La forge conceptuelle. “Intersectionnalité” : À propos des usages épistémologiques d’un concept (très) à la mode

Abstract

This article provides an account of the epistemological uses of the concept of intersectionality in sociology in basing itself exclusively on the – theoretical and empirical – scientific uses of a concept situated in French and English language work, whether that use be explicit or implicit. If the concept of intersectionality in fact emerged at the end of the 1980’s, the intersectional approach was not thereby created ex nihilo. Not only is it present in various gender theories of the 1970’s and 1980’s, but was also present, at least partially, in the infancy of sociology. But that does not make the intersectional approach any less specific, obliging us to think through the systematic and integrated articulations of various social dimensions, as much on the level of individuals – their lived experiences, their subjectivities – as on the structural level – social structures and processes for better comprehension of the production and transgression of social inequalities in a global and dynamic manner. The article thus shows how the explicit or implicit uses of the concept intersectionality play themselves out concretely in contemporary sociological investigations.

Keywords

• gender
• intersectionality
• epistemology
• social inequalities
• subjectivities
• social processes