Authors: Marino, S., Martinez Lucio, M., Connolly, H., and Smith, H.

Presenter: Stefania Marino

Abstract:

While the debate on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is becoming central to the rhetoric of institutional agencies and organizations across countries in the Global North, the extent to which this debate challenges discriminations embedded in the structure of power within organizations and in the wider labour market is still limited.

Similarly to the discourse on “diversity” predominant in the past decades, DE&I can still support a predominance of the economic value over equity and social justice arguments, and the marginalization of specific axes of inequalities and in particular of “race”. In fact, while cross-country and cross-sectors difference exists in the extent to which a specific discourse around race has emerged, still inequality based on “race” remains a marginal(ised) domain of action.

This paper focuses on this “silence” by looking at how it manifests itself and is “justified” in different national and organizational contexts. The aim is to underline how policies and practices related to equality in the labour market are embedded in specific historical, institutional and social traditions, including the presence of activism and social movements. These specific configurations affect the framing of equality across countries, and the specific way “race” is silenced, against the supposedly “homogenizing” effect of international drives.

This paper is based on data collected in relation to an ESRC project (2021-2025) aimed at contrasting policy and practices related to equality at work within the UK to other cases in Europe – France, the Netherlands, and Spain – which have made an explicit and concerted effort to engage with a more progressive and inclusive approach to equality. The overall project focuses on both the rhetoric and policy development of equality and regulation at work and within organisations within a context of political uncertainty especially with major challenges emerging to the contours and nature of equality strategies including Brexit, the rise in right wing and xenophobic populist discourse, and external shock factors and disruptions such as the Coronavirus crisis and changing political contexts.

The data consists of qualitative interviews with key actors (state agencies, research departments and research bodies, expert academics, employer and management organizations, consultancy firms, HRM practitioners, trade unions, labour inspectorates, and others) for a total of 154 interviews (38 in Spain, 53 in the UK, 36 in France, 30 in the Netherlands, and six at the EU level).