Full Description
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.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I. Framing the Issues: Intersectionality and Critical Social Theory
1. Intersectionality as Critical Inquiry 21
2. What's Critical about Critical Social Theory? 54
Part II. How Power Matters: Intersectionality and Intellectual Resistance
3. Intersectionality and Resistant Knowledge Projects 87
4. Intersectionality and Epistemic Resistance 121
Part III. Theorizing Intersectionality: Social Action as a Way of Knowing
5. Intersectionality, Experience, and Community 157
6. Intersectionality and the Question of Freedom 189
Part IV. Sharpening Intersectionality's Critical Edge
7. Relationality within Intersectionality 225
8. Intersectionality without Social Justice? 253
Epilogue. Intersectionality and Social Change 286
Appendix 291
Notes 295
References 331
Notes 353
