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).