Intersectionality at the Macro Level: Social Theory as Practice (Chapter prepared for Routledge Handbook of Intersectionality, Kathy Davis and Helma Lutz, editors).
The macro-level of society consists of the relationships among its institutional structures and how such patterned relations change in systematic ways over time. Considering intersectionality at this level implies asking how global systems that produce inequality operate together. The challenge for macro-level thinking about intersectionality is to resist the long history of treating capitalism, class relations and the global economy as the most fundamental set of global relations. Intersectional theorizing at this level combines analysis of the emergent and relational properties of inequality-producing systems with an equally critical attitude to all of these structural inequalities. However, in contrast to top-down theorizing about abstract systems, intersectional macro-theorizing incorporates a focus on experience that enlarges the meaning of developing critique. This chapter situates the development of intersectional theory at the macro-level and highlights its contributions.