there may be alternative forms of heterosexuality both from point of view of queerness and polyamory. If, as Elizabeth Grosz (1994) argues, “homosexual relations and lifestyles…seep into and infiltrate the very self-conceptions of what it is to be heterosexual”, we ask under what conditions it may be permissible to speak of a ‘queer heterosexuality’: one that would not “reinforce the very regimes of the normal” (Thomas 2009)? And to what extent polyamory (even if heterosexual) may put into question heteronormativity and patriarchal power relations?

The specificity of our contribution to these debates is that we have dared to mix together academic research with autobiographical narration and reflection. We have done so with an awareness of the theoretical difficulties that such a gesture entails (See de Man 1983, Derrida 2000). Because such debates relate quite directly to how we read our intimate lives and fantasies, we have felt it not inappropriate in this context to speak of them, without being assured in advance of the legitimacy and interest of such a risk.

Polyamory has become more acceptable in the last decade in Australia, US and Europe; both as a co... more Polyamory has become more acceptable in the last decade in Australia, US and Europe; both as a concept and the practice of multiple relationships conducted ethically and responsibly with the agreement of all. Research interest in polyamory is steadily growing and maturing. The media sustains a deep interest in polyamory and there is a definite segmentation in the representation of this phenomenon, ranging from acceptance, to ambiguity, to outright hostility. The last two betray underlying tensions about multipartner alternatives to the cultural comformity of monogamy. The meainstream media is perhaps the most telling of them all: it treats polyamory with a mixture of titillation and rejection, conjuring up sexy scenarios of infidelity that betray the inability of mainstream imagination to engage with non-monogamy on its own terms. At the heart of this portrayal there is a conflation of cheating with ethical non-monogamy, effectively erasing the visibility of polyamory in the discussion and re-inforcing readers’ own cultural assumptions that lock polyamory in the duality of the monogamy/cheating system.The conservative media shows even deeper cultural anxieties around multipartnering as it brands polyamory unacceptable on the basis of a moralistic argument that appeals to conservative notions of what ‘our true nature’ represents. Finally, in order to gaze where the trajectory of changing representations may be leading, I will draw some parallels between gay liberation and the polyamory movement: they share the same fight against cultural norms and legal discrimination, and have to contend with compromises in identity and practice that their potential ‘mainstreaming’ entails.

... Title Antimonies of science studies: towards a critical theory of science and technology Rela... more ... Title Antimonies of science studies: towards a critical theory of science and technology Related Australasian Digital Theses Program Publisher Australia : Macquarie University Date 2008 Author/Creator Antalffy, Nikó Description Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of ...