Showing papers on "Diversity (politics) published in 2011"

The Tanner lectures on human values

Abstract: The Tanner Lectures on Human Values The trustees Preface to Volume VII 1 The standard of living Amartya Sen 2 Moderation, rationality and virtue Michael Slote 3 Authority and inequality under capitalism and socialism Marrington Moore, Jr 4 The paradoxes of political liberty Quentin Skinner 5 The uses of diversity Clifford Geetz The Tanner Lecturers Index to Volume VII

Mental health service utilization among college students in the United States.

Abstract: We aimed to provide the most comprehensive picture, to date, of service utilization and help-seeking behavior for mental health problems among college students in the United States. We conducted online surveys in 2007 and 2009 of random samples of students in 26 campuses nationwide. Among students with an apparent mental health problem (32% of the weighted sample), 36% received any treatment in the previous year. The prevalence of psychotherapy and medication use was approximately equal. Treatment prevalence varied widely across campuses, with some campuses having prevalence 2 to 3 times higher than those of others. Apparent barriers to help-seeking included skepticism on treatment effectiveness and a general lack of perceived urgency. Overall, the findings indicate that help-seeking for mental health varies substantially across student characteristics and across campuses. Strategies to address the low prevalence of treatment will need to be responsive to this diversity.

Cognitive adaptation to the experience of social and cultural diversity.

Abstract: Diversity is a defining characteristic of modern society, yet there remains considerable debate over the benefits that it brings. The authors argue that positive psychological and behavioral outcomes will be observed only when social and cultural diversity is experienced in a way that challenges stereotypical expectations and that when this precondition is met, the experience has cognitive consequences that resonate across multiple domains. A model, rooted in social categorization theory and research, outlines the preconditions and processes through which people cognitively adapt to the experience of social and cultural diversity and the resulting cross-domain benefits that this brings. Evidence is drawn from a range of literatures to support this model, including work on biculturalism, minority influence, cognitive development, stereotype threat, work group productivity, creativity, and political ideology. The authors bring together a range of differing diversity experiences and explicitly draw parallels between programs of research that have focused on both perceiving others who are multicultural and being multicultural oneself. The findings from this integrative review suggest that experiencing diversity that challenges expectations may not only encourage greater tolerance but also have benefits beyond intergroup relations to varied aspects of psychological functioning.

Promoting Participation in a Diverse Democracy: A Meta-Analysis of College Diversity Experiences and Civic Engagement

Abstract: In recent years, American colleges and universities have seen greater diversity among their undergraduate students and greater civic interest and action among these students. In fact, many have argued that meaningful engagement with diversity constitutes an important means of preparing college graduates to participate and flourish in a globalized and rapidly changing society. The current study explores this assertion by conducting a meta-analysis of the relationship between college diversity experiences and civic engagement. The results show that diversity experiences are associated with increases in civic attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors, and the magnitude of this effect is greater for interpersonal interactions with racial diversity than for curricular and cocurricular diversity experiences. The strength of the relationship between diversity and civic engagement also depends on the type of civic outcome and whether changes in that outcome are assessed through self-reported gains versus lo...

Intersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models

Abstract: In comparison to research practices, intersectionality is an underdeveloped concept within policy discourse and application. Because of the complexity and relative newness of this approach, policy ...

Diversity in Organizations

Abstract: 1. Introduction to the Study of Diversity in Organizations. 2. Legislation. 3. Theories and Thinking about Diversity 4. Blacks/African Americans. 5. Latinos/Hispanics. 6. Asian Americans. 7. Whites/European Americans. 8. American Indians and Multi-racial group members. 9. Sex and Gender. 10. Religion. 11. Age. 12. Physical and Mental Ability. 13. Work and Family. 14. Weight and Appearance. 15. Sexual Orientation. 16. International Diversity/Facing the Future.

Intersectionality, Quotas, and Minority Women's Political Representation Worldwide

Abstract: The majority of the world's countries have implemented policies designed to advance the political representation of women and/or minority groups. Yet we do not yet understand how these disparate policies affect the election of minority women. In this article, I draw on theories of intersectionality to conduct the first worldwide analysis of the effects of gender and minority quotas on minority women's representation in national legislatures. Using hierarchical linear modeling, I analyze how quotas influence the election of women from more than 300 racial, ethnic, and religious groups across 81 countries. I find that policies designed to promote the political representation of women and minority groups interact to produce diverse but predictable outcomes for minority women. Although quotas are ostensibly designed to promote diversity and inclusiveness, the quota policies in effect today rarely challenge majority men's dominance of national legislatures.

Does Ethnic Diversity Erode Trust? Putnam's 'Hunkering Down' Thesis Reconsidered

Abstract: We use a multi-level modelling approach to estimate the effect of ethnic diversity on measures of generalized and strategic trust using data from a new survey in Britain with a sample size approaching 25,000 individuals. In addition to the ethnic diversity of neighbourhoods, we incorporate a range of indicators of the socio-economic characteristics of individuals and the areas in which they live. Our results show no effect of ethnic diversity on generalized trust. There is a statistically significant association between diversity and a measure of strategic trust, but in substantive terms, the effect is trivial and dwarfed by the effects of economic deprivation and the social connectedness of individuals.

Special Review Article: Diversity and its not so diverse literature: An international perspective

Abstract: This paper reviews workforce diversity literature and its research findings. We identify important gaps between the literature and the challenges of diversity management. These gaps include lack of...

National Institutional Systems as Antecedents of Female Board Representation: An Empirical Study

Abstract: Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: How are national institutional systems related to the proportion of women found on corporate boards of directors of companies listed in particular countries? Which particular types of national institutions play the most important role? We explore cross-country variation in the pattern of female representation on corporate boards and evaluate the extent to which it is associated with the nature of national institutional systems as captured in five frameworks each of which emphasizes the importance of a distinct type of national institutions. Our analysis includes 38 countries and covers the years 2001–07. Research Findings/Insights: Our findings show that as much as half of the variation in the presence of women on corporate boards across countries is attributable to national institutional systems and that culturally and legally-oriented institutional systems appear to play the most significant role in shaping board diversity. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our study suggests that country-level institutions, previously neglected in studies of board diversity, play an important role in shaping the prevalence of women on corporate boards and that these need to be more fully incorporated in future research on board diversity. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The importance of national institutional systems for board diversity suggests that policy levers of a regulatory nature and national cultural characteristics are important elements in driving corporate board diversity and offer distinct opportunities for tailoring a mix of corporate governance interventions that suit the particular institutional nature of a given country.

Teacher Interpretations of Citizenship Education: National Identity, Cosmopolitan Ideals, and Political Realities.

Abstract: Citizenship education typically focuses on the nation and citizens’ supposed natural affinity to the nation‐state. In this global age, this is challenged by cosmopolitans who propose a form of education which encourages a primary commitment to fellow humanity and/or the planet Earth. However, citizenship education has been re‐emphasized by those who assert that in a globalized world and nation‐states characterized by diversity, one requires a primary commitment to the nation‐state. The latter group proposes a renewed focus on civic education which promotes national belonging and loyalty, often targeting, either explicitly or implicitly, students from minority or migration backgrounds. Within EU member‐states, this binary between education for national and global citizenship is troubled by the issue of European citizenship and belonging. This article analyses the official citizenship curriculum for England and reports on qualitative research with teachers, designed to explore their perceptions of the curri...

Training child welfare workers from an intersectional cultural humility perspective: a paradigm shift.

Abstract: The increasing diversity of the populations encountered and served by child welfare workers challenges cultural competence models. Current concerns focus on the unintentional over-emphasis on shared group characteristics, undervaluing unique differences of individuals served, and privileging worker expertise about the client's culture, thereby exacerbating the power imbalance between them. This article promotes cultural humility in child welfare service delivery as a compliment to cultural competence, to liberate workers from expectations of cultural expertise about others, and to actively engage the clients, inclusive of their cultural differences, in the service delivery process. Skills and practice principles are discussed.

Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies

Abstract: Political wisdom holds that the political boundaries of a state necessarily coincide with a nation's perceived cultural boundaries Today, the sociocultural diversity of many polities renders this understanding obsolete This volume provides the framework for the state-nation, a new paradigm that addresses the need within democratic nations to accommodate distinct ethnic and cultural groups within a country while maintaining national political coherence First introduced briefly in 1996 by Alfred Stepan and Juan J Linz, the state-nation is a country with significant multicultural-even multinational-components that engenders strong identification and loyalty from its citizens Here, Indian political scholar Yogendra Yadav joins Stepan and Linz to outline and develop the concept further The core of the book documents how state-nation policies have helped craft multiple but complementary identities in India in contrast to nation-state policies in Sri Lanka, which contributed to polarized and warring identities The authors support their argument with the results of some of the largest and most original surveys ever designed and employed for comparative political research They include a chapter discussing why the US constitutional model, often seen as the preferred template for all the world's federations, would have been particularly inappropriate for crafting democracy in politically robust multinational countries such as India or Spain To expand the repertoire of how even unitary states can respond to territorially concentrated minorities with some secessionist desires, the authors develop a revised theory of federacy and show how such a formula helped craft the recent peace agreement in Aceh, Indonesia Empirically thorough and conceptually clear, Crafting State-Nations will have a substantial impact on the study of comparative political institutions and the conception and understanding of nationalism and democracy

Mapping out the field of equality and diversity: Rise of individualism and voluntarism

Abstract: Drawing on 66 interviews with key actors in the equality and diversity field in the UK, we operationalize Bourdieu’s conception of the field, across the axes of individualism versus collectivism and regulation versus voluntarism, and map out the location of the key actors in this field. The contribution of this article is three-fold. First, we advance the understanding of the equality and diversity field at national level by analysing the accounts of the influential actors, whose interests and actions shape the field. Second, the article illustrates how the multi-actor and contested nature of the equality and diversity field manifests in these accounts, and presents evidence in support of policy and strategic thinking that goes beyond a single-actor focus. Finally, we contribute to the theoretical maturity and expansion of the equality and diversity scholarship through the use of Bourdieuan sociology.

Commentary: Diversity 3.0: A Necessary Systems Upgrade

Abstract: This is a defining moment for health and health care in the United States, and medical schools and teaching hospitals have a critical role to play. The combined forces of health care reform, demographic shifts, continued economic woes, and the projected worsening of physician shortages portend major challenges for the health care enterprise in the near future. In this commentary, the author employs a diversity framework implemented by IBM and argues that this framework should be adapted to an academic medicine setting to meet the challenges to the health care enterprise. Using IBM’s diversity framework, the author explores three distinct phases in the evolution of diversity thinking within the academic medicine community. The first phase included isolated efforts aimed at removing social and legal barriers to access and equality, with institutional excellence and diversity as competing ends. The second phase kept diversity on the periphery but raised awareness about how increasing diversity benefits everyone, allowing excellence and diversity to exist as parallel ends. In the third phase, which is emerging today and reflects a growing understanding of diversity’s broader relevance to institutions and systems, diversity and inclusion are integrated into the core workings of the institution and framed as integral for achieving excellence. The Association of American Medical Colleges, a leading voice and advocate for increased student and faculty diversity, is set to play a more active role in building the capacity of the nation’s medical schools and teaching hospitals to move diversity from a periphery to a core strategy. This is a defining moment for health and health care in the United States, and our medical schools and teaching hospitals have a critical role to play. The combined forces of health care reform, demographic shifts, continued economic woes, and the projected worsening of physician shortages portend major challenges for the health care enterprise in the near future.

The Diversity Ideology in the Business World: A New Oppression for a New Age:

Abstract: Diversity has become a common term in the business world. But, what exactly does it mean to be diverse? In this article, I examine the notion of diversity in the business world and explore how, in ...

Trust, Diversity, and Segregation in the United States and the United Kingdom1

Abstract: Generalized trust is a value that leads to many positive outcomes for a society. Many analysts argue that trust is lower when we are surrounded by people who are different from ourselves. Residential segregation, not diversity is the culprit in lower levels of trust. Segregation is one of the key reasons why contact with people who are different from ourselves does not lead to greater trust. Diversity is a proxy for the minority share in a community and that: (1) segregation, especially in diverse communities, drives down trust more than diversity does; but (2) close personal ties in integrated diverse communities builds trust, but more so in the United States than in the United Kingdom, and more for majority white communities than for minorities.

Diversity and the Imagined Community: Immigrant Diversity and Conceptions of National Identity

Abstract: As immigrant diversity increases across most developed democracies, there is an increasing concern that perceived threats to mainstream interests (both cultural and economic) will produce an ethnocentric response. This study approaches the question using survey measures that explicitly tap respondents' normative conception of membership in the national community. Based on cross-sectional and over-time analysis of the ISSP's “National Identity Module,” it shows that more immigrant-exclusive definitions of the national ingroup are linked to both contextual and individual measures of cultural threat. Perceived economic threat at the individual level is also powerfully linked to this outcome, but contextual measures of economic prosperity are not. This finding lends weight to the argument that increasing levels of immigrant diversity are a threat to an inclusive sense of national identity that includes both natives and immigrants.

Reconcilable differences? Human diversity, cultural relativity, and sense of community.

Abstract: Sense of community (SOC) is one of the most widely used and studied constructs in community psychology. As proposed by Sarason in (The Psychological sense of community: prospects for a community psychology, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1974), SOC represents the strength of bonding among community members. It is a valuable component of community life, and it has been linked to positive mental health outcomes, citizen participation, and community connectedness. However, promotion of SOC can become problematic in community psychology praxis when it conflicts with other core values proposed to define the field, namely values of human diversity, cultural relativity, and heterogeneity of experience and perspective. Several commentators have noted that promotion of SOC can conflict with multicultural diversity because it tends to emphasize group member similarity and appears to be higher in homogeneous communities. In this paper, we introduce the idea of a community-diversity dialectic as part of praxis and research in community psychology. We argue that systematic consideration of cultural psychology perspectives can guide efforts to address a community-diversity dialectic and revise SOC formulations that ultimately will invigorate community research and action. We provide a working agenda for addressing this dialectic, proposing that systematic consideration of the creative tension between SOC and diversity can be beneficial to community psychology.

Building new identities in teacher preparation for inclusive education in Ghana

Abstract: “We want our classrooms to be just and caring, full of various conceptions of the good. We want them to be articulate, with the dialogue involving as many persons as possible, opening to one another, opening to the world” (Greene 1993 as cited in Nieto & Bode, 2008). These words sum up inclusive education as a multifaceted practice that deals with value and belief systems, invites and celebrates diversity and difference arising from family background, social class, gender, language, socio-economic background, cultural origin or ability with human rights and social justice at its core. In this paper we reflect critically on current pedagogical practices in Ghana in relation to inclusive education. Using a critical post-colonial discursive framework the paper takes up the challenge to problematise the existing pedagogical practices, which are intensely oppressive. It examines the impact of colonial and cultural practices (beliefs, values, norms) on teaching and learning, using data obtained from three focus groups with 21 student teachers, a total of 42 hours of non-participant observation of their classroom teaching and existing research commentaries. We found that current pedagogical practices are prescriptive, mechanistic, and do not value student diversity and different learning styles. We conclude with new directions for teacher education programs in Ghana that value and celebrate diversity, and difference.

Why Diversity Became Orthodox in Higher Education, and How it Changed the Meaning of Race on Campus

Abstract: Using qualitative data about University of Michigan between 1965 and 2005, this article shows how administrators’ diversity discourse and programs have defined race as a cultural identity, expressed through interaction, which provides instrumental benefits. It also explains three major reasons why, starting in the mid-1980s, university administrators adopted this racial orthodoxy of “diversity”: to signal compliance with—and also to redefine—law and institutional norms while still practicing race-based affirmative admissions; to frame inclusion in more complex terms than a racial binary or numerical representation amidst growing campus multiculturalism; and to market the university, especially to white students. The article advances racial formation theory by developing the concept of a racial orthodoxy. It shows that diversity discourse and programs have sometimes advanced the goal of racial minority inclusion, but at the cost of downplaying problems of racial inequality and misrepresenting racial minori...

Cultural diversity in China: Dialect, job embeddedness, and turnover

Abstract: China is a large and diverse country. Although increasing attention has been given to ethnic Chinese research sites in recent years, researchers have seldom given much thought to the diversity present among Chinese communities. For example, clear regional attributes are embodied by the many different dialects of China. Dialect has long been recognized as a basis for establishing personal relationships, but its impact on other individual outcomes is less well understood. In this paper, we propose that in China, Chinese people’s frequency of speaking in their local dialect is related to their identification process with an organization or a community, which could in turn influence their decision to stay with their organization. The theoretical and practical implications of utilizing regional and cultural differences in large countries such as China are also examined.

Gender Development Research in Sex Roles: Historical Trends and Future Directions

Abstract: The late 1960s through the 1970s marked an important turning point in the field of gender research, including theory and research in gender development. The establishment of Sex Roles in 1975 as a forum for this research represented an important milestone in the field. In this article, we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Sex Roles and, in particular, its contributions to the field of research on children’s and adolescents’ gender development. We examine the trends in research on gender development published in Sex Roles since its inception and use this analysis as a vehicle for exploring how the field has grown and evolved over the past few decades. We begin with a brief review of the history of this field of research since 1975. Then, we present a descriptive assessment of articles published on gender development in Sex Roles over time, and link this assessment to general trends that have occurred in the study of gender development over the past 35 years. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for the field of gender development. In particular, we highlight areas in which the journal could play a role in promoting more diversity in topics, methods, and ages employed in gender development research.

Gender in the Middle East: Islam, State, Agency

Abstract: The scholarship on gender in the Middle East takes two objectives as its mandate: first, to dismantle the stereotype of passive and powerless Muslim women and, second, to challenge the notion that Islam shapes women's condition in the same way in all places. The urgency of this endeavor is heightened by the fact that gender has come to demarcate battle lines in geopolitical struggles since September 11, 2001, and to occupy a central place in the discourse of international relations in regard to Muslim countries. To reflect the major developments in the field, I offer a critical analysis of the scholarship on issues that constitute the core of the intellectual discourse on gender in the Middle East. These include the critique of Orientalism past and present; the exploration of the diversity within Islam; the study of states and gender with respect to symbolic representations, institutions, and kin-based solidarities; the analysis of women's agency; and the debates surrounding feminism and the veil.

A holistic approach to international students, institutional habitus and academic literacies in an Irish third level institution

Abstract: This qualitative study examines the interplay between academic staff and international students with regard to developing academic literacies at university. Higher education has traditionally responded to increasing student diversity with the expectation that students will conform to institutional norms or habitus. In this context international students arrive with cultural capital which may not fit such norms, and would benefit from developing their academic literacy, as indeed would home students given an increasingly diverse student body in Irish higher education. Findings reveal a gap between academics expectations and international students’ capabilities. Academic staff remained within the remit of the research in contrast to the 22 international students who were interviewed. They did not separate the totality of their campus experience from academic literacy practices. These ranged from uncertainty around writing in another language to a mismatch between diversity management in class and students’ own expectations. International students found difficulty to making friends on campus which could benefit their integration into the academic literacy practices of their respective disciplines. Findings point towards a whole institution response to student diversity which transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Social Networks, Recruitment, and Volunteering: Are Social Capital Effects Conditional on Recruitment?:

Abstract: Prior research has found that several types of social networks—social and associational ties, religious involvement, and recruitment contacts—promote volunteering. This article extends the literature by examining whether social tie diversity matters for volunteering and whether the effects of social networks are conditional on being recruited or not. Using the 1999 Giving and Volunteering Survey, the authors estimated probit models of being asked to volunteer and volunteering. The results show that social tie diversity, the number of associational ties, and religious involvement are each associated with recruitment. Recruitment itself is an important predictor of volunteering. Religious involvement is associated with higher probabilities of volunteering conditional on being asked, whereas social tie diversity and the number of associational ties increase volunteering among those not asked.The results indicate that associations between social networks and volunteering depend on both recruitment and whether...