Translating Intersectionality : the Languages of Intersectionality Across Social Movement Fields

While the political vocabulary of intersectionality has been initially developed and promoted by non-white feminist activists and theorists primarily in the US and the UK contexts, it has become a common place of contemporary feminist activism, but with a variety of meanings attributed to it, including depoliticized and whitened understandings of the term. Moreover, the language of intersectionality has also spilled over to other social movements, including anti-racist, LGBTQ+ and other social movement fields. Based on preliminary findings of a research looking at LGBTQ+ and anti-racist organizations in France, Switzerland and Belgium this paper aims at exploring the following questions: what are the main understandings deployed by activists mainly located outside of feminist movements and organizations? How is intersectionality translated into new contexts and meanings? How does the current European backlash against anti-racism and intersectionality impact social movements’ uses of this concept and the way they politicize it?