From difference to intersectionality: challenges and resources

In this paper I take up the theme of enabling difference in terms of the challenges and resources posed by taking the intersectional character of differences seriously. Drawing in particular on feminist debates, current discourses that address questions of structural, especially racialized, inequalities through notions of difference are critically evaluated as limited in their analysis of power relations and practices around the transformation of power inequalities. Applying this to questions of service design and delivery, I introduce the concept of intersectionality – in particular the intersection of 'race' and gender – to illustrate four key problems that this framework allows to come into focus: discourses of cultural autonomy as reflecting those of liberal individualism; 'race anxiety' as a form of obsessional undoing of the effort to challenge racism; how attending to 'race' and culture typically works to privilege 'race' over gender; and how discourses of specialization (whether around diagnosis or cultural background) can paradoxically work to exclude women from, rather than to extend, service provision. It is suggested that, rather than difference, intersectionality could be a more promising starting point for critical thinking and practice.