Bridging feminist theory and cutting-edge statistics, this book introduces Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) and expands it into a contextual intersectional multilevel framework, revealing how power operates through intersecting identities and environments to generate systemic inequalities and how quantitative tools can expose, understand, and ultimately challenge them.
It first clarifies why traditional interaction terms fail to fully capture intersectionality’s transformative aim: they overlook the simultaneous, context-specific ways that gender, race, class, sexuality and other dimensions of inequalities configure privilege and oppression. Using intersectional multilevel models, the author shows how it is possible to estimate both individual heterogeneity and group-level effects, then extends the approach to incorporate context. Worked examples in Stata guide readers through linear, binary and ordinal outcomes. A brief overview of Bayesian estimation and random slopes models is also provided. The book is accompanied by open datasets and reproducible code. Throughout, an ethical reflexive thread stresses category fluidity, disclosure risks and accountability to intersectionality’s transformative agenda, demonstrating the method’s power to reveal, and hopefully contributes to dismantling, structural inequalities.
Designed for social scientists, policy analysts or management scholars seeking rigorous yet reflexive quantitative approaches, the book suits postgraduate students, academic researchers and practitioners working on inequalities. Those already fluent in multilevel modelling will deepen their knowledge; beginners will gain a clear, step-by-step entry into intersectional multilevel modelling in practice.
Table of Contents:
Preface
1 Introduction: intersectional multilevel modelling
Part 1 Quantitative multilevel approaches to intersectional analysis: theoretical and statistical considerations
2 Intersectionality and quantitative approaches
3 Key concepts in (intersectional) multilevel modelling
Part 2 Practical applications of intersectional multi-level modelling
4 Data sources and pre-processing
5 Intersectional multilevel linear modelling in practice
6 Intersectional multilevel binary logistic modelling in practice
7 Intersectional multilevel ordinal logistic modelling in practice
8 Advanced extensions in applying intersectional multilevel modelling
9 Conclusion: Towards transformative intersectional quantitative practice
10 References
About the Author :
Anne Laure Humbert is a researcher at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Review :
“In this much-needed handbook, Professor Humbert provides a clear and comprehensive guide to studying intersectionality in individual outcomes through multilevel modelling. The book covers the entire research process – from defining intersections and estimating models to visualising and interpreting results – while critically connecting empirical findings back to intersectionality theory.”
- George Leckie, Professor of Social Statistics and Co-Director of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling, University of Bristol, UK.
“More than a methods manual, this timely book aims to help readers bridge statistical and technical proficiency with the feminist research ethos and transformative commitment of intersectionality. Because it acknowledges the inherent tensions involved in this bridging work, it will be a valuable resource for students and researchers grappling with the challenges of doing theoretically-informed critical quantitative analysis in practice.”
- Dr Jenny Chanfreau, Co-organiser of the FemQuant Network and Assistant Professor in Sociology, University of Sussex, UK.
