III.- RESULTADOS
III.6. CONFLICTIVIDAD TRIBUTARIA
Out of the three requirements for a community of practice, the joint enterprise may be the most difficult to determine as it is not explicitly stated (Davies, 2005). The joint enterprise is the shared purpose that community members have negotiated and established through their engagement with other community members. Some groups, including 4D, have a stated purpose or intention for their members, which may or may not be closely related to the joint enterprise of the community. For example a school might have a stated purpose of promoting academic achievement for all, but the joint enterprise established by the staff could in fact be to maintain discipline in the classroom. In the case of 4D the following was stated in leaflets about the group:
4D is open to all young trans people - whether you're brand new to identifying as trans, still questioning your identity, or if you consider yourself to be post-transition or as having a trans history. We strive to be fully inclusive of individuals who identify as non-binary/other, as well as male or female.
At 4D you can:
• Meet other young transgender, transsexual or gender questioning people, socialise, make friends and get some support.
• Find out information about coming out/disclosing, transitioning, your rights as a trans teenager or young adult, how to negotiate life post-transition, and more.
• Have a safe and supportive space to explore your gender identity if you're questioning, be yourself if you're not out, or have an opportunity to chat about trans stuff if you're stealth.
These stated provisions and opportunities were similar to other trans groups, except of course the references to trans teenager or young adult. These related well to what I consider to be the joint enterprise, which was broadly that the young people, participants in the community, learned and established how to be and live as trans young people. However, the joint enterprise of 4D was more specific than this and can be broken down into following aspects:
• The young people, who are members of 4D, will have their preferred identities as trans or questioning young people within the youth group legitimated. This includes trans identities where there is little change in the individuals’ presentation.
• The young people will develop a shared knowledge of transition possibilities, this will include identity possibilities as well as legal and medical possibilities.
• The young people will determine how they as individuals wish to transition. This will be through engagement with and knowledge of others’ transitions and transition possibilities.
• The young people will learn how they may have their preferred identities accepted or legitimated outside group.
I will illustrate these with reference to my previous examples of mutual engagement and some further observations that indicate the joint enterprise. The discussion with Sam that I discussed earlier showed several aspects of the joint enterprise. Individuals shared their different feelings about their identities and their identity trajectories. Everyone engaged in a supportive way with the diverse identities that were presented. All the diverse identities were recognised and legitimated through this process. This included Sam’s identity. Sam was assigned male at birth and was presenting conventionally as a young man. They said they would have chosen to be born as a girl. Reese suggested that Sam’s ‘friends will probably understand better than you think’ which showed that Sam’s trans or questioning identity was accepted, and therefore legitimate, within 4D despite the fact that Sam was not presenting as conventionally feminine. This fits with the first aspect of the joint enterprise that people’s diverse identities were legitimated in the group, and required little or no change in presentation. Sam wanted to know how to move forward from questioning their identity. The other contributors shared details of their identity trajectories. Reese said that he identified as genderqueer for a long time before trying male pronouns and that it was a slow process. Noah shared that he
expected that he would want to be stealth after his medical transition, but that was not the case. Lee shared that she1 had many gender identities and that wasn’t going to change. All these people had developed more certainty about their identities and trajectories. Together with Sam’s desire for more certainty this shows that it was important in the joint enterprise for people to decide how they would transition, and that this was through engagement with others’ choices.
There were often anecdotes about young people having their identity misrecognised outside the youth group. These anecdotes were always told with the expectation that other group members would feel it was wrong or frustrating to have one’s identity misrecognised. There was never any suggestion that there was any failure on the part of the individual, that they had not presented themselves correctly for their preferred identity. The following observation describes of one of these occasions. Owen and James went to a shop in the break from a session.
[Owen and James] popped to the shop and when they came back they were looking a bit grumpy. I think I ask, or they tell me, perhaps just James tells me that the shop person pronouned him ‘she’ but Owen ‘he’ in the shop and they are both put out by this. (Fieldnote December 2010)
Although the person in the shop has called James ‘she’, Owen and James did not behave as if they thought that James’s identity was in question. They were deliberately looking unhappy because they wanted to be asked what had happened so that James’s male identity could be reaffirmed in 4D.
I gave two examples earlier of the young people working together to access gendered spaces outside 4D. These demonstrate the final aspect of the joint enterprise: that young people will learn how to have their identity legitimated or accepted outside the group.
The legitimation of identities was not always verbal. In the following observation the young people’s performance of their identities was legitimated by acceptance within the group activity rather than verbal acknowledgement. This might have been even more powerful as it is suggested that a young person’s presented identity wasn’t questionable and did not need legitimating. This observation is from ‘sports day’. The young people, and invited friends and family, played games in the park including rounders and football, as well as doing a ‘three legged race’, and an ‘egg and spoon race’.
Comment in end circle from Kieran (? or his friend) about being good to know you can spend time with other trans people just doing things not talking about gender. (Fieldnote June 2010)
My interpretation of this was that everyone was performing their preferred genders, some people had made little or no changes to their presentation. The lack of conversation about this suggested that accepting individuals’ declared identities had become established, in a performative process (Butler, 1990/1999, 1993, 2004).
I have shared some observations of discussion about transition possibilities as examples of mutual engagement. Here I consider learning about transition possibilities as part of the joint enterprise, this includes learning about the different social, legal and medical possibilities. This observation describes a session when the young people used the internet and hand-outs to find out about medical interventions as transition possibilities. They were split into groups and fed back their findings at the end of the session. This describes the groups giving their feedback. As well as developing the joint enterprise this shows Sylvia and Lee trying to gain status by positioning themselves as experts in the group.
The young people present back from their groups about their findings. There is a bit of wanting to get medical words right. Sylvia particularly does this but I think Lee wants to have control over the words they use. And why not? Good! Graeme is uncertain of some words and spellings. Oliver feeds back from my group, hard to give detail of the discussion in a short time so feels like he’s skipping through but touching on the main points and
questions. Kieran feeds back about chest reconstruction. Those feel fairly straightforward groups, and related very much to where people are in considering their choices. Lee feeds back about penis/testicles. They clearly enjoy the possibility of exploring these options and the language … Finally Sylvia and Charlie, Sylvia feeds back, very technical about using the scrotum and electrolysis to avoid a hairy vagina. I think there is a lot of enjoyment from the young people in general about contemplating future bodies and choices. (Fieldnote July 2010)
Here again, as in the discussion about identity journeys, people were very accepting of the diversity of possibilities. They seemed to actively enjoy the wide choices they had about medical transitions. This shows two aspects of the joint enterprise: the legitimation of diverse identities as well as the development of knowledge about transition possibilities.
The style of discussion seems to be related to the topic rather than the type of session. The medical interventions session was an organised discussion like the legal session, but did not cause controversy; no one challenged what any one else said. The discourse that was constructed was that social and medical transitions are a matter for individual choice. Identities are legitimate whether the individual changes their presentation or their body to fit their declared identity or not. The young people understood their identities were legitimate in 4D, and that their identities should be accepted beyond the group. Most of the young people would have experienced their preferred identity not being recognised in the wider community. The issue for the young people was how to have their identities legitimated beyond the group. The wider community generally understands trans people as wishing to move from one binary gender to the other, and that their presentation and body will conform to their identity post transition, which is not always the case. I believe this is why the legal discussion was so contentious. The young people wanted to make best use of the legal possibilities to literally legitimate their preferred identities, especially if they identified outside the gender binary with little social legitimation in the wider community.
As I have just discussed, the joint enterprise accepted as legitimate anyone who claimed they were questioning their gender identity, and a particular form of presentation was not necessary for legitimation within the group. However, this changed as the young person attended the group more regularly. As I discuss in chapter 8, to continue to be accepted as legitimate and to gain further legitimacy a young person had to change presentation. They also needed to be on a consistent trajectory away from their identity as assigned at birth. The consistent movement along a gender trajectory established an individual’s identity as ‘authentic’. Movement along a gender trajectory had most legitimacy if the change was in accordance with the shared repertoire, but it had certainly to be different from their previous identity to maintain legitimacy within 4D.
Shared repertoire
The shared repertoire consists of the shared resources the group has developed through its practice. The shared repertoire can include local language, jokes and stories, but also routines and significant objects among other things. The shared repertoire develops through the mutual engagement of the community and consists of resources that support the group practice. The shared repertoire is a product of the group practice but then becomes a resource for members to engage with each other within the community. Shared language, for example, gives individuals readily available ways of communicating.I look at three aspects of the shared repertoire of 4D: knowledge, language and presentation. As I have said earlier, the joint enterprise included developing a shared knowledge of transition possibilities; this included identity possibilities as well as legal and medical possibilities. The shared repertoire also included individuals determining their own preferred transition.
Showing knowledge of engaging with medical practitioners and possible medical interventions was an important part of the shared repertoire in 4D as it had developed alongside the joint enterprise. Showing that one had knowledge of legal rights and processes was also part of the shared repertoire. Use of language was related to demonstrating knowledge. Formal medical and legal terms showed that one had a good grasp of medical and legal processes. Using
local language, developed in the group from wider trans and queer communities, demonstrated one’s engagement with medical and legal processes as an informed trans person making use of formal processes. Local language also makes communication easier in a community of practice because it refers to understandings that have already been established within the group. Another aspect of the joint enterprise in 4D was to develop a shared knowledge of identity possibilities, this was usually shown by using identity descriptions, for example trans man or genderqueer. A further aspect of the shared repertoire in 4D was gender presentation. Gender presentation was important as a source of pleasure, it also communicated changing identity, and where an individual was in that process. The shared repertoire also indicates group membership, both to other group members and to outsiders. In 4D, demonstrating relevant knowledge, using local language and presenting one’s gender appropriately all signalled membership of the community.
Knowledge
Status and identity within any community of practice are closely related to knowledge. I look at this in more detail when I discuss identity trajectories in 4D in chapter 8. Participants had opportunities to show their knowledge during formal discussions within the group as well as informally during breaks. Although knowledge was linked to status, the sharing of knowledge seemed generous. This supports my understanding of the joint enterprise as developing a shared knowledge of transition possibilities. It was important to the community that knowledge was shared and the young people were active in seeking to share their knowledge with others. Not only having knowledge, but also sharing that knowledge, gave individuals status and identity within the group. As a result the young people seemed to enjoy sharing their knowledge, and sharing knowledge did not generally seem to be competitive. There was a desire on the part of many of the young people to be supportive to other trans people1. This is also common in wider trans communities. Hines (2007) found 1 Many of the young people were involved in a volunteer group, set up alongside the youth group. The volunteer group did fundraising and ran a clothing project to redistribute clothes to people who wanted differently gendered clothes.
many of the participants in her study of trans adults to be active in giving support to others in their community.
I first look at knowledge as part of the shared repertoire. I start with an observation made during a project to produce a trans specific sexual health booklet. 4D members worked on producing the sexual health booklet over several sessions and different people were involved on different occasions. This quote is from my fieldnotes made after the first session:
We then actually start the work on the sexual health booklet. Zoe asks about what genderqueer means, and Kodi defines that people can sometimes feel male and sometimes female. Jacky says that’s bi-gendered. Also that they may feel in the middle of male and female. (Fieldnote July 2009) Zoe at this point had joined the group fairly recently. She was assigned female at birth and at this stage was using her birth name and the pronoun ‘she’1. Zoe had at this point only attended a few youth group sessions, but it appears that she understood that knowledge was part of the shared repertoire. If knowledge is part of the shared repertoire and you are a newcomer then you can show your understanding of the group practice by seeking knowledge as Zoe did here. So, although Zoe positioned herself as a new member by asking a gender related question, she also showed that she knew that knowledge was an aspect of the shared repertoire which gave her increased legitimacy in the group. Kodi and Jacky positioned themselves as established members through their knowledge of the meaning of the word genderqueer, perhaps with Jacky wanting to establish greater expertise.
The young people often demonstrated knowledge of medical interventions. Knowledge was important as it gave them status within the group. However knowledge was useful beyond this; it enabled the young people to make choices about their treatment by the medical profession, or at least have information
1 Zoe at this point may internally have identified as male, or desired to identify to others as male. I do not know. I do know that Zoe at this point chose to be identified as female. I always refer to the young people by their pronoun of choice at the time.
about what to expect. Trans was being constructed within the community not as a medical condition to be treated but as an identity related to choices about body modifications. The young people were positioning themselves not as patients but as people able to make informed decisions about their bodies and identities.
There were frequent discussions between group members about hormones and surgery during youth group sessions. These discussions were sometimes organised and sometimes informal. The young people also shared information about medical interventions in other situations. This was a discussion that took place between Jacky, who was androgynous, and two young trans women publicly in a station while we were waiting for other group members to arrive before going on a trip:
I realize Chilotam and Jacky are advising Kim on how to take her hormones. Chilotam doesn't understand (what she says) why Kim doesn't phone Dr (?), they must have the same doctor, or his secretary and ask whether to take three all at once or spread through the day. Jacky advises that she'll be more likely to have mood swings. Kim says perhaps people have noticed it seems to change mood during the day. (Fieldnote August 2009)
Here Jacky and Chilotam shared their knowledge about taking hormones with Kim. Jacky shared its knowledge of the process but also possible side-effects. Chilotam demonstrated her knowledge of how to get advice from the doctor. Through encouraging Kim to contact the doctor Chilotam was encouraging her to be a trans person who was actively engaged in making informed decisions about transition. It is also interesting that this discussion took place in a public space. If it had been overheard by members of the public it could have ‘outed’ members of the group, that is made their trans identity visible to outsiders. All the young people I interviewed, except Aidan, shared an opinion about their medical transition related to their knowledge of possibilities. Several of the young people that I interviewed gave me quite detailed information about medical possibilities. This use of the shared repertoire is related to the joint