Introduction

Abstract

Situating Intersectionality brings together academics working in the discipline of politics who are employing the analytical lens of intersectionality to articulate specific ways in which political institutions, policies, and political engagement define, marginalize, and (dis)empower. In the context of political science, an intersectional analysis can bring a nuanced understanding to the particularities of policy outcomes and to discussions of structural and political dynamics of power. According to Kimberle Crenshaw, such nuance can be lacking, for example, in analytical approaches framed in identity politics: “the problem with identity politics is not that it fails to transcend difference… but rather the opposite, that it frequently conflates or ignores intragroup difference… ignoring difference within groups contributes to tension among groups” (1991, 1242). Crenshaw warns that intersectionality is not being offered “as some new, totalizing theory of identity” (1991, 1244). Instead, intersectionality offers an analytical frame that focuses clearly on the dynamics of power. Her empirical work delineates three different aspects of intersectionality: structural intersectionality, political intersectionality, and cultural intersectionality (1991, 1254–1282).