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This chapter introduces the concept of intersectionality. It provides a brief history of intersectionality, which illustrates that intersectionality is too useful a tool for hospitality and tourism (H&T) researchers to ignore. The purposes of intersectionality and how it has been used across varied methodological and disciplinary terrain are explained. Tourism's cross-disciplinary and post-disciplinary nature traverses diverse dimensions of time and space, and intersectionality's emphasis on the importance of context is especially relevant to H&T researchers. The chapter presents ten foundational intersectionality research praxis principles that further the aims of social justice. As a legal concept, intersectionality was groundbreaking, when Crenshaw challenged the U.S. legal system on how Black working women suffered from a specific type of race and gender discrimination based not on race and not on gender, but the combination of female sex and Black race. The chapter indicates research gaps that intersectionality can address.

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This chapter presents the different theoretical framings of intersectionality within feminist and critical race theory, and their underlying positions. Over time, feminism and critical race theories have evolved to redress critical gaps or exclusions of marginalised groups' experiences and struggles. Both informed the development of intersectionality as a research tool, however, each conceptualises power as the basis of a society's system of inequality in different ways. It calls for both traditions to inform contemporary intersectional studies. Indigenous and postcolonial perspectives highlight that intersectional understandings were theorised in other cultural contexts and by non-Western world views before critical race theory conceptualisations, therefore, intersectionality cannot only be defined by those traditions and limited to research on their interests only. In the end, for tourism scholars and intersectional scholars alike, the research aim and questions will dictate the most appropriate conceptual framing.

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The chapter focuses on theorising social justice in an intersectionality study. It is important to define the concept of social justice as the overarching purpose of an intersectionality study. Establishing the 'social justice' theoretical framing influences research design and process. How 'justice', 'social', and 'equality' are conceptualised depends on the researcher's positioning and disciplinary context. It also has a bearing on the importance of selecting supplementary, and simultaneously underpinning theories that are adaptable or compatible with the principles of an intersectional study. To tease out and illuminate the effects of intersections on individuals within organisational and societal power systems, context-appropriate and/or disciplinary theories are useful. This is not to say that the intersectional lens is a 'thing' apart to be added and stirred in, rather, it is a pervasive kernel that permeates every stage of the process. Examples from intersectional studies and the hospitality and tourism contexts are used to illustrate points.

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This chapter centres on the principle of relationality in an intersectional study. Because hospitality and tourism (H&T) researchers' studies span many different contexts and locations, ensuring a sound footing is critical. Researchers are given guidelines built on the learnings and experiences of intersectional researchers. Between-category and inter-categorical differences are frequently compared in intersectional studies, and the world view and choice of paradigm will influence how identity is conceptualised and some are not recommended. The methodological challenges in theorising the connections between different identity groups and intersectionality's aim to examine their boundaries, effects, and intersections are explained. There are advantages to choosing intersectionality as a paradigm. The chapter concludes with guidelines on different framings of significant identity categories in H&T research practice: sexual identity, race and ethnicity, and gender.

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This chapter is based on Indigenous approaches that further intersectional social justice and community goals. It examines approaches that are explicitly focused on Indigenous world views and their relevance for hospitality and tourism (H&T). Key elements include frameworks for community researchers and activists, red pedagogy and the critical significance of data sovereignty for Indigenous research. Melding the learnings from red intersectionality and legal precedents in a bicultural nationhood (Aotearoa New Zealand) context proposes a ninth foundational principle, the furthering of environmental justice and relationality with all living systems. This conceptualises nature as an equal partner in intersectional knowledge systems. This addition fills an urgent theoretical and methodological gap in current intersectionality applications and surmounts Western anthropocentric perspectives. Its importance for H&T researchers lies in how it incorporates intersectional, biomedical, and Indigenous world views of nature as essential for the spiritual wellbeing of human and non-human animals. It concludes by advocating for researchers to challenge inequality in dominant knowledge systems.

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The chapter has a practical orientation; the main aim is to present selected intersectional methods for hospitality and tourism researchers and assess their potential in an intersectionality study. It discusses challenging dilemmas facing researchers studying the type and workings of power mechanisms that cause the effects of inequality. Complexity and power are foundational precepts in intersectional studies, which influence the choice and compatibility of different methodological approaches and methods when designing the study. The analytical results and findings can be likened to a constellation of spinning interacting players and structures. Methods outlined are ones that have been extensively used by tourism scholars, frequently by political and social geographers examining mobilities. Key methods discussed are 1) case study approaches, 2) qualitative in-depth interviews as a method, 3) mixed methods, and 4) multi-level intersectional methods. The chapter enables researchers to be confident in making wise and informed choices especially when studied with other key chapters.

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This chapter examines methods of intersectional praxis that are specifically aimed at policy based or policy informing research projects. Recommendations are offered on how these underlying principles may be applied across a variety of disciplines, including hospitality and tourism studies. Disability access policy represents a particularly urgent and complex challenge across different hospitality and tourism contexts. Immigration policies, geography, politics, mobility, language, climate change, access, and culture influence communities in diverse ways. However, many studies fail to take intersections of identity into account, thereby rendering policy interventions less effective for some community groups. This chapter suggests that policy oriented studies have specific requirements in order to be effective. The three examples provided are best read as complementary as they address different audiences, discipline interests and purposes..

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This chapter discusses the intersectional research approaches that have been developed in science and technology. The chapter's aim is to guide researchers through approaches and discuss their utility and relevance for tourism and hospitality. The evolving methods are based on intersectional principles and form a methodological advance. They are relevant for contexts where quantitative methods and big data set analyses are part of a mixed methods approach. The need to adopt intersectionality theorising arose when traditional methods proved inadequate to address all pertinent issues related to a social problem: intersectional methodologies proved a fresh way of responding to intersecting challenges. Power, inequality, complexity and the ability to track intersections at different structural and individual levels are aspects that science and technology researchers have developed from decades of intersectional theorising to craft therefore embedded in the featured contextually sensitive multi-level methods.

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This chapter presents the NVivo Multi-Level Analysis Method for hospitality and tourism researchers. This is a qualitative multi-level intersectional method using NVivo as an organisation and cross tabulation tool. It gives a comprehensive set of guidelines that are of practical value for researchers who wish to implement an NVivo qualitative method in a multi-level study. It covers project setup in NVivo, setting multi-level themes to encompass code, the initial coding process and how to conduct identity-structure matrix queries, and interpret key intersections and what they represent. The approach is designed for an interpretive paradigm but is compatible with other social justice and critical enquiry approaches, including Red Intersectionality. The approach to analysis is broadly compatible with the steps of qualitative thematic analysis as it is based on letting the data speak, an essential element of critical race and feminist research praxis. Its key contribution is that it details a practical way to conduct a multi-level qualitative study that can form part of a compatible mixed methods research design.

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This chapter proposes a new concept of occupational intersectionality to describe the intersecting subordinate identities of hospitality workforce members that marks them as marginalised. It explains the employment context of the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industries and some of the acute and persistent issues that have led to its extremely poor social image and positioning as a temporary job fit only for marginalised groups in society. The chapter makes a new theoretical contribution of H&T intersectional occupational taint. It also provides a humanistic tool for hospitality and tourism researchers who advocate for improved working conditions and sustainable working practices. Drawing on critical race and Indigenous research framings, it proposes a 'common good' human resource management approach to address social and environmental issues in tourism destinations. Its original contribution is that by conceptualising both the cause and solution of the high turnover in hospitality, it furthers social justice aims for marginalised hospitality and tourism communities. Keywords: intersectionality; occupational intersectionality; sexual harassment; tourism workforce; Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL); Common Good HRM; sustainable development goals; decent work; colonial hospitality

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This chapter examines the sequence of steps involved in an intersectional study in hospitality and tourism. The Nimble Intersectionality Analytical Framework (NIAF) was developed from the original nimble intersectionality approach It significantly extends the concept beyond the employment context to include occupational intersectionality, and the concept of environmental justice and relationality with all living systems for contemporary intersectional researchers. It presents the 11 steps in a comprehensive analytical framework that guide researchers in the field from initial data planning through final analysis. Although the chapter's framing builds on concepts that hold special significance and resonance for hospitality and tourism contexts, it is not confined to a narrow disciplinary focus. The Nimble Intersectionality Analytical Framework (NIAF) can be transferred and adapted to other domains and contexts as it is built on diverse knowledges rather than a solely Western knowledge system lens.

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This chapter examines future directions for intersectional research in hospitality and tourism. Contemporary challenges, including natural ecosystem destruction, shifts in geopolitical and socioeconomic power relations, and technological transformation – require integrating dominant and diverse knowledge systems. Intersectional approaches provide practical guidelines for research that addresses these challenges. The chapter argues that researchers can advance social justice aims by designing intersectional hospitality and tourism policy studies across diverse contexts and disciplinary branches. By moving beyond critique to propose solutions, researchers can work effectively with engaged community groups rather than limiting involvement to traditional stakeholder categories that frequently exclude marginalised interests. This chapter demonstrates how intersectional research frameworks empower scholars to contribute meaningful solutions to pressing social and environmental concerns.

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This chapter presents a range of frequently asked questions about carrying out intersectional research in hospitality and tourism. It includes questions that crop up frequently from postgraduate students and emerging researchers. The format aims to provide practical guidance when implementing the methodological approaches outlined in the handbook. Themes cover common challenges, clarifications of key concepts, and troubleshooting advice across five broad topic areas. The first group of questions relates to research design, the second concerns how to apply the concepts in the book. The third group of questions addresses common dilemmas about how to research aspects of identity in an intersectional study. The fourth theme is reserved for hospitality and tourism specific questions and finally, the fifth theme relates to queries about a researcher's positioning in and across different contexts. Where issues are not clearcut, sources of useful information are suggested on where to seek further knowledge.