An intersectional risk approach for environmental sociology

Abstract

The objective of this article is to further develop intersectional perspectives and feminist knowledge in environmental sociology. Environmental sociology has developed a critical theoretical frame with which to describe the social construction of risk, and this article further develops the understanding of the complex multidimensionality of the social relations that shape the lived experience of risk. An analytical and integrating discourse that acknowledges the connectedness of these dimensions and the influence of their interactions on the representation, production and reproduction of risk in society remains an unrealized ambition. Intersectional risk theory shows that risk is constituted and produced in social and geographic spaces, as well as the various power relations that prevail there, and consequently, risk is not only defined and managed differently but also the intersections of privilege and subordination are themselves reproduced through risk management. Using climate risks as a starting point, we propose a perspective for the study of risks that analyses the dynamic, ambiguous character of the doing of risk. Our intent is to investigate how risk discourses are entangled with the doing of class, gender and race, as well as with the differentiation between human and nature.

Keywords:

• intersectional risk theory
• climate change
• discourse analysis
• doing of risks
• human and nature

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Intersectionality has emerged as a vital theoretical tool with which to explore hierarchy, hegemony and exclusions. The concept of intersectionality was first used by Crenshaw (1989) to account for the ways in which race, gender and class intersect to position black women in particular vis-à-vis the law. From the first, intersectionality was strongly invested in the intersection of race and gender because black feminism is the key foundation of intersectionality. Currently, the concept of intersectionality has travelled far from its original field and is used in diverse ways in different contexts (for overviews, see Giritli, Nygren and Olofsson 2014).

2. A scan of environmental journals (Applied Environmental Education & Communication, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Ethics in science and environmental politics, Environmental Policy and Law and International Journal of Environmental Studies) revealed little or no use of intersectionality as a theoretical concept in its own right. Similar results were found after scanning a few sociological journals such as Current Sociology, The British Journal of Sociology, Sociology and Theory, Culture and Society. Similarly, in gender studies, environmental issues are not a major topic, although there is a debate regarding the intersectionality of ecofeminism (Lykke 2010). This is not to say that there is no literature on intersectionality and the environment. There are a number articles in the above-mentioned journals; however, there is also one discipline that appears to have embraced intersectionality, although gender is most dominant, and that is geography and research related to place, space and justice (Geoforum, Geography Compass, The Professional Geographer, Health and Place, Urban Studies, World Development and Habitat International), where intersectionality in relation to the environment is a recurrent theme.

3. The analysis was inspired by critical discourse analysis, which we understand to regard what can be said and thought and also who can speak, where they can speak and with what authority they can speak. The media source interpreted is, of course, also an arena open for influence from various actors engaged in producing narratives from their particular professional and ideological positions. The stories told in the news media are not independently produced by the media but are part of overarching discourses.

4. The three newspapers were Dagens Nyheter (DN), a national agenda-setting newspaper; Aftonbladet (AB), a national evening tabloid and Vestmanlands Läns Tidning (VLT), a regional newspaper. The articles were collected through an online search in a national digital archive of the news outlets, Mediearkivet (Retriver). In total, 150 articles were identified as relevant, and based on the content and/or the story behind the content, they were categorized into seven categories: information, critique, sensation, eyewitnesses, heroes, ecology and other.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Olofsson

Anna Olofsson is a professor of Sociology and Director of the Risk and Crisis Research Centre (RCR) at Mid Sweden University. Her research focuses on risk and its role in society and for us humans. She is particularly interested in the importance of stratification of society in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and class and its consequences for the management of risks, understandings of risk and risk communication.

Susanna Öhman

Susanna Öhman is an associate professor in Sociology and the dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Mid Sweden University. She conducts research on risk and people’s perceptions and experiences of risk in society. In her research, she is interested in risk and stratification in terms of gender, sexuality, class and ethnicity in different contexts.

Katarina Giritli Nygren

Katarina Giritli Nygren is an associate professor in Sociology and the director of the Forum for Gender Studies, Mid Sweden University. Her current research deals with different forms of governance relationships with a focus on processes of inclusion and exclusion in terms of gender, class and ethnicity in different contexts. One of the latest projects has been about to argue for and develop intersectional power analyses of risk.