ABSTRACT
Disputes about how to understand intersectional relations often pivot around the tension between separateness and inseparability, where some scholars emphasise the need to separate between different intersectional categories while others claim they are inseparable. In this chapter the author takes issue with the either/or thinking that underpins an unnecessary and unproductive polarisation in the debate over the in/separability of intersectional categories. Drawing on Roy Bhaskar’s dialectical critical realist philosophy, the author argues that we can think of intersectional categories as well as different ontological levels as both distinct and unified and elaborate on the significance of the dialectical notion of unity-in-difference for intersectional studies. As part of the argument the author addresses the issue of what it actually means for something to be distinct or separate as opposed to inseparable or unified with something else, demonstrating that lack of clarity about this is at the heart of polarised arguments about separateness versus inseparability in intersectionality theory.
