Amongst the disciplines: Anthropology, sociology, intersection and intersectionality

Abstract

The history of relations between anthropology and sociology in the UK might at best be described as ‘studied indifference’. And yet, they have shared disciplinary interests in many respects, including the concepts of belonging and identity. This article resists disciplinary boundaries and ‘thinks together’ sociological interpretations of intersectionality and anthropological notions of intersection. The authors argue that whilst intersectionality offers a frame to think about the co-constitution of ethnic, racial, class, sexual and gendered identities and the production of social inequalities, anthropological approaches to intersection draw on a cultural form and social logic encountered during ethnographic fieldwork that emphasise ideas about interrelatedness, belonging, place, temporality, connection and disconnection. In juxtaposing these two approaches, the authors seek firmer traction to better articulate the shape and scope of the ways in which scholars in both fields might develop new ways of explaining the lives and the concerns of the people they work with.