ABSTRACT

Overall, we are aware that as critical researchers within the fi eld, while we believe it is important to provide an antidote to the ‘upbeat naivety’ of many practitioner representations of DM, it is also important to recognize that our accounts can sometimes be overly negative and can often offer a disappointingly pessimistic view of the state of things. In some ways, this can sometimes belie our own philosophical and practical commitment to upholding the importance of action on equality and diversity within organizations. We often come across this dilemma in our teaching or in our work with organizations, where as researchers in the fi eld we are often called upon to contribute to company diversity days or training events. While we want to present a critical account, we do not want to give the impression that we think all policy and practice is pointless or without effect. In this chapter, we try to highlight the positive experiences and examples we found in our research, and we hope that our critical analysis will indicate possibilities of thinking about and practicing DM in a different way, refl ecting on both our own research and other recent research in the fi eld.