Pluriversal intersectionality, critique and utopia

Abstract

Since intersectionality theory constitutes a critical assessment of the way the social world operates and strives for social justice, it entails an image of how the world is and how things could become. In this article a version of intersectionality with particularly strong counter-cultural tendencies is considered. Drawing on Ruth Levitas’s approach to utopia as ‘method’, it makes explicit pluriversal intersectionality’s utopian content. It is shown that the defining features of this intersectionality theory share an elective affinity with the principle of self-management lying at the core of the libertarian strand of socialist thought. But the utopia whose contours are drawn here is not expected to act as a blueprint. Instead, the article aspires to serve as an invitation to dialogue about the kind of future that could lie beyond intersectional oppression and, consequently, help consolidate pluriversal intersectionality’s transformative potential.

Relation-intersectional Ethics Trestle: A Harmonious Merging of Relational Ethics and Intersectionality

“…Many international experts agreed that intersectionality is an open-ended approach that is generative, and users can creatively interpret its scope to adapt its premise. The unfolding and evolution of its applications continues as it propagates knowledge production (Collins et al, 2021;Gemignani & Hernández-Albújar, 2019;Hankivsky, 2014;Masquelier, 2022;UN Women, 2021). Organizations, individual practitioners, researchers, educators, policy and law makers, and social justice experts can address intersectionality issues in their policies, programs, and curricula designs to work toward an equitable future by using it.…”

Intersectional approaches to data: The importance of an articulation mindset for intersectional data science

“…In other words, we intuitively know that intersecting systems of power influence and shape the privilege or discrimination individuals experience, and vice-versa. Masquelier (2022) argued that co-formation resonates with decolonial approaches and indigenous ways of thinking, which have always embraced the interconnectedness and interdependence of reality. They suggested that dialogue is crucial for emancipation and empowerment, enabling diverse people to organize collectively and to claim equity in cooperative terms.…”

Utopie per fare la differenza: dimensioni post-eurocentriche e post-antropocentriche dell’utopico

“…Nei suoi tre decenni di storia, l'intersezionalità si è andata a costituire come un chiaro strumento di critica sociale (Hill-Collins 2019) contenente un'immagine implicita di come le relazioni sociali potrebbero essere, una volta superata la "matrice del dominio" basata su discriminazioni di genere, razziali e di classe. L'intersezionalità inoltre, proprio per la sua valenza metodologica -come studio intra e inter-categorico delle rappresentazioni e dei rapporti sociali -se associata alla dimensione utopica, rappresenta l'aspirazione a connettere diverse forme di mobilitazione e critica sociale, valorizzando quindi versioni pluralistiche e multiculturali dell'utopia, pienamente capaci di riconoscere l'inter-esistenza di differenze (Masquelier 2021).…”