Authors: Heather Connolly (Grenoble Ecole de Management); Stefania Marino (Work and Equalities Institute, University of Manchester); Miguel Martinez Lucio (Work and Equalities Institute, University of Manchester), Holly Smith (Work and Equalities Institute, University of Manchester).

Presenter: Miguel Martinez Lucio

Abstract:

This presentation examines the origins and the development of the workplace equalities agenda in the UK. It focuses on a 4-year ESRC financed research project which aims to contrast the experiences and issues related to equality at work in terms of policy and regulation within the UK to other cases within Europe which have made an explicit and concerted effort to engage with a more progressive and inclusive approach to equality. Through a range of interviews with key individuals and experts, the article tracks the extant ‘marketplace’ of EDI consultancies and HRM professionals within the UK back to the unlikely context of experiments with municipal socialism. During the 1980s many local authorities were sites of political resistance to a hostile and ideological Conservative government. Yet these councils were not just an oppositional project – they were often progressive and radical sites of experimentation for a positive political programme. Broad “rainbow alliances” of progressive local politicians, civic officers, trade unions, activists, and other civil society actors developed policy innovations which moved beyond discursive commitments to include the creation of equal opportunities structures, anti-racist activism, political representation initiatives, and self-organised groups. This article relocates the agential roles of these communities of action and coalitions, and argues that these networks and diverse range of social actors from across the equality sphere continue to build consensus and develop the policy agenda within the contemporary workplace, despite structural impediments and constraints. The presentation will highlight the importance of putting the study of equality at work in a historical context and understanding the role of specific political projects and the use of spaces within and between the state and civil society that engender new forms of equality initiatives and politics