Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Intersectionality and water: How social relations intersect with ecological difference

Thompson, Jennifer A.

Authors



Abstract

A cornerstone of feminist scholarship, intersectionality theory and method explore how gender intersects with other forms of social difference such as race and class. However, in light of the entangled relationships between nature and society, this article argues that human experience cannot be understood through social analysis alone, as offered by intersectionality. This article interrogates how materialities in the physical world might be incorporated within intersectionality. Drawing on gender and water research, the article explores how intersectionality complicates the social dimensions of water access, use, and control. Yet, applying intersectional thinking to water, scholars show how ecological processes of differentiation are also at play. Case studies from Sudan and Bangladesh exemplify how spatial and temporal aspects of water distribution intersect with the social complexities of water access. The article then returns to examine how intersectionality works to explore a framework for including these spatial and temporal dimensions. Four mechanisms – simultaneity, situated specificity, relationality, and fluidity – are elaborated for facilitating the study of eco-social relations within intersectionality theory. The article concludes that the materiality of water offers theoretical insight for developing intersectionality theory, with implications for gender and water research.

Citation

Thompson, J. A. (2016). Intersectionality and water: How social relations intersect with ecological difference. Gender, Place and Culture, 23(9), 1286-1301. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2016.1160038

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 19, 2015
Online Publication Date Mar 21, 2016
Publication Date 2016-09
Deposit Date Apr 5, 2018
Journal Gender, Place and Culture
Print ISSN 0966-369X
Electronic ISSN 1360-0524
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 23
Issue 9
Pages 1286-1301
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2016.1160038
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1362910