ABSTRACT
The "Introduction" presents the epistemological and theoretical underpinnings of the book, its key themes, as well as inspiring analytical concepts. Its first part critically assesses state of the art on queer kinship, particularly engaging with current debates and voices criticising the all-pervasive hegemonic framings of the “West”. It reflects on the key concepts developed in the Anglo-American contexts and their potential (un)translatability into other non-Western localities. It also engages with the work written on queer kinship and sexualities from the Central and Eastern European (CEE) perspectives to problematise and pluralise the notion of Western kinship and sexuality, and indicate its “con-temporal periphery” – that is, the mechanisms of “othering” CEE by rendering it as “permanently transitional” and in the constant need of catching up (Mizielińska and Kulpa 2011; Stella 2015). Works from other geo-locations, mainly focusing on postcolonial regions, help to strengthen the critical arguments about othering and orientalisation of same-sex relationships from non-Western locations (Boellstorff 2004; Binnie 2004, 2013; Engebretsen 2013). The second part of the chapter describes the context regarding living situations and the legal framework of queer families in Poland. It presents Polish familialism, its main features, and roots. It refers to diverse research and public opinion polls to show Polish heteronormativity and its influence on the development of the LGBT+ community and lived experience of queer families.
