Intersectionality challenges for the co-production of urban services: notes for a theoretical and methodological agenda

Abstract

The co-production of urban services, such as water, energy or sanitation, is a vital tool to advance service delivery and to challenge socioeconomic structures that reproduce urban inequalities. This article examines the crossovers between debates on intersectionality and the co-production of urban services. Intersectionality is a critical lens for an engaged critique of the dynamics of exclusion that may challenge service co-production. The paper draws attention to three key insights: 1) the need for an explicit questioning of processes to define vulnerability, particularly when they rely on bounded, fixed identity categories; 2) a recognition of the complex and multiple lived experiences of inequality and marginalization in any given context; and 3) a conceptualization of social identity as constituted through dynamic processes and always open to revision.