ABSTRACT
In an age where politics seems more devoted to addressing competing identities based on nationality, gender, race, sexuality etc. the issues of growing wealth inequality, inequities around gender and race, and between global north and south, are being relatively neglected. In turn, these disparities are linked to the prevailing model of world economy. Have culture wars around diversity displaced class wars around inequality? Are the two factors related in what some see as a rigged system privileging those from a well-heeled background, with racial, ethnic, gender and class markers?
One problem with present emphasis on diversity and its rights is that the issue of equality can be inadvertently marginalised. This is not to be reductionist and determinist about class. It is simply to acknowledge that the growing gap in social inequality is not being seen sufficiently in terms of its serious causes and ramifications. To mind this gap – and its relevance to rights and opportunity in the contemporary world – implies wariness about the focus on diversity and related identity politics, however much social mix itself should be commended within a culture of cosmopolitanism.
