Researchers at the UVic-UCC work on a European project to apply interseccionality to government bodies

A person may suffer from discrimination for various reasons, and they are often related to each other: they include gender, age, origin, religion, social class or sexual orientation, among other factors. However, government bodies tend to classify each of these situations or problems into categories, and deal with them in a segmented manner. Terrassa Municipal Council is establishing an initiative that aims to change this approach, and to apply intersectionality in local public non-discrimination policies. The "Connected equalities" project involves researchers from the area of gender and sexual diversity studies in the Gender Studies Research Group: Translation, Literature, History and Communication (GETLIHC) at the UVic-UCC.

Intersectionality, which emerged from black feminism in the United States in the 1980s, aims to change our perspective when we consider discrimination. "Imagine the paradigmatic case of an older gypsy woman, who we ask to go to three different departments of the same government body, such as a municipal council, depending on whether she wants to discuss a problem related to being a woman, being a gypsy or being a senior citizen," says Miquel Missé, researcher at the UVic-UCC, by way of an example. "She experiences these three circumstances as just one, and in fact a person's position is the result of the overlapping of different spheres of inequality. But instead, we ask them to segment themselves in order to clarify our social intervention," she explains.

However, a cross-sectional approach takes into account the interaction of different inequalities when they are addressed, and all the areas are considered in overall terms. "In fact, the crossover of different areas creates new situations of discrimination and inequality that go beyond their simple combination," says Gerard Coll-Planas, the project's coordinator and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (CEIG). "This is why this complexity must be considered when developing more inclusive policies," he says.

Intersectionality has so far been highly theoretical but there have been very few practical experiences. Terrassa Municipal Council's pioneering project began in January of this year as a pilot test. The first phase was a diagnosis, and was carried out by researchers from the UVic-UCC. They found that Terrassa Municipal Council met the requirements to be able to carry out the experiment, and they identified many workers who were interested in receiving training and learning about tools to deal with social problems in a more broad-based and innovative way.

The second phase will continue until December, and will include training workshops for social workers and open sessions for individuals, institutions and businesses. The project will conclude with a dissemination phase, which will among other events will include an international conference in February 2019, and a resource guide so that the experience can be transferred to other European administrations and cities.

"Connected Equalities" is co-funded by the European Commission's Justice Programme - Rights, Equality and Citizenship. Apart from the UVic-UCC and the Terrassa Municipal Council, the CEPS Social Projects Association is also involved.