ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that current understandings of diversity are lacking in light of the realities of contemporary diversity. The object is not to provide a review of the work in this field, but to reveal the unhelpful aspects of these terms in describing the challenges of diversity. Abner Cohen's instrumentalist elaboration of ethnicity also sheds light upon the difficulties of severing the ties between ethnicity and culture. The self and the group are far more fragmented than the concept of identity permits, and then obfuscate an accurate understanding of diversity. However, allowing the plural nature of our values to influence how we categorise issues of diversity provides an illusory focus to our understanding of diversity, particularly when this categorisation corresponds to the relative strength of the legal rights that can be claimed. It is within the context that proposes the concept of 'identity markers' as a mechanism through which a more accurate understanding of diversity can be achieved.
