The role of regulatory and temporal context in the construction of diversity discourses: The case of the UK, France and Germany

an article by Ahu Tatli (Queen Mary University of London, UK), Joana Vassilopoulou (Brunel University, UK), Akram Al Ariss (Groupe ESC Troyes, France) and Mustafa Özbilgin(Brunel University, UK and Université Paris-Dauphine, France) published in European Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 18 Number 4 (December 2012)

Abstract

Despite growing interest in how the concept of diversity management is reinterpreted as it crosses national boundaries, there has been little study of this process in Europe.

To bridge this knowledge gap, this article explores the construction of diversity discourses in the context of the UK, France and Germany. We use the discursive politics approach to investigate the ways in which the meaning of diversity is shrunk, bent and stretched.

We demonstrate that the concept of diversity has no universal fixed meaning but is contextual, contested and temporal. Temporarily fixed definitions and frames of diversity are path-dependent and shaped by the regulatory context.

Thus unique national histories and the context of regulation are key determinants of the ways in which the concept is redefined as it crosses national and regional borders.

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