Intersectionality as critical social theory

Ethnic and Racial Studies ISSN: 0141-9870 (Print) 1466-4356 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rers20 Intersectionality as critical social theory by Patricia Hill Collins, Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2019,xi +360 pp., $29.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-4780-0646-6 Anna Amelina & Jana Schäfer To cite this article: Anna Amelina & Jana Schäfer (2020): Intersectionality as critical social theory, Ethnic and Racial Studies, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2019.1707252 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1707252 Published online: 13 Jan 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 20 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rers20 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES BOOK REVIEW Intersectionality as critical social theory, by Patricia Hill Collins, Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2019, xi+360 pp., $29.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-4780-0646-6 As a critical knowledge project, intersectional theory has come under public scrutiny in recent years. While its origins lie in the Black feminist project, intersectionality and its many theoretical versions have become prominent in a number of disciplines (sociology, history, migration and postcolonial studies, and many others) during the last several decades. However, the long and successful journey of intersectional theory itself requires a critical reflection, particularly with respect to its implications for contemporary critical thought in the social sciences. In her recent monograph, Patricia Hill Collins, one of the originators of intersectional theory, provides such an evaluation by addressing intersectionality’s histories, challenges, and emancipatory achievements. Collins’ outstanding opus magnum pursues multiple goals. First, this analytical work sharpens the concept of intersectionality as a theory, methodology, and activist practice. Such a reassuring perspective is of considerable relevance for analyzing the contemporary cross-border projects of domination such as racism, sexism, capitalism, colonialism, nationalism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Second, this monograph is intended to reiterate the critical potential of intersectional theorizing that is important in questioning the growing dogmatism in academia. As Collins argues, “[U]ncritically defining or celebrating intersectionality or any other form of critical theorizing as a finished social theory undercuts its critical potential” (p. 120). Third, and very much in the spirit of Antonio Gramsci’s figure of the organic intellectual, the author pleads for the inclusion of activists and practitioners in intersectionality’s knowledge project, arguing that counterhegemonic knowledge production is not limited to academia but requires a dialogical relationship between activists and scholars. Thus, we can see continuity in Collins’ thinking, since her pioneering monograph Black Feminist Thought (1990) was an outstanding attempt to generate an engaged dialogue between activists’ projects and academic knowledge production. This monograph’s core message, elaborated in four parts, is that a critical social theory not only reflects the interconnected projects of oppression and domination but also generates new emancipatory forms of knowledge that contribute to the success of social justice projects. Part 1, “Framing the Issues: Intersectionality and Critical Social Theory”, aims to identify the common understanding of the critical lens within the heterogeneous body of intersectional thought. Because most advocates of intersectional theory have tended to pay lip service to the critical stance, Collins calls on us to sharpen the definition of the “critical” within the field of intersectionality stuides. In this regard, she identifies as being of substantial significance for intersectional theorizing the core merits of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory (e.g. 2 BOOK REVIEW “reflexive accountability”), British Cultural Studies (e.g. “dialogical engagement across disciplines”), and Francophone social theories (e.g. “deconstructivism” and “situated knowledge”). At the same time, she also reflects the fact that, under some circumstances, critical theories can contribute to the “unequal participation in knowledge production” (p. 81). Part 2, “How Power Matters: Intersectionality and Intellectual Resistance”, is guided by the question of how to theorize forms of resistance against multiple dominations from the perspective of the subordinated groups and actors. In addressing this question, Collins provides a sophisticated analysis of the main pillars of the critical race theory, feminist thought, and postcolonial and decolonial approaches. Here, the key point is that intersectional theorizing has to “[place] multiple resistant knowledge projects in dialogue, with an eye toward pooling intellectual resources on the meaning of resistance” (p. 120). Highlighting “the importance of epistemic resistance” of marginalized groups and “rejecting the silencing strategies of testimonial silencing and smothering” (p. 135), Collins urges us to decolonize the conventional forms of knowledge that exist within Western epistemologies. Her methodological proposal implies that “dialogical engagement” (p. 144) between multiple knowledge projects of resistance has to be included in the legitimate methods of scientific inquiry. Part 3, “Theorizing Intersectionality: Social Action as a Way of Knowing”, frames intersectional theorizing based on the experiences of subordinated groups according to ideas of creativity in the spirit of American pragmatism. While Black Feminism “demonstrates the epistemological and political significance of theorizing from individual (and collective) experience” (p. 186), the implication of pragmatism is the processual understanding of communities as being (re)produced repeatedly through creative human agency. Thus, not only does this section advance the application of pragmatism by focusing on such aspects as gender, race, indigeneity, and nation, but it also compares the views of Simone de Beauvoir and Pauli Murray on resistant emancipatory actions. Consequently, Collins emphasizes the notion of freedom as both the condition of emancipation and liberation and the goal of activists’ “intentional social actions” (p. 221). Part 4, “Sharpening Intersectionality’s Critical Edge”, is organized around the question of how to advance intersectionality’s research tools for their use in concrete research practice. It elaborates on the two core constructs of intersectional theory: relationality and social justice. First, Collins explores why the concept of relationality in terms of the interconnection between different projects of domination is more effective in explaining social oppression than are other theoretical constructs. She refers to the categories of addition, articulation, and co-formation, which lie at the heart of intersectional theorizing, and then illustrates these categories with an impressive analysis of eugenics. As an oppressive power/knowledge project of the twentieth century, eugenics emerged throughout different regions of the world. In her analysis, Collins emphasizes that a consideration of ethical aspects should be fundamental to all emancipatory knowledge projects. Moreover, the reference to social justice should be seen as a core “feature of intersectionality” (p. 253). ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 3 Summing up, this remarkable monograph expresses the most important facets of the critical lens. Accordingly, intersectional theorizing implies a constant questioning of the status quo of societal power relations from the perspective of the subordinated. This is why intersectional thinking must be sensitive to the many forms of epistemic violence. Finally, multidisciplinary intersectional research is obliged to engage in critical self-reflexivity that questions its own dogmatization. Overall, this monograph gives hope that collective social action has the potential to affect democratic change even under conditions of multiple oppressions. References Collins, P. H. 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge. Anna Amelina Intercultural Studies, University of Cottbus [email protected] Jana Schäfer Intercultural Studies, University of Cottbus © 2020 Anna Amelina https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1707252