The invisibility of privilege: a critique of intersectional models of identity

In this paper, I argue that intersectionality, the prevailing way of conceptualizing the relation between axes or systems of oppression (race, class, gender), illicitly imports the very model it purports to overcome: that is, the unitary model of identity. I first define “intersectionality” and distinguish between three senses that are frequently conflated. Then I subject the model to an analytic critique, revealing its hidden presuppositions about identity. Finally, I suggest that solidarity serves as a better norm for feminist practice than inclusion of “difference,” which seems to be the norm underlying many intersectional accounts.Dans cet article, je soutiens que « l’intersectionalité », la conception la plus fréquemment acceptée du rapport entre les axes ou entre les systèmes d’oppression (la race, la classe sociale et le genre), s’appuie clandestinement sur le modèle qu’elle prétend surmonter : c’est-à-dire, le modèle unitaire de l’identité. En premier lieu, je présente la définition «d’intersectionalité», et je différencie trois interprétations de ce concept qui sont souvent confondues. Ensuite, je propose une lecture analytique du modèle qui a pour but de révéler des présuppositions qui fondent les notions d’identité. En conclusion, si la norme d’intégration de la «différence» est le fondement de discours intersectionels, je suggère que la solidarité serait préférable à celle-ci pour la pratique féministe

Intersectionality

Intersectionality intervenes in the field of intersectionality studies: the integrative examination of the effects of racial, gendered, and class power on people’s lives. While “intersectionality” circulates as a buzzword, Anna Carastathis joins other critical voices to urge a more careful reading. Challenging the narratives of arrival that surround it, Carastathis argues that intersectionality is a horizon, illuminating ways of thinking that have yet to be realized; consequently, calls to “go beyond” intersectionality are premature. A provisional interpretation of intersectionality can disorient habits of essentialism, categorial purity, and prototypicality and overcome dynamics of segregation and subordination in political movements.Through a close reading of critical race theorist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s germinal texts, published more than twenty-five years ago, Carastathis urges analytic clarity, contextual rigor, and a politicized, historicized understanding of this widely traveling concept. Intersectionality’s roots in social justice movements and critical intellectual projects—specifically Black feminism—must be retraced and synthesized with a decolonial analysis so its radical potential to actualize coalitions can be enacted

Intersectionality

Intersectionality intervenes in the field of intersectionality studies: the integrative examination of the effects of racial, gendered, and class power on people’s lives. While “intersectionality” circulates as a buzzword, Anna Carastathis joins other critical voices to urge a more careful reading. Challenging the narratives of arrival that surround it, Carastathis argues that intersectionality is a horizon, illuminating ways of thinking that have yet to be realized; consequently, calls to “go beyond” intersectionality are premature. A provisional interpretation of intersectionality can disorient habits of essentialism, categorial purity, and prototypicality and overcome dynamics of segregation and subordination in political movements.Through a close reading of critical race theorist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s germinal texts, published more than twenty-five years ago, Carastathis urges analytic clarity, contextual rigor, and a politicized, historicized understanding of this widely traveling concept. Intersectionality’s roots in social justice movements and critical intellectual projects—specifically Black feminism—must be retraced and synthesized with a decolonial analysis so its radical potential to actualize coalitions can be enacted

Crisis, What Crisis? Immigrants, Refugees, and Invisible Struggles

Different evocations of “crisis” create distinct categories that in turn evoke certain social reactions. After 2008 Greece became the epicentre of the “financial crisis”; since 2015 with the advent of the “refugee crisis,” it became the “hotspot of Europe.” What are the different vocabularies of crisis? Moreover, how have both representations of crisis-facilitated humanitarian crises to become phenomena for European and transnational institutional management? What are the hegemonically-constructed subjects of the different crises? The everyday reality in the crisis-ridden hotspot of Europe is invisible in these representations. It is precisely the daily, soft, lived, and unspoken realities of intersecting crises that hegemonic discourses of successive, overlapping, or “nesting crises” render invisible. By shifting the focus from who belongs to which state-devised category to an open-ended, polyvocal account of capitalist oppressions, we aim to question the state’s and supranational efforts to divide the “migrant mob” into discrete juridical categories of citizens (emigrants), refugees, and illegal immigrants, thereby undermining coalitional struggles between precaritised groups. Différentes évocations liées au terme « crise » créent des catégories distinctes qui, à leur tour, sont évocatrices de réactions sociales particulières. Depuis 2008, la Grèce est devenue l’épicentre de la  « crise financière »; depuis 2015, avec l’apparition de la « crise des réfugiés », ce pays est aussi devenu le « hotspot de l’Europe ». Quels sont les différents vocabulaires de crise? Plus encore, comment ces deux représentations de crise ont-elles favorisé la perception des crises humanitaires en tant que phénomène de la gestion institutionnelle transnationale? Quels sont les sujets des différentes crises qui ont été construits de manière hégémo-nique? La réalité quotidienne en temps de crise au « hotspot de l’Europe » est invisible dans ces représentations. Ce sont précisément les réalités quotidiennes, intangibles, vécues et non dites des crises intersectionnelles que les discours hégémoniques des crises successives, des crises superposées ou des « crises emboîtées » rendent invisibles. En déplaçant le centre d’intérêt des catégories définies par l’état, et des personnes qu’elles regroupent, à une description plurivoque ouverte des oppressions capitalistes, nous avons pour objec-tif de questionner les efforts des états et les efforts suprana-tionaux pour répartir la « foule des migrants » en catégories juridiques distinctes de citoyens (émigrés), réfugiés, et immigrants illégaux, et déstabiliser ainsi les luttes de coalition entre les groupes précarisés

‘BANISH THOSE OTHER BORDERS’: reframing concepts, coalescing (trans)feminisms

Invited book review of _Translocational belongings: intersectional dilemmas and social inequalities_, by Floya Anthias

So many bordered gazes: Black Mediterranean geographies of/against anti-Black representations in/by Fortress Europe

Commentary on Camilla Hawthorne's "Black Mediterranean Geographies.

Introduction

While the declared global “refugee crisis” has received considerable scholarly attention, little of it has focused on the intersecting dynamics of oppression, discrimination, violence, and subjugation. Introducing the special issue, this article defines feminist “intersectionality” as a research framework and a no-borders activist orientation in trans-national and anti-national solidarity with people displaced by war, capitalism, and reproductive heteronormativity, encountering militarized nation-state borders. Our introduction surveys work in migration studies that engages with intersectionality as an analytic and offers a synopsis of the articles in the special issue. As a whole, the special issue seeks to make an intersectional feminist intervention in research produced about (forced) migration.Alors que les universitaires se sont beaucoup intéressés à la « crise des réfugiés » mondiale qui a été déclarée, ils n’ont que peu envisagé les dynamiques croisées de l’oppression, la discrimination, la violence et la subjugation. Le texte introductif de ce numéro spécial dé nit « l’intersectionnalité » féministe transnationale comme cadre de recherche et comme un activisme orienté sans frontières solidaire des personnes déplacées par la guerre, le capitalisme et l’hétéronormativité de la reproduction, qui se heurtent à des frontières nation- ales et étatiques militarisées. Cette introduction examine les études sur la migration qui retiennent l’intersectionnalité comme perspective d’analyse et offre un sommaire des articles de ce numéro spécial qui, envisagé dans son ensemble, vise à dégager une intervention féministe intersectionnelle dans les travaux de recherche qui concernent la migration (forcée).&nbsp

Press Release. EU Funded Project "Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics (RESIST)" Launches

Anti-gender politics pose a grave threat to modern democratic formations because they challenge people's everyday survival, bodily integrity, and self-determination. Anti-gender spans the political spectrum and manifests not only in illiberal and authoritarian regimes but also in democracies that are considered liberal and inclusive. Taking a transnational and intersectional approach, RESIST analyses anti-gender formations in their complexity and contradictions and explores the effects of anti-gender politics on the everyday lives of those vulnerable to it and on democracies on the whole. RESIST engages with heterogeneous manifestations of anti-gender across the EU, Europe, and beyond through eight national case studies (Belarus, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Switzerland) and a transnational case study of people living in exile as a result of anti-gender persecution. RESIST pursues a mixed methods approach to analyse the production and circulation of gender-equality repressive strategies and discourses and their effects on lived experiences and resistances. RESIST innovates methodologically to engender democracy by fostering collaboration between academia and civil society organisations (CSOs), especially amongst people who come to be targets of anti-gender, including women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI+) persons. If those social groups whose fundamental rights are most at risk of violation by anti-gender are empowered to resist, then entire democratic societies benefit. RESIST centres feminist agency and collaborative knowledge production in (a) the research contents and results, (b) the methodological design, and (c) the social impact by generating new responsive feminist theories and practical solutions. At a time of increasing political disillusionment, RESIST creates hopeful, imaginative futures, transformative theories, and more inclusive worlds

Covid-19 discloses unequal geographies

The collective editorial discusses inequalities that scholars in Europe and the Americas world have paid attention to during 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic has unevenly and unpredictably impacted on societies. The critical reflections reveal that the continuing ramifications of the pandemic can only be understood in place; like other large-scale phenomena, this exceptional global crisis concretizes very differently in distinct national, regional and local contexts. The pandemic intertwines with ongoing challenges in societies, for example those related to poverty, armed conflicts, migration, racism, natural hazards, corruption and precarious labor. Through collective contextual understanding, the editorial invites further attention to the unequal geographies made visible and intensified by the current pandemic