Abstract
This presentation shares and discusses how intersectionality is conceptualized and operationalized in the research design and methodological approach of a qualitative socio-legal empirically based research project that tackles the intersectional discrimination (Crenshaw, 1989; Collins, 1990) of women and LGBTIAQ+ individuals in their socioeconomic participation, that is, access to employment, education, and social and public services. This paper situates this discussion in two subnational units in Europe (South Tyrol in Italy and Catalonia in Spain) by considering the intersection of gender and ethnicity but also other social factors, such as age, rural-urban reality, etc.
Also, this paper discusses whether and how to adopt the “intercategorical” approach of intersectionality proposed by McCall (2005) in this type of research projects in order to use social categories in a critical way and to the extent which it allows to explore how inequalities exist between and across (social) groups and thus make comparison among them. Moreover, it proposes to use the “paradigm intersectionality approach” proposed by Hancock (2019) to empirically analyze the complex causalities of specific social inequalities and, at the same time, suggest ideas to transform the legal institutions, which, in the research project, are the socioeconomic policies vis-à-vis women and LGBTIAQ+ in South Tyrol and Catalonia.
References:
Collins P. H. (1990) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Unwin Hyman.
Crenshaw, K. (1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139-167.
Hancock A. (2019). Empirical Intersectionality: A Tale of Two Approaches. In O. Hankivsky & J. S. Jordan-Zachery (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Intersectionality in Public Policy (95-132). Palgrave-MacMillan.
McCall L. (2005) The complexities of Intersectionality. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30(3), 1771-1800.