Understanding intersectionality and vulnerable populations: A missing part in building disaster resilient communities?

Abstract

This chapter explores the slow but growing inclusion of intersectionality in crisis management. Intersectionality is a framework that analyzes overlapping and compounding oppressions and/or privileges that individuals and social groups experience. We ask: What does the lens of intersectionality do for crisis management? Following a review of the extant literature, we trace the evolution of intersectionality in crisis management scholarship and unpack how this framework can improve the effectiveness of crisis management in terms of resilience. We argue that intersectionality is a key theoretical concept for crisis management when people are the focus, as in a human security perspective. We urge that resilience planning regarding a community or population should follow an intersectional approach to ensure effective crisis management. This chapter contributes to the scholarship on crisis management from a human security perspective by bringing in critical theory, specifically from an intersectional perspective.