NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research

Therefore, the special issue seeks to decouple intimacy from its canonical associations with heteronormative, anthropocentric and Nordic/Eurocentric familial relationships. It approaches intimacy as a dynamic relationship that can be affective, embodied and material-discursive. Intimacy can entail both human and non-human elements (such as technology, animals, materials and the spectral). Moreover, as feminist studies had shown in different geographical locations and periods, intimacy is often embedded in power relations and may be entangled with violence (e.g. violence in close relations). This special issue is meant to show the ontological and epistemological politic and complexities of the figuration of intimacy. One issue that is particularly pertinent in this context is how colonial and Nordic notions of intimacy render the discourses and practices of non-Western intimacies invisible, and how such renderings are resisted.

In addition to empirical analyses, we encourage critical and reflexive contributions about how certain academic practices, including theories and methods, facilitate or make it difficult to approach intimacy beyond the familiar. Examples include (but are not restricted to) visual methods, affective methodologies and emotion mapping, as well as haptic (or sensuous – using any of the senses) and creative methodologies, as well as indigenous practices of knowledge production. Critical and innovative ways of approaching the Nordic context are encouraged. Reflections on intimate matters in methodology itself are welcome, exemplified by feminist, decolonial, and queer method discussions.

Possible themes, where relating to Nordic context/region is encouraged, include (but are not limited to):

• Intimacy as corporate model for HR management
• Intimacy, gender equality and gender mainstreaming
• Intimacy with and between human and animals
• Intimacy and the environment
• Medialisation of intimacy, including parasocial interaction
• De/medicalization of intimacy
• Intimacy and the technologies/digital
• Power and violence in intimate interactions
• The political ontologies of intimacy
• Intimacy and methodologies
• Materiality of intimacy/ Affective intimacies
• Intimacy through the lens of indigenous studies
• Decolonializing intimacies
• Intimacy in the context of multiculturalism and transnationalism
• Intimacy in contemporary art
• Queering intimacy
• Rethinking ableism in intimacy
• Haunted/haunting intimacies
• Resistance, activism and intimacy

Please submit contributions via the usual electronic submission system of NORA. Remember to indicate that your text is meant for this special issue. The word limit and other formatting issues is the same as in NORA's general guidelines. All article contributions will be peer-reviewed. We expect the SI to be published late 2025 or early 2026. Apart from original articles, essays, position papers and creative writing pieces are also welcome.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article