07.02.14 Workshop "When, why and how organisations respond to diversity"

Das Institut für Diversitätsforschung der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen gestaltete in Kooperation mit der Universität Kassel und dem Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung multireligiöser und multiethnischer Gesellschaften am 06. und 07.02.2014 einen Workshop zum Thema "When, why and how organisations respond to diversity".

Dr. Astrid Biele Mefebue, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin des Instituts für Diversitätsforschung, hielt einen Vortrag zum Thema:
"Why German public libraries (not) manage diversity effectively: a survey in German public libraries"

Inhalt des englischsprachigen Workshops:
It is widely recognized that many present-day societies have become increasingly diverse. This analysis/observation usually refers to three phenomena:
a) due mainly to migration, the populations of cities and nation states now encompass people of a wider range of backgrounds, ethnic and religious identification;
b) the link between particular class backgrounds, as well as between gender, and particular life styles and normative orientations has become weaker and a broader range of such orientations are tolerated;
c) equal rights for those of minority sexual orientations and the disabled are demanded more vocally, and such demands are increasingly accepted as legitimate.

How far (and in what ways) do such changes challenge existing organisations and institutions, how do they deal with them, and how can we account for differing responses?

Existing research has charted the rise of diversity management and diversity programmes. Their often superficial character and the subordination of equal-opportunities-demands under profit interests "the so called business case" have been much criticized. While attention so far has focussed on the economic sphere, this workshop looks at public and political organisations/institutions and the relevant institutional fields in which they are embedded. Often such organisations/institutions claim to pursue a universalistic approach (education for all children) or to address mainly one differentiation. A recognition of, and active response to, diversity may be perceived as conflicting with such orientations and may run against the operational logics of an organisation. We are particularly interested in work on city administrations, welfare state institutions (e.g. in health, higher education) and political organisations (parties, NGOs). We do not restrict the scope of the discussion to particular countries.

Further, we would like to test the usefulness of "diversity" as an analytical concept. Is "diversity" more than a slogan or buzz word of companies or state institutions we then critically examine? Is it mainly an umbrella term for different equal-rights demands of underprivileged groups? Do organisations indeed respond to "diversity", or do we thus merge rather different processes and challenges? And how and when is it helpful to examine what may be seen as a set of complex phenomena as one phenomenon, i.e. "diversity" (or difference, heterogeneity, social inequality.....)?