By Zdena Middernacht and Laurène Bounaud
2. Laurène Bounaud (biography)
What is intersectionality? What are the structural elements that limit its application? How can intersectionality be applied as a useful lens, especially in strategy development?
A recap of intersectionality
Intersectionality offers a framework to understand how particular identities, (eg., black and female) are tied to particular inequalities (eg., violence against women) in different historical times and locations.
The material conditions which produce economic, social and political inequality in peoples’ lives are structured by the converging and simultaneous ways in which the ever-changing logics by which society is organised, interact (Mirza 2013). These logics include race, class and gender, as well as other social divisions such as sexuality, age, disability, ethnicity, culture, and religion.
As such, different dimensions of social life cannot be separated out into discrete and pure strands.