Dossier Presentation - Reflections on the uses of intersectionality in Latin America: Articulating decolonial perspectives

Abstract

Intersectionality, as an analytical category, has expanded beyond social movements, reaching the academic field, public policies, and the Judiciary. Given that the concept of intersectionality is still under development, it is crucial to engage in discussions that bring it closer to academia, particularly to the social sciences. We argue that the intersectional perspective has a multilocated and simultaneous origin, emerging from both Latin American and North American scholars and activists. In the Latin American context, any analysis must necessarily consider the categories of race, gender, ethnicity and class—not as universal social markers, but as systems of oppression imposed by the colonial process. Based on these discussions, we examine intersectionality as an analytical category through the lens of decolonial feminism, understanding it as a critical proposal that unites struggles for recognition and redistribution in the pursuit of social justice, always grounded within a specific social context.