15041: Reimagining Diversity Practice Through Critical Perspectives

This Professional Development Workshop (PDW) aims to bring scholars together on the theme of ‘diversity practice,’ which faces a crisis due to heightened polarized debates on differences, rising violence against marginalized groups, and the global surge of extreme right-wing movements. Anchored in three new books - Rethinking Gender Inequalities in Organizations (Dick, 2024), On Practicing Diversity: Organizational Worldmaking Through Exploration, Experimentation, and Engagement (Janssens & Steyaert, 2025), and A Diversity Politics: Liberal Antiracism, the Neoliberal Corporation, and Racial Capitalism (Carillo Arcienaga, forthcoming) – it aims to reimagine diversity practice by exploring new theoretical perspectives, political realities, and diverse organizational contexts. Each book will introduce and respond to three core questions: (1) What critical theoretical perspectives offer innovative ideas for practicing diversity differently? (2) How do current and future political realities, including ecological crises and polarization, create possibilities and limitations for diversity interventions? (3) Which organizational contexts, beyond traditional firms, enable fresh approaches to theorizing and practicing diversity? Following the introductions, participants will engage in roundtables to further discuss these questions, guided by insights from one of the books. The roundtables provide a platform for sharing experiences, ideas, and responses, fostering collaborative exploration of this theme. The workshop concludes with table reports to the plenary, articulating specific propositions for advancing diversity practice across the three thematic fields.