Organizational Views (Asynchronous Session)
Normativity Plus: Diversity between Exclusion and Inclusion: An Example of Organizational Culture within Social Service Organizations
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Timo Schreiner
Social Service Organizations (SSO) play a fundamental role in national welfare systems. The peculiarity of this type of organization is that they are usually financed by the state and that they do their service in co-production with their clients. Historically and theoretically, questions about social justice, normativity, diversity, and inclusion are fundamentally for SSO. These issues and questions are primarily related to the clients and not transferred to the SSO itself. In this context, it remains unclear how diversity and inclusion are interpreted in organizational-cultural relationships. Within a current study about organizational diversity we became able to describe the prevailing organizational culture in context of diversity within an SSO. Qualitative and quantitative methods (expert interviews and social statistics) were combined and the study took place at an youth welfare office. The organizational culture at this youth welfare office may be considered as “normativity plus”, which is to be interpreted as an intermediate step between diversity and inclusion. Though notions of normality are reproduced, at the same time “being different” is heard and seen and not being excluded. In a sense of diversity management we can show, that the organization takes advantage of social difference categories. But what about differences that do not directly relate to an advantage for the organization? In my paper, I theoretically, with help of the empirical data, show what exactly “normativity plus” means and how it shapes organizational culture.
Literacy Culture in Organizations in Sub Sahara Africa: Diversity and Inclusion Perspective View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Erasmus Kofi Appiah
The advent of diversity and inclusion management has seen the enactment of several legislative instrument and policies in various nations. However, to date, organizations encounter challenges in their quest to achieve inclusion in a diverse environment. This paper brings to fore the antecedents of diversity management and the challenges encountered by organizations within a diverse environment such as sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). In this regard, this paper argues that a literacy culture which goes beyond legislation and policies should be encouraged to put muscle behind the process of ensuring inclusion in organizations in SSA. Literacy culture may be more receptive since it breaks down legislation and policies to the simplest form, preventing imposition and resistance. Validating this argument, an in-depth literature review is employed to contribute to the debate. To this end, individuals in organizations in diverse environment such as SSA, equipped with the needed literacy in diversity management may turn to be more receptive to legislations and policies. This process may enhance the management of diversity and inclusion in organizations in SSA.
Not a Care in the World: An Exploration of the Personal-professional-political Nexus of International Development Practitioners Working in the Justice and Security Sector View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eleanor Gordon, Briony Jones
This study explores the implications for international development policy and practice - specifically within the sectors of building security and justice after conflict - of the departure of those assuming caring roles, predominantly women who become mothers. More broadly, this paper explores how personal life stories impact the choices we make in our professional lives, including where, when and how we engage, in this instance, in international development, and the subsequent implications for the field. These choices (the personal) have an impact on policy and practice (the professional), and inform how knowledge is created, circulated, legitimised and becomes expert knowledge (the political). This paper thus explores the implications of an epistemic community being predominantly male (in part as a consequence of the lack of support for social reproductive work) on how security and justice in post-conflict environments are conceived and, ultimately, rebuilt. The authors reflect upon their engagement in conflict-affected environments – as scholars and former practitioners – and draw from life stories of international development practitioners to investigate the personal-professional-political nexus and the impact of narrow epistemic communities on how ‘security work’ is done, whose security matters, whose voices count.
Examining Retention of Women in Engineering: Findings from British Columbia that Identify Actions Regulators Can Take to Lead Change View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marcie Cochrane, P.Eng.
Recent global attention concerning unfair treatment and unequal employment of women has intensified calls for change, affecting all professions, including engineering. As momentum increases, professional regulators must consider their role in this change. The author conducted a research project to examine the question: As a regulator, how can Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia lead change within the profession to increase the retention of women in engineering in BC?
Diversity in WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding: The Need for Reform View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bashar H. Malkawi
In one of its most impressive successes, the WTO provides a unified dispute resolution regime in the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). The DSU expressly prohibits the “jungle rule” so a country does not take its rights into its own hands. Perhaps, it is fair to say that the dispute settlement mechanism under the WTO is the only rule-based body in the system. Article 17.3 of the DSU requires that the Appellate Body membership be broadly representative of the WTO membership. However, in practice, most panelists from other developed countries such as the U.S., New Zealand or Switzerland. There should be greater diversity of panelists. Diversity is a prerequisite to doing justice. It helps ensure that appropriate understandings of law and culture are brought to the matters under dispute. In the context of investment disputes, it ensures that adjudicators can interpret core legal concepts through a development lens, something we have rarely seen to date. That does not imply a lack of impartiality and independence; instead, it provides a means to bring fuller insights to bear on interpretation and adjudication. Diversity is also a prerequisite to confer legitimacy on a system that is widely viewed as biased to foreign investors and capital-exporting states. The paper analyzes the problem of diversity in the WTO settlement system. Reforms, especially a standing two-tier appellate system, can deliver diversity of adjudicatory appointments.
Teaching English for Social Justice and Inclusion in Hong Kong Schools View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Margaret Lo
In Hong Kong society, academic achievement and proficiency in the English language as a core curricular subject and global lingua franca remains elusive for many students in Hong Kong schools, particularly for youth from low-income families in low-ranked schools. Given that teaching and learning English is deeply implicated in social stratification and educational inequality, initial teacher education must prepare English teachers who are committed to social justice and inclusion and who have the capacity to develop contextualised and culturally sustainable pedagogies. This paper reports on a participatory research project working at the nexus of teacher education, schools and communities to develop culturally responsive, socially just and sustainable pedagogies for teaching and learning English in high-poverty primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Teacher educators, student-teachers on an undergraduate teacher preparation programme worked with practicing teachers and classes of English learners in six primary and secondary schools during an 8-week teaching practicum. The project focussed on community building and critical reflection through regular study groups and humanising English language teaching and learning through classroom-based action research in each participating school. Implications for English language education and teacher education in the current Hong Kong sociopolitical and sociocultural context are discussed.
