ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the strengths and potential of an intersectional lens but also some of the quandaries raised in the project of theorising the effectivities of categories of difference through the postulate of their intersection and mutual constitution. It explicates some of the quandaries and dilemmas faced by those who engage with intersectionality and proposes a provisional way of addressing these. In doing this, it engages with the dilemma raised by using, on the one hand, categories of gender, race, class and sexuality (as well as others) as points of reference (and therefore, at some level as separate), and on the other hand, the idea of their mutual constitution, which points to these categories as always already intertwined, and therefore inseparable. The chapter develops a dialogical and multi-level framework (see also Anthias 2013a) for thinking through their translocational nature alongside the specification of societal arenas as conceptual and methodological tools.
