Intersectionality And Social Change

In Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory Patricia Hill Collins offers a set of analytical tools for those wishing to develop intersectionality's capability to theorize social inequality in ways that would facilitate social change. While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods. She places intersectionality in dialog with several theoretical traditions—from the Frankfurt school to black feminist thought—to sharpen its definition and foreground its singular critical purchase, thereby providing a capacious interrogation into intersectionality's potential to reshape the world.

Volume 37 asks, what can the emerging discipline of intersectionality studies contribute to our quest to understand and analyze social movements, conflict and change? Through the intersectional lens questions often ignored and populations traditionally marginalized become the heart of the analysis.

The concept of intersectionality has become a hot topic in academic and activist circles alike. But what exactly does it mean, and why has it emerged as such a vital lens through which to explore how social inequalities of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability and ethnicity shape one another? In this new book Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge provide a much-needed, introduction to the field of intersectional knowledge and praxis. They analyze the emergence, growth and contours of the concept and show how intersectional frameworks speak to topics as diverse as human rights, neoliberalism, identity politics, immigration, hip hop, global social protest, diversity, digital media, Black feminism in Brazil, violence and World Cup soccer. Accessibly written and drawing on a plethora of lively examples to illustrate its arguments, the book highlights intersectionality's potential for understanding inequality and bringing about social justice oriented change. Intersectionality will be an invaluable resource for anyone grappling with the main ideas, debates and new directions in this field.

Yoga, the Body, and Embodied Social Change is the first collection to gather together prominent scholars on yoga and the body. Using an intersectional lens, the essays examine yoga in the United States as a complex cultural phenomenon that reveals racial, economic, gendered, and sexual politics of the body. From discussions of the stereotypical yoga body to analyses of pivotal court cases, Yoga, the Body, and Embodied Social Change examines the sociopolitical tensions of contemporary yoga. Because so many yogic spaces reflect the oppressive nature of many other public spheres, the essays in this collection also examine what needs to change in order for yoga to truly live up to its liberatory potential, from the blogosphere around Black women’s health to the creation of queer and trans yoga classes to the healing potential of yoga for people living with chronic illness or trauma. While many of these conversations are emerging in the broader public sphere, few have made their way into academic scholarship. This book changes all that. The essays in this anthology interrogate yoga as it is portrayed in the media, yoga spaces, and yoga as it is integrated in education, the law, and concepts of health to examine who is included and who is excluded from yoga in the West. The result is a thoughtful analysis of the possibilities and the limitations of yoga for feminist social transformation.

A major publishing event, the collected writings of the groundbreaking scholar who "first coined intersectionality as a political framework" (Salon) For more than twenty years, scholars, activists, educators, and lawyers--inside and outside of the United States--have employed the concept of intersectionality both to describe problems of inequality and to fashion concrete solutions. In particular, as the Washington Post reported recently, "the term has been used by social activists as both a rallying cry for more expansive progressive movements and a chastisement for their limitations." Drawing on black feminist and critical legal theory, Kimberlé Crenshaw developed the concept of intersectionality, a term she coined to speak to the multiple social forces, social identities, and ideological instruments through which power and disadvantage are expressed and legitimized. In this comprehensive and accessible introduction to Crenshaw's work, readers will find key essays and articles that have defined the concept of intersectionality, collected together for the first time. The book includes a sweeping new introduction by Crenshaw as well as prefaces that contextualize each of the chapters. For anyone interested in movement politics and advocacy, or in racial justice and gender equity, On Intersectionality will be compulsory reading from one of the most brilliant theorists of our time.

Reading texts in relation to feminist, queer, and race theory and Buddhist philosophy, this book argues that an understanding of spirit is critical to explaining the power that social movements have to change hearts, minds, and social structures.

Reading texts in relation to feminist, queer, and race theory and Buddhist philosophy, this book argues that an understanding of spirit is critical to explaining the power that social movements have to change hearts, minds, and social structures.

In Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory Patricia Hill Collins offers a set of analytical tools for those wishing to develop intersectionality's capability to theorize social inequality in ways that would facilitate social change. While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods. She places intersectionality in dialog with several theoretical traditions—from the Frankfurt school to black feminist thought—to sharpen its definition and foreground its singular critical purchase, thereby providing a capacious interrogation into intersectionality's potential to reshape the world.

What does the development of a truly robust contemporary theory of domination require? Ashley J. Bohrer argues that it is only by considering all of the dimensions of race, gender, sexuality, and class within the structures of capitalism and imperialism that we can understand power relations as we find them nowadays. Bohrer explains how many of the purported incompatibilities between Marxism and intersectionality arise more from miscommunication rather than a fundamental conceptual antagonism. As the first monograph entirely devoted to this issue, »Marxism and Intersectionality« serves as a tool to activists and academics working against multiple systems of domination, exploitation, and oppression.

Through the themes of intersectionality, technology and media, and social change, Media, Intersectionality, and Social Change: An Introduction to Sociology Concepts through Contemporary Issues familiarizes students with timely and applicable concepts and theories in sociology. This unique, hybrid text provides students with a classic textbook chapter, followed by carefully selected readings that complements the themes of the book and shows students sociological concepts applied in real-world instances. The book is broken into four units. The first unit features material on nature and nurture, culture, media, and socialization to examine what makes us human. The second unit examines the concept of society and explores complex forms of organization, group identity, conformity, crime and deviance, and loyalty. The third unit shows the ways in which culture and social organization differ based on variables like class, gender, race, and age, and how those factors can manifest in inequality for specific populations. In the final unit, students learn how to work toward social change through behavioral, social, political, and digital movements. Cross-disciplinary in nature, Media, Intersectionality, and Social Change is suitable for foundational courses in sociology, social science, public policy, social work, ethnic studies, gender studies, and social psychology. Loreen Wolfer earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology from Cornell University, and her B.A. in sociology from Franklin and Marshall College. She is a professor of sociology and criminal justice and the Chief Evaluator at the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Crime at the University of Scranton. Her areas of academic expertise include marriage and family issues and social policy. She is the author of Real Research: Conducting and Evaluating Research in the Social Sciences, as well as numerous research articles on Facebook norms, protection from abuse orders, and drug courts.