Introduction. What "diversity" and what "value" are we talking about?

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Laura Zanfrini, Massimiliano Monaci
Publishing Year 2014 Issue 2014/134
Language Italian Pages 33 P. 7-39 File size 195 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2014-134001
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This introductory essay has two distinct goals, which are basically interrelated and necessary to each other. On one hand, it offers a detailed discussion of the articles included in this volume, by highlighting the specific contributions that the latter provide - both theoretically and with regard to organizational practice - for the current discourse of/on DM, as well as by exploring the implications stemming from them. On the other hand, drawing primarily, but not exclusively, on the paths of analysis suggested (and the space left open) by these texts, the essay proposes an original interpretation of the state of the debate on the management of diversity in the workplace, the key issues that have characterised its development, its future prospects from the standpoint of research, organizational action and policy-making. The emerging picture is multifaceted and, in some relevant ways, even contradictory, as paradigmatically shown by the incessant tension between the logic of "competitive" valorisation of differences at the heart of DM and the tenets of social justice underlying the more traditional approach of equal opportunities. After having examined some major criticalities of ongoing work on diversity, the essay stresses the need for a straight, and finally explicit, reflection about the types of "differences", values and conceptions of the common good we intend to enact and to link together through diversity-oriented rhetorics and practices. It is primarily for this reason that, according to the authors, the discourse on diversity appears to be a still relatively unexplored - and, thus, promising - terrain.

Keywords: Diversity, diversity management, differences, value, inequality, work Organizations

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Laura Zanfrini, Massimiliano Monaci, Introduzione. Di quale "diversità" e di quale "valore" parliamo? in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 134/2014, pp 7-39, DOI: 10.3280/SL2014-134001