Intersectionality in municipal institutional work

Abstract

This article explores the idea of “embeddedness” (Bussu et al. 2022) based on a larger research project aimed to study the institutionalisation of intersectionality in Spain (1983–2021). On the basis of 18 in-depth interviews with municipal equality technicians and key informants for their trajectory in intersectionality and diversity in different fields of production of public policy, the article introduces two specific contributions to the research programme initiated by Sonia Bussu and her team (2022). On the one hand, we problematise some of the limits of the institutionalisation of intersectionality in the framework of a bureaucratic public action. In doing so, we suggest that bureaucracy offers an explanatory framework for analysing the low capacity for embedding policies related to democratic deepening. Secondly, the text expands the “practical” dimension of embeddedness to include informal working strategies such as time and leadership styles.

Keywords

• intersectionality
• bureaucracy
• institutional work
• embeddedness