“Doing inequality, doing intersectionality”: intersectionality as threshold concept for studying inequalities in entrepreneurial activity

Abstract

Purpose

This paper intervenes in existing literature on entrepreneurship and inequalities by proposing a novel reframing of intersectionality as a threshold concept, an important idea that enables us to deepen and progress the understanding of complex subjectivities.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing from education studies, intersectionality is explored through the five key features of threshold concepts: (1) transformative, (2) irreversible, (3) integrative, (4) bounded and (5) troublesome. We offer a set of reflection questions for what we call “doing intersectionality.”

Findings

We develop a metacritique of the way in which the concept of intersectionality has thus far been treated in feminist theory and applied in entrepreneurship studies – namely, as the culmination of thinking about difference and inequality, decoupled from its roots in collectivist analysis and Black and anti-racist feminism. The paper invites scholars of entrepreneurial inequalities to both engage and look beyond an intersectional lens to better elucidate the range of historically emergent social hierarchies and systems of power that shape their phenomena of interest.

Originality/value

Through reframing intersectionality as a threshold concept, this paper challenges entrepreneurship researchers to view intersectionality as a foundational starting point for the conceptualisation of complex interactions of social structures, and the structural inequality and power relationships present within their research, rather than a destination.

Citation

Dy, A.M. and MacNeil, H. (2025), "“Doing inequality, doing intersectionality”: intersectionality as threshold concept for studying inequalities in entrepreneurial activity", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 136-154. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-12-2022-1113