ABSTRACT
Within Diversity Management Studies, religious diversity receives little attention in the German-speaking world. On the one hand, this is due to a strong separation between state and religion, as religion is clearly banned to the private sphere of life. On the other hand, the symbolic meaning of ‘religion’ as a category is strong and based on so-called ‘surface level’ characteristics, which at the same time refer to ‘deep level’ characteristics. In addition, religion has to be seen in connection with other diversity categories that influence each other. At the same time religion is the basis of identity construction, forms value systems, and influences social hierarchies which furthermore influence group processes beyond the individual level. This process of ‘doing difference’ is also reflected at the organisational and societal levels through social practices that cause inclusion and exclusion processes based on symbolic attributions.
