ABSTRACT
This contribution to the debate on positive action – and its consequences for the management of organizational diversity – starts on a societal level. I shall not focus on the everyday practice of positive action nor on its possible effects. I shall discuss its starting point, the discourses of diversity it has been associated with in the course of its existence. I shall demonstrate that ‘positive action’ is closely related to the massive nation-wide collection of social data, the classificatory infrastructure associated with the development of both the social state and of contemporary organizations (Bowker and Star 1999). I shall mostly be using examples from the Netherlands, complementing them with experiences from other countries, within and outside Europe. Although the Netherlands’ provision of social statistics can be considered as quite specific, the general tendencies I am discussing here apply to most social states in the west.
