Floya Anthias

Keynote Abstract

'Intersections and translocations:new paradigms for thinking about identities and inequalities'

This paper reflects on the concepts of belonging, identity, difference and culture which inform understandings of social relations in the modern era. These have become particularly important in addressing the effects of transnational migration, “ethnic diversity” and racialisation in a range of social contexts. A critique of the ways in which “diversity” is talked about in current debates is also provided.

This paper also reflects on the concept of intersectionality as a means of developing a more integrated analysis of social divisions and identities relating particularly to gender, ethnicity and class. It is clear that once we focus on the intersectionality of social divisions and identities, we can move away from essentialised notions of culture, difference and belonging.

However, the complexity of social divisions and their inter-relations, both as analytical categories and categories of practice asks us to rethink the terms that we use for understanding both identity formations and forms of inequality. A new approach to issues of social stratification is also raised by this exercise. This paper attempts to rethink “identity”, on the one hand, and the parameters of a social stratification analysis, on the other, and considers the utility of a focus on social location (and translocation), process, and context in this exercise

Biography

Floya Anthias is Professor of Sociology and Social Justice at Roehampton University, London.

Her primary research interests are in the areas of social divisions and identities and her life long work has been devoted to trying to understand and theorise these in terms of social boundaries and hierarchies. This has also entailed a concern with social exclusion and inequality and migration, ethnicity, gender and multiculturalism. Her main academic writings reflect these interests. These have been devoted to exploring the connections between different forms of social hierarchy and inequality with a particular concern with the links between gender, race and class (often referred to as intersectionality) as forms of social identity and difference and forms of social stratification. In addition, issues of migration, particularly as they linked to labour market disadvantages and class position have been central to her work.

Her work has also been characterised by an interest in the Southern Mediterranean and she has undertaken a range of research on Cyprus and Cypriot migration and settlement. Recent articles have engaged with narratives of identity, the integration practices of women migrants and with ethnic ties and social capital.

Her books include Woman, Nation, State (co-edited with Nira Yuval Davis, Macmillan, 1989), Racialised Boundaries: race, nation, colour, class and the anti racist struggle (co-authored with Nira Yuval Davis, Routledge 1993), Ethnicity, Class, Gender and Migration: Greek Cypriots in Britain (Avebury Press, 1992), Thinking about the Social and Thinking about Social Divisions (edited, Greenwich University Press 1997), Into the Margins: Migration and Exclusion in Southern Europe, (co-edited, Ashgate 1999),  Gender and Migration in Southern Europe: women on the move, (co-edited, Berg, 2000) and Rethinking Antiracism: fromTheory to Practice (co-edited, Routledge 2002).