Paulina de los Reyes

Paulina de los Reyes has a Ph D in Economic Historia and is currently Associate Professor at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life Research. She has published widely in the fields of labour market relations, gender divisions of labour and ethnic discrimination in working life. The study of intersections of class, gender, race and sexuality has been a central area of interest. During the last years her work has focused on theoretical aspects of inequality and the development of intersectional analyses within a Swedish context. Among her publications areDiversity and differentiation. Discourse, difference and construction of norms in Swedish Research and public debate (2001) Maktens (o)lika förklädnader. Kön, klass och etnicitet i det postkoloniala Sverige with Diana Mulinari & Irene Molina 2002, Intersektionalitet. Teoretiska reflektioner över ojämlikhetens landskap with Diana Mulinari 2005, and Om välfärdens gränser och det villkorade medborgarskapet (2006).

Sammendrag: "Mangfold og diskriminering - to sider av samme mynt?Kritisk blikk på mangfoldsbegrepet”
The lecture focuses on the rhetoric on diversity in Swedish research and public debate. In the Swedish public debate, the reactions to diversity as a political vision have been almost entirely positive. The labour market parties as well as authorities agree about the economic and societal benefits that may result from greater diversity in working life. Despite the central role of the concept as a vision for integration in working life and society, there has been surprisingly little discussion of its meaning. Neither has the discursive implications of the concept been the subject of academic research.

A critical deconstruction of the concept and an examination of the different contexts where it is discussed show however that the apparently open and optimistic message of the diversity concept also contains dangerous pitfalls. In the first place reifying ideas of essential identities; as woman, ethnic minority, etcetera. In the second place ignoring the mechanisms constructing difference and giving origin to inequality and discrimination. This is expressed in a discourse in which differences between individuals are never looked into or critically examined, nor expected to change.