Wiley Sharp. 2025. Infrastructures of desire: The countercultural commons of Toronto's queer punk and rave scenes. In Queer Geographies: Key Debates and Contending Perspectives, edited by Alison Bain, Julie Podmore, & Chan Arun-Pina. Elgar: 25–43.
#Queer
#Geography
#Infrastructure
In the past three decades, queer geography has moved away from a focus on desire toward a subjectless analysis of normative power. While subjectless critique was a necessary challenge to then-ascendant homonationalist politics and identitarian notions of sexuality, an overdeterministic analytic of normativity can reduce queer and trans lives to vessels of privilege and marginalization. In this chapter, I argue that a renewed attention to mapping the infrastructures of desire can help geographers better understand the relationships between affect, power, and space. First, I offer a queer theory of desire to articulate how feeling deeply is intimately connected to counter-hegemonic knowledge and collective action. Then, I explore how countercultural commons can function as infrastructure for desirous connections across difference. Finally, I offer several qualitative vignettes from Toronto’s queer punk and rave scenes to illuminate how these uncommon commons can help catalyze desire into movements for political transformation.