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Intersectionality: An Intellectual History


Intersectionality: An Intellectual History

Hardback by Hancock, Ange-Marie (Associate Professor of Poltical Science and Gender Studies, Associate Professor of Poltical Science and Gender Studies, University of Southern California)

Intersectionality: An Intellectual History

£127.50

ISBN:
9780199370368
Publication Date:
28 Jan 2016
Language:
English
Publisher:
Oxford University Press Inc
Pages:
274 pages
Format:
Hardback
For delivery:
Estimated despatch 13 - 18 May 2024
Intersectionality: An Intellectual History

Description

Intersectionality theory has emerged over the past thirty years as a way to think about the avenues by which inequalities (most often dealing with, but not limited to, race, gender, class and sexuality) are produced. Rather than seeing such categories as signaling distinct identities that can be adopted, imposed or rejected, intersectionality theory considers the logic by which each of these categories is socially constructed as well as how they operate within the diffusion of power relations. In other words, social and political power are conferred through categories of identity, and these identities bear vastly material effects. Rather than look at inequalities as a relationship between those at the center and those on the margins, intersectionality maps the relative ways in which identity politics create power. Though intersectionality theory has emerged as a highly influential school of thought in ethnic studies, gender studies, law, political science, sociology and psychology, no scholarship to date exists on the evolution of the theory. In the absence of a comprehensive intellectual history of the theory, it is often discussed in vague, ahistorical terms. And while scholars have called for greater specificity and attention to the historical foundations of intersectionality theory, their idea of the history to be included is generally limited to the particular currents in the United States. This book seeks to remedy the vagueness and murkiness attributed to intersectionality by attending to the historical, geographical, and cross-disciplinary myopia afflicting current intersectionality scholarship. This comprehensive intellectual history is an agenda-setting work for the theory.

Contents

Chapter One: Intersectionality: Intellectual Property or Meme? Chapter Two: The Activist Roots of Intersectionality Chapter Three: The Multicultural Epistemology of Intersectionality Chapter Four: Bridges, Interstices and Intersections Chapter Five: "We Are Named By Others and We Are Named By Ourselves": Social Constructivism and Intersectionality-Like Thinking Chapter Six: Whither Intersectionality? Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

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