Castán Broto, V., & Neves Alves, S. (2018). Intersectionality challenges for the co-production of urban services: notes for a theoretical and methodological agenda. Environment and Urbanization, 30(2), 367-386.
he co-production of urban services, such as water, energy or
sanitation, is a vital tool to advance service delivery and to challenge socioeconomic
structures that reproduce urban inequalities. This article examines the crossovers
between debates on intersectionality and the co-production of urban services.
Intersectionality is a critical lens for an engaged critique of the dynamics of
exclusion that may challenge service co-production. The paper draws attention
to three key insights: 1) the need for an explicit questioning of processes to define
vulnerability, particularly when they rely on bounded, fixed identity categories;
2) a recognition of the complex and multiple lived experiences of inequality and
marginalization in any given context; and 3) a conceptualization of social identity
as constituted through dynamic processes and always open to revision.