Actor, structure and inequality: an intersectional perspective of risk

In this chapter, intersectionality is used to explore how the interplay between risk and inequality can be understood from four different angles: (1) How structural and/or systemic processes act as governance and normalization of risk. (2) How the subject becomes possible through structure, for example through interpellation and normalization. (3) How the subject as an actor negotiate and navigate among and between different discourses of risk and finally (4) How pure lifeworld based experience of risk, asking if it is possible to find conjunction between risk, power and inequality beyond norms and hegemonic structures, or at least how this is played out in contemporary theorizing. In the chapter the intersectionality approach is situated vis-Ã -vis other approaches to risk and inequality: The chapter highlights the importance of both the external constraints on human beings often conceived of as 'social structures', for example collective habits formalized as legal rules, policy, norms, moral obligations etc., and on the often contrasting/opposite concept of 'action' or 'agency', for the understanding risk and inequality. Intersectionality is shown to be a frame through which risk and inequality can be analyzed in combination with other theoretical perspectives. By combing different approaches and using risk as a catalyst for intersectional analysis of inequalities, the result is sometimes ambiguous. However, the chapter shows that ambiguousness is not necessarily something bad, it can also be a way to understand and put our own time in perspectives.