Cities and Sexualities

This chapter reviews the literature on the relations of sexuality and space, and particularly that focusing on the relations of urbanisation and sexuality as they are manifest in cities. Beginning by noting studies that sought to explain the concentration of sexual “deviance” and vice in inner city districts, the Chapter considers the theoretical materials which have been important in the framing of such studies, and considers the way these have wider applicability in the study of sexuality in the suburbs and other spaces long regarded as heteronormative. The Chapter hence alights on emerging themes in the literature—including the apparent assimilation of LGBT identities in the cityscape and the changing visibilities of commercial sex—and notes the challenges that persist in terms of understanding the ways that sexuality, gender, class, ethnicity and age intersect in cities that are increasingly global.