Local inefficiencies in french public-private diversity and inclusion policies: envisioning a locality-based intersectional analysis

This study explores inefficiencies that arise from public and private policy initiatives undertaken in suburbs and outlying localities, where various intersecting economic, educational, ethnic and geographical disadvantages mutually reinforce each other. We propose to transpose the cross-disciplinary concept of intersectionality from an individual and community-based level (i.e. encompassing a variety of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic minority communities) to a locality-based context. The empirical data underlying this study were based on a long-term field study drawing on both interviews and observations. A self-administered ethnographic research approach was combined with classic analyses of conversations transcribed verbatim, using qualitative coding. The main actors' inability to understand the concrete situations experienced by subjects residing in outlying localities, as well as the managers' failure to cooperate and engage collectively to promote employment among these populations, can be explained by the ineffectiveness of the categories that were designed and employed in carrying out managerial action, as part of corporate policy, and then implemented within factories. Using a rich empirical database, this paper aims to show the relevance of the concept of intersectionality beyond its traditional scope of application (disadvantaged minority communities and individuals) while directing interest towards a less anthropocentric level of analysis: the locality.