Introduction

Presenting the research context of the book, this chapter familiarizes the reader with the conceptual, methodological, and ethical discussions and concerns that are present throughout the book. After a brief overview of gender and sexual politics in Russia, Turkey, and the Scandinavian countries, it introduces the book’s multi-scalar transnational methodology—an innovative approach to the study of transnationalizing feminist and LGBTI+ activisms that traces convergences and contrasts between seemingly disparate places and connectivities below and beyond the national scale. The chapter offers descriptions of the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Russia, Turkey, and the Scandinavian countries, as well as a discussion of how contested terms such as feminism, LGBTI+ , queer, activism, NGOs, West–East, North–South are navigated in the book.