Description

This event was held on 7 April 2021 - 10:00AM CST Chicago

Meet the Author is an ongoing, Research Network wide series in which members can participate and interact with the authors of recent releases.

Differences at Work: Practicing Critical Diversity Literacy

Differences at Work: Practicing Critical Diversity Literacy is part of the movement around the world to deepen the practice of organizational transformation and improve conceptual approaches to diversity in ever-changing and often confusing contexts. The increasing interconnectedness of communities has profoundly changed how society is imagined, making the study of the construction of and relation to our differences an area of academic priority. This book is written as a step-by-step manual for practitioners of diversity within organizations and brings the day-to-day management of organizations into meaningful conversation with cutting-edge social science. We see the process of people learning to respect and even value the differences between them as being the development of a reading practice: a kind of literacy. The choice of the word "literacy" reflects our belief that almost anybody can learn the language of critical diversity. It need not require a particular moral or political starting point; it is a skill, and can thus be taught. Diversity is of course a highly politicized area of investigation. Differences in gender identification and permissible speech around racial and sexual differences are among the most divisive and partisan issues in the public sphere. After exploring the overarching theoretical and historical concerns, the book builds the case for a critical approach to diversity management. It provides guidelines for "selling" critical diversity literacy to management; outlines a theory of change for organizations; provides guidelines for meeting resistance; and ends with a chapter that addresses how to design and implement interventions.

Scott Burnett is a senior lecturer in communication at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. His research has focused on the reproduction of hegemonic whiteness as a spatial relation in environmentalist discourse, reactionary white masculinity on social media, and critical approaches to diversity in organizational contexts. He has published in leading academic journals including ACME; Discourse, Context & Media; and Sexualities.

Nceba Ndzwayiba is the Group Director for Human Resources and Transformation for Netcare Limited SA and an affiliate researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Diversity studies. He is passionate about social justice and equality with publications in accredited journals such as the International Journal for Social Economics focusing mainly on the reciprocal relationship between society and organisations in the reproduction of power, inequality and marginality.

A Fulbright alumnus, Melissa Steyn holds the South African Research Chair in Critical Diversity Studies. She is the founding director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and is best known for her publications on whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa and the development of the framework of Critical Diversity Literacy. She was featured as one of Routledge’s Sociology Super Authors for 2013.