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Intersectionality and Sustainable Development

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Gender Equality

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Definition

Intersectionality is an approach for studying and challenging power, as it exists, is produced, and is reinforced systemically and structurally. As such, it is crucial for addressing structural power imbalances that inhibit progress toward UN Sustainable Development Goals. Scholars attribute a more concrete formation of intersectional approaches to women of color as they work to advance their voices in spaces of theory, research, and social movements. Historically in these spaces, the voices of women of color were often absent, ignored, silenced, or erased relative to the voices of others such as white women or men of color. Generally through structural analyses, intersectionality accounts for how the enforcement of different hierarchical social divisions (commonly including aspects of identity such as race, class, and gender) are interrelated and work together to influence people’s social positionality, their power (or lack thereof), and their subsequent experiences of...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Stacia Ryder

  2. University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA

    Karie Boone

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  1. Stacia Ryder
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  2. Karie Boone
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Correspondence to Karie Boone .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. FTZ-ALS, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences FTZ-ALS, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Ctr Neurosci & Cell Biology, 1 Floor, Univ Coimbra, Edf Fac Medicina, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  4. Istinye University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Pinar Gökcin Özuyar

  5. International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tony Wall

Section Editor information

  1. Environmental Science and Management, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA

    Melissa Haeffner

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Ryder, S., Boone, K. (2019). Intersectionality and Sustainable Development. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_51-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_51-1

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