Unpacking diversity, grasping inequality : rethinking difference through critical perspectives

Abstract

Critical diversity studies emerged in the mid-1990s as a reaction to the re-appropriation of equal opportunities by business through the notion of diversity. They initially took issue with the dominant rhetoric of diversity as a positive, empowering approach valorizing employees’ different capacities (e.g. R. Thomas, 1992), arguing that the theoretical shift to diversity would obscure unequal power relations in organizations, e.g. gender, race/ ethnicity, (dis)ability, hampering the ability to challenge them (i.e. Bond and Pyle, 1998; Edelman et al., 2001; Jones et al., 2000; Kelly and Dobbin, 1998; Liff, 1996; Liff and Wajcman, 1996; Linnehand and Konrad, 1999; Lorbiecki and Jack, 2000; Maxwell et al., 2001; McDougall, 1996; Prasad and Mills, 1997; Wilson and Iles, 1999).