ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the basic premises of the intersectionality paradigm and explores its potential theoretical and methodological contribution to the study of consumer vulnerability. Originating from the critical feminist thought, intersectionality has been described as “as a way of mediating the tension between assertions of multiple identity and the ongoing necessity of group politics” (Crenshaw 1991, p. 1296), multi-level analysis (Winker and Degele 2011), “a normative theoretical argument…to conducting empirical research that emphasizes the interaction of categories of difference” (Hancock 2007, p. 63–4), and even as “buzzword” (Davis 2008). Despite this wide array of meanings, the core insight offered by intersectionality is that every individual within a social group is positioned at the intersection of multiple identity axes (e.g. race, gender, social class, health status). As a result, everyone is subject to multiple overlapping advantages or disadvantages that are peculiar to their intersectional position.
