Intersectional and Cross-Movement Politics and Policies: Reflections on Current Practices and Debates

The past five years have seen an exponential growth in publications on the topic of intersectionality. This article looks at the less developed subfield of studies on political intersectionality. While until now movements and equality policies have been mainly segregated—dedicated to one axis of inequality—there are a growing number of movement and state initiatives that take intersectionality in particular, and interference between inequalities in general, into account. New practices have developed in movement organizations and in policy making, and there is considerable demand for guides that can point out how to properly build political processes, policies, or programs to fight inequality while acknowledging and addressing interfering inequalities. In this article I draw on academic literature and political and policy practices, categorizing the different ways in which movement and policy strategies address intersectional inequalities and reflecting on their potential and their limitations. I find that current academic discussion and research suggest four different political and policy approaches to best address interference between inequalities, to best address intersectionality: reactive approaches that focus on the importance of exposing stigmatizing or marginalizing effects, pragmatic approaches that highlight possibilities for intersectional politics within the confines of existing political and policy instruments, substantial approaches that call for a focus on structural change, and procedural approaches that center on the inclusion of particular groups of political actors.