An Intersectional Approach to Political Representation

Abstract

This panel explores how an intersectional analytical sensibility can deepen and reorient contemporary debates on political representation. Rather than treating intersectionality as the additive combination of discrete axes of domination, the panel draws on the formulation advanced by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, understanding intersectionality as an interpretive framework attentive to how multiple structures of power are mutually constitutive and situationally activated. From this perspective, political representation is not only shaped by inclusionary claims but also by the normative architectures of political space that actively produce exclusion, silencing, and differential legibility. Contributions to this panel examine political representation across institutional, non-institutional, and transnational settings, asking how intersectional dynamics configure who can appear as a representative subject, under what conditions, and at what cost. Key questions include: How do intersectional power relations shape the boundaries of political spaces? In what ways do representational norms privilege certain bodies, voices, and claims while rendering others excessive, disruptive, or unintelligible? And how might an intersectional sensibility reshape normative debates on democratic inclusion, representation, and political legitimacy? By bringing together theoretical and empirical contributions, the panel aims to advance an intersectional understanding of political representation that foregrounds power, normativity, and the constitutive exclusions embedded in democratic institutions and practices.

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