ABSTRACT
Attacks on public demands for equality, diversity and inclusion are understandable. The wokerati (i.e. public who demand social justice) are substantial enough internationally to impact political, economic and social life through their demands for change. We outlined the setbacks, backlash and attacks on diversity beliefs as knee-jerk reactions to the woke turn in international public opinion. Most social movements start with the moral entrepreneurship of a single individual or a critical event that captures the need for recognising, protecting and promoting a form of diversity. If there is an appetite in a group or society for such an awareness, that category of difference may be legitimated and promoted. Such collective decisions lead to wider social movements and may be taken up by nation-states and international organisations as significant concerns for regulation. Once adopted as a regulatory concern, diversity could be legitimated, protected and promoted.
The future of workforce diversity will be shaped by changes in the demographic, social, cultural and political context and shifts in the moral landscape. Diversity is regulated at multiple levels and facets. Individual-level demands for equality, freedom, justice and solidarity often find meaning in collectives which turn to social movements, which in turn shape back the very values and demands of individuals for the legitimation of equality for new forms of diversity and difference. Thus, there is an interplay between micro-individual and macro-international regulation of diversity, as they constitute each other.
