Diversity (sociology)

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Relaxed togetherness of people with different political, ethnic, sociodemographic and ideological backgrounds, different sex, age and natural genetic diversity (at a street festival in Munich, 2015)

Diversity is a concept of sociology and social psychology that is used in German-speaking countries, analogous to the term diversity used in English-speaking countries, to differentiate and recognize group and individual characteristics. The term diversity is often used instead of diversity. Diversity of people - insofar as it is legally relevant - is traditionally considered on the following levels: culture (ethnicity), age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion (worldview). A large number of other socialization-related and cultural differences such as work style, perceptual patterns, dialect, etc., which further increase cultural diversity and, depending on the context, also require attention and possibly social recognition, are less noticeable. In this sociological framing , the individual diversity of genetically inherited factors plays a subordinate role in favor of the concept of collective identities ( nature versus nurture ).

history

The concept of diversity has its origins in the US civil rights movement , which fought against racism against people of color . Diversity thus initially stood for the creation of equal opportunities for groups that are disadvantaged according to certain characteristics. In the USA, this resulted in the Anti-Discrimination Act and the Affirmative Action to promote disadvantaged groups according to the criteria of race , gender, skin color, ethnic origin, age, disability or religion. The civil rights movement of the USA had a great influence on the development of further social movements of previously disadvantaged and discriminated groups, e.g. B. on the movement of the Native Americans .

Since the end of the 1990s, the concept has also been used as a model by the European Union . Since 2006, the aspects of diversity have been taken into account in German legislation in the General Equal Treatment Act and are intended to protect people from these categories from discrimination .

However, research into and awareness of these issues was not tied to the concept of diversity. In social psychology, since the late 1940s, heterogeneity has been the central research-leading term for the dimensions examined. For decades, social psychology has been researching mechanisms of the emergence and effects of social categorization and stereotyping , of social comparisons, the formation of identities in social groups and intergroup processes. The effects of belonging to social groups were extensively researched , especially with regard to educational and performance behavior , processes of social advancement and decline, crime and gang formation, health and working life. In this respect, the results of group-related research were of extraordinary importance for education and social medicine .

Further development of the concept

More recently, the self-reproduction of the various groups in the sense of the construction (link social constructivism) of social diversity as the result of differentiations and actions of difference in concrete social interactions has been examined.

According to this understanding, dimensions of diversity are actively produced socially ( doing gender, doing culture , etc.) and thus socially effective and can also become politically effective in the sense of identity politics . There are interactions between different dimensions of diversity, which can add up and strengthen, reduce and weaken in different social contexts or enter into permanent contradiction. This entanglement of diversity (e.g. gender and skin color, age and gender) is called intersectionality .

Diversity management

Diversity management as a method of corporate human resource management aims to use the diversity of employees constructively and profitably. A well-known representative of diversity management in Germany is the economic policy initiative Charter of Diversity .

criticism

Various authors raise the question of whether norms of justice expand the agency of marginalized groups and communities, or whether they strengthen existing power relations between the founders of justice and those who are constituted as recipients; Examples include Gayatri Spivak , Sarah Ahmed, Nikita Dhawan and Davina Cooper.

See also

literature

  • Bülent Kaya, Gianni D'Amato (ed.): Cultural diversity and the justice . Seismo Verlag, Social Sciences and Social Issues, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-03777-129-7 .
  • Janine Dahinden, Alexander Bischoff (Ed.): Interpreting, Mediating, Arbitrating - Integration of Diversity? Seismo Verlag, Social Sciences and Social Issues, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-03777-081-8 .
  • Michael Schönhuth: Diversity. In: Sven Hartwig, Fernand Kreff (Hrsg.): Lexicon of globalization . Transcript-Verlag, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1822-8 , pp. 52-56.
  • Gertraude Krell (Ed.): Equal opportunities through personnel policy . 5th edition. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-8349-0465-2 .
  • Gertraude Krell: Mono- or multicultural organizations? "Managing Diversity" put to the test. In: Industrial Relations Vol. 3 (1996), No. 4, ISSN  0943-2779 , pp. 335-350.
  • María do Mar Castro Varela, Nikita Dhawan (ed.): Social (in) justice: critical perspectives on diversity, intersectionality and anti-discrimination . LIT, Berlin / Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-8258-1192-1 .
  • Julia Ricart Brede, Günter Helmes (eds.): Diversity and diversity in film and television . Waxmann, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-8309-3019-8 .
  • Georg Toepfer: Diversity. Historical perspectives on a key concept of the present . In: Zeithistorische Forschungen 17 (2020), pp. 130–144.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.charta-der-vielfalt.de
  2. ↑ Barbara Weißbach u. a .: Managing Diversity - concepts, cases, tools . 2nd Edition. IUK Institute, Dortmund 2011, ISBN 978-3-924100-36-0 , p. 23.
  3. ↑ Dagmar Vinz, Katharina Schiederig: Gender and Diversity - Understanding and shaping diversity. In: Peter Massing (Ed.): Gender and Diversity - An Introduction. Wochenschau Verlag, Schwalbach 2010, ISBN 978-3-89974-483-5 , pp. 26-27.
  4. ^ Henri Tajfel, John C. Turner: The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In: Stephen Worchel, WG Austin (Ed.): Psychology of intergroup relations. Chicago: Nelson-Hall 1986, 2nd ed., Pp. 7-24.
  5. ↑ Martin Fuchs: Diversity and Difference - Conceptual Considerations. In: Gertraude Krell, Barbara Riedmüller, Barbara Sieben, Dagmar Vinz (Eds.): Diversity Studies. Fundamentals and disciplinary approaches. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt, New York 2007, pp. 17–34
  6. ↑ Candace West, Sarah Fenstermaker: Doing difference. In: Gender & Society , 9th year 1995, issue 1, pp. 8–37.
  7. ↑ Regina Gildemeister: Doing Gender: Social Practices of Gender Differentiation. In: R. Becker, B. Kortendiek (Hrsg.): Handbook women and gender research. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2008, pp. 137–145.