Guest Editorial: Unpacking Diversity, Grasping Inequality: Rethinking Difference Through Critical Perspectives

Critical diversity studies emerged in the mid-1990s as a reaction to the -appropriation of equal opportunities by business through the notion of . They initially took issue with the dominant rhetoric of diversity as a , empowering approach valorizing employees’ different capacities (e.g. . Thomas, 1992), arguing that the theoretical shift to diversity would obscure power relations in organizations, e.g. gender, race/ ethnicity, (dis)ability, the ability to challenge them (i.e. Bond and Pyle, 1998; Edelman et ., 2001; Jones et al., 2000; Kelly and Dobbin, 1998; Liff, 1996; Liff and , 1996; Linnehand and Konrad, 1999; Lorbiecki and Jack, 2000; et al., 2001; McDougall, 1996; Prasad and Mills, 1997; Wilson and , 1999).