Purpose

This paper intervenes in existing literature on entrepreneurship and inequalities by proposing a novel reframing of intersectionality as a threshold concept, an important idea that enables us to deepen and progress the understanding of complex subjectivities.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing from education studies, intersectionality is explored through the five key features of threshold concepts: (1) transformative, (2) irreversible, (3) integrative, (4) bounded and (5) troublesome. We offer a set of reflection questions for what we call “doing intersectionality.”

Findings

We develop a metacritique of the way in which the concept of intersectionality has thus far been treated in feminist theory and applied in entrepreneurship studies – namely, as the culmination of thinking about difference and inequality, decoupled from its roots in collectivist analysis and Black and anti-racist feminism. The paper invites scholars of entrepreneurial inequalities to both engage and look beyond an intersectional lens to better elucidate the range of historically emergent social hierarchies and systems of power that shape their phenomena of interest.

Originality/value

Through reframing intersectionality as a threshold concept, this paper challenges entrepreneurship researchers to view intersectionality as a foundational starting point for the conceptualisation of complex interactions of social structures, and the structural inequality and power relationships present within their research, rather than a destination.

中文翻译：

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“做不平等，做交叉性”：交叉性作为研究创业活动不平等的门槛概念

目的

本文通过提出对交叉性作为门槛概念的新颖重构，介入有关创业和不平等的现有文献，这是一个使我们能够加深和进步对复杂主观性的理解的重要想法。

设计/方法论/途径

借鉴教育研究的经验，交叉性是通过阈值概念的五个关键特征来探索的：（1）变革性的，（2）不可逆转的，（3）综合性的，（4）有界的和（5）麻烦的。我们针对所谓的“交叉性”提出了一系列反思问题。

发现

我们对交叉性概念迄今为止在女权主义理论中的处理方式以及在创业研究中的应用方式进行了元批判——即，作为对差异和不平等的思考的顶峰，与其在集体主义分析以及黑人和反社会中的根源脱钩。 - 种族主义女权主义。本文邀请研究创业不平等的学者们参与并超越交叉视角，以更好地阐明历史上出现的社会等级制度和权力体系的范围，这些社会等级制度和权力体系塑造了他们感兴趣的现象。

原创性/价值

通过将交叉性重新定义为一个门槛概念，本文向创业研究人员提出挑战，要求他们将交叉性视为社会结构复杂相互作用以及研究中存在的结构性不平等和权力关系概念化的基本起点，而不是目的地。