Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research: Comparative, Contextual and Complex Analytic Strategies (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sociological Theory, 2010
In this article we ask what it means for sociologists to practice intersectionality as a theoretical and methodological approach to inequality. What are the implications for choices of subject matter and style of work? We distinguish three styles of understanding intersectionality in practice: group-centered, process-centered, and system-centered. The first, emphasizes placing multiply-marginalized groups and their perspectives at the center of the research. The second, intersectionality as a process, highlights power as relational, seeing the interactions among variables as multiplying oppressions at various points of intersection, and drawing attention to unmarked groups. Finally, seeing intersectionality as shaping the entire social system pushes analysis away from associating specific inequalities with unique institutions, instead looking for processes that are fully interactive, historically co-determining, and complex. Using several examples of recent, highly regarded qualitat...
Sociological Theory, 2010
In this article we ask what it means for sociologists to practice intersectionality as a theoretical and methodological approach to inequality. What are the implications for choices of subject matter and style of work? We distinguish three styles of understanding intersectionality in practice: group-centered, process-centered, and system-centered. The first, emphasizes placing multiply-marginalized groups and their perspectives at the center of the research. The second, intersectionality as a process, highlights power as relational, seeing the interactions among variables as multiplying oppressions at various points of intersection, and drawing attention to unmarked groups. Finally, seeing intersectionality as shaping the entire social system pushes analysis away from associating specific inequalities with unique institutions, instead looking for processes that are fully interactive, historically co-determining, and complex. Using several examples of recent, highly regarded qualitative studies, we draw attention to the comparative, contextual, and complex dimensions of sociological analysis that can be missing even when race, class, and gender are explicitly brought together.
Intersectionality as Theory and Practice
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews
Everybody is talking about intersectionality these days. Whether one is out of the loop and wondering what all the fuss is about or in the inner circle and trying to decide whether and how to use it most effectively as a tool, either of the two books reviewed here-Intersectionality: Origins, Contestations, Horizons, by Anna Carastathis, and Intersectionality, by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge-will prove an invaluable guide. Before considering the arguments the authors advance for why the approach they take is particularly useful, it may help to step back and consider what NON-intersectional sociology looked like. In the 1980s, Elaine Hall and I surveyed all the most widely used textbooks in introductory sociology; and, among other things, we found that race, class, and gender didn't, and in some ways couldn't, intersect to inform a basic sociological understanding of inequality. These books captured the prevailing wisdom of their time: class was a macro-structural arrangement organizing societies; race was a group membership defining cultural identities, institutionalized barriers, and political mobilization; and gender was a biosocial characteristic cultivated through childhood socialization and maintained by deep-seated ''traditional'' attitudes (Ferree and Hall 1996). Operating at different levels of social organization, gender, class, and race were understood then as social processes independent of each other and ranked by the priority given them in the ''classics'' of social theory: class was definitely structurally significant, but race and gender were ''identities'' and ''epiphenomenal.'' Since then, this consensus has largely been replaced, not without struggle, by a commitment to understanding these processes as all working at all three levels, as being far from Contemporary Sociology 47, 2
From Theory to Practice. The Intersectionality Theory as a Research Strategy
2017
What is the Intersectionality Theory? How can it be used for investigating social phenomena? This paper is aimed at scrutinizing the methodological challenges that the wide application of the Intersectionality Theory in social sciences has brought to light, presenting some practical examples of intersectional research. After showing strengths and weaknesses of the intersectional paradigm, this work will try to rebut some of the most relevant criticisms of the Intersectionality Theory which have emerged so far within the academic debate. Then, the paper will discuss how it is possible to minimize potential drawbacks and to foster positive aspects of this approach, delineating an intersectional method, which can be used as a guideline to direct eventual future intersectional research.
INTERSECTIONALITY: MULTIPLE INEQUALITIES IN SOCIAL THEORY(2012)
•intersectionality is reviewed by scholars in their own perspectives •Six dilemmas ~critical realism and on complexity theory in order to find answers to the dilemmas in intersectionality theory. •Unresolved Theoretical Dilemmas •Structural and Political Intersectionality •Categories or Social Relations? •Fluidity or Stability? •Class and Non-class Inequalities •Competing or Cooperating Projects?
IntechOpen eBooks, 2024
In today's society, social inequality is a deeply ingrained issue that affects people on multiple levels of identification. Traditional approaches to resolving inequality, on the other hand, frequently fail to take into consideration the intricate ways in which different identities intersect. "Intersectionality," highlights race, gender, class, and sexual orientation-interact and influence how a person is privileged or marginalised. This approach offers a crucial perspective for appreciating the multifaceted character of socioeconomic inequality. Gaining a greater knowledge of the specific issues faced by individuals at the intersections of several marginalised groups allows us to better grasp how diverse identities interact. A multifaceted strategy is needed to effectively address the intersectional nature of social injustice. This paper proposes that policymakers should make sure that marginalised communities' perspectives are heard and are actively involved in the decision-making process. Additionally, it is critical to raise awareness and knowledge of intersectionality among a range of stakeholders, such as the public, educators, and legislators. This paper used secondary sources as its technique, and text content analysis was used to derive pertinent insights from the data that were gathered. This paper has four recommendations directed to policymakers on how socioeconomic inequality could be addressed
2021
The macro-level of society consists of the relationships among its institutional structures and how such patterned relations change in systematic ways over time. Considering intersectionality at this level implies asking how global systems that produce inequality operate together. The challenge for macro-level thinking about intersectionality is to resist the long history of treating capitalism, class relations and the global economy as the most fundamental set of global relations. Intersectional theorizing at this level combines analysis of the emergent and relational properties of inequality-producing systems with an equally critical attitude to all of these structural inequalities. However, in contrast to top-down theorizing about abstract systems, intersectional macro-theorizing incorporates a focus on experience that enlarges the meaning of developing critique. This chapter situates the development of intersectional theory at the macro-level and highlights its contributions.
Book Review: Intersectionality As Critical Social Theory
European Journal of Social Theory, 2020
Intersectionality has become quite the buzzword in contemporary sociology, yet scholars still debate whether it is a concept, a theory, a methodology, or all three. In Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory, Patricia Hill Collins extends the genealogy of foundational literature on this framework, contextualizing the usefulness of intersectional standpoints in understanding social inequality. With eight substantive chapters, plus an introduction and an epilogue, Collins intriguingly poses more questions than she provides answers. Rather than definitively charting out the nuanced utility of intersectionality as a critical social theory, Collins provides readers with the theoretical and conceptual foundations necessary for us to do this work ourselves.
Doing Justice to Intersectionality in Research
Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies
Intersectionality involves the study of the ways that race, gender, disability, sexuality, class, age, and other social categories are mutually shaped and interrelated through forces such as colonialism, neoliberalism, geopolitics, and cultural configurations to produce shifting relations of power and oppression. The concept does not always offer a clear set of tools for conducting social research. Instead, it offers varied strands of thought, pointing to different methodologies and methods for doing intersectional research. In this article, we trace the genealogy of intersectionality as theory and methodology to identify challenges in translating the concept into research methods, and we review debates about what we identify as three “critical movements” in the intersectionality literature, comprising contestations regarding the theory’s aims, scope, and axioms, in scholarship and research. Finally, we consider how these critical movements can offer researchers some guiding ethical...
The increasing popularity of the concept of intersectionality in the social sciences, including in psychology, represents an opportunity to reflect on the state of stewardship of this concept, its roots, and its promise. In this context, the authors aim to promote responsible stewardship of intersectionality and to tip the momentum of intersectionality's flourishing toward fuller use and engagement of its roots and promise for understanding and challenging dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression. To this end, this article provides a set of guidelines for reflection and action. The authors organize these guidelines along three major formulations of intersectionality: intersectionality as a field of study, as analytic strategy or disposition, and as critical praxis for social justice. Ultimately, the authors call for expanding the use of intersectionality toward fuller engagement with its roots in Black feminist thought, its current interdisciplinary richness and potential, and its central aims to challenge and transform structures and systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Public Significance Statement: This article makes the case that an intersectional perspective is necessary in research, teaching, practice, and activism. The article provides guidelines for how to integrate intersectionality meaningfully and substantively, rather than merely rhetorically.