Intersectionality in Housing Research: Early Reflections from a Community-based Participatory Research Partnership

Authors

  • Katie MacDonald Athabasca University
  • Sara Dorow University of Alberta
  • Reisa Klein University of Alberta
  • Olesya Kochkina University of Alberta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v10i2.70858

Keywords:

intersectionality, Community-Based Participatory Research, housing security

Abstract

We discuss early reflections of a housing security research project focused on implementing intersectional praxis across the life cycle of community-based participatory research. Drawing on our team’s initial Co-learning Workshop, including community and academic partners, we share initial learnings of our collective engagement with the connections between intersectionality and housing security. Specifically, we reflect on three key challenges, or “hopeful hesitations,” that have emerged as we begin our collaboration: co-defining intersectionality (including both theory and implementation); integrating intersectionality into the multi-scaled complexities of housing security; and communicating the relevance of intersectionality to a wider network of actors in housing security policy and programming. We suggest that an intersectional lens is crucial to housing security work because of the ways it attends to the everyday lived experiences of housing insecurity, the interlocking forms of oppression that create differentiated experiences, and the specific contexts in which structural housing inequities take root.

Author Biographies

Katie MacDonald, Athabasca University

is a white settler scholar on Treaty 6 territory and an Associate Professor at Athabasca University. She uses feminist analysis to examine (and hopefully foster) solidarity, social justice and learning with sites of inquiry in both affordable housing and international solidarity learning. You learn more about some of her work here: Home | Transnational Service Learning (transnationallearning.com) 

Sara Dorow, University of Alberta

is Professor of Sociology and Director of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology at the University of Alberta. Her work is in the areas of work, family, community, migration, and mobility, and usually takes an intersectional or transnational feminist approach. 

Reisa Klein, University of Alberta

(she/her) is an Adjunct Academic Colleague in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies and a Senior Officer, Major Initiatives in the Office of the Vice-President (Research and Innovation) at the University of Alberta. Her research examines intersectional practices of embodiment in diverse cultural and mediated contexts. 

Olesya Kochkina, University of Alberta

(she/her) is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. She returned to academia after fifteen years of international development work. Her research focuses on praxis and intersectional feminist approach. 

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Published

2024-08-21

How to Cite

MacDonald, K., Dorow, S., Klein, R., & Kochkina, O. (2024). Intersectionality in Housing Research: Early Reflections from a Community-based Participatory Research Partnership. Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning, 10(2), 62–82. https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v10i2.70858