Diversity Research After Mobility: Multiculturalism

2019 ◽  
pp. 81-94
Author(s):  
Banu Özkazanç-Pan
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Work Settings ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Work And Organizations ◽  
Diversity Research ◽  
Structural Inequalities

This chapter focuses explicitly on the concept of multiculturalism by providing critique and offering new ways to proceed in research. The critique focuses on the fact that when research addresses multiculturalism, it does so as an add-on to an existing self such that the multicultural self is understood as the result of identifying with more two sets of cultural and to an extent, political values. Such approaches neither attend to power dimensions of race and ethnicity as they relate to multiculturalism nor to the structural inequalities that people with and without migrant histories face in their lives and work settings among other organizations. To move forward, the chapter discusses how multiculturalism in the context of diversity research must attend to historic formations and their present-day manifestations in relation to the possibilities of subjectivity: what kinds of selves are possible for whom and under what conditions in organizations? By way of this question and building upon the key insights of transnational migration studies in relation to new subjects of research, this chapter puts forth new ways of thinking or theorizing about multiculturalism and engaging in research to examine it in the context of work and organizations.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Banu Özkazanç-Pan
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Cultural Management ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Work And Organizations ◽  
Cross Cultural Management

The introduction provides the reader with a context for transnational migration studies and its importance for studying people, work and organizations today. Starting out referencing contemporary trends, such as Brexit, the election of Trump and general rise of anti-immigrant, righ-wing regimes globally, the introductory chapter lays the foundation for a transnational migration perspective. Key ideas from transnational migration studies, an interdisciplinary field born out of sociology, are explained and their relevance for theorizing and studying difference in the context of globally-mobile people made explicit. The chapter then outlines how existing approaches to the study of people and work under these new times and in the context of mobility has taken shape in the management, focusing explicitly on diversity and cross-cultural management areas. These two scholarly areas represent the dominant approach to the study of people and difference albeit there have been critical interjections into static notions of identity, place and work in these areas. Altogether, the introduction lays the foundation for the book in terms of the need for and importance of transnational migration studies as a much-needed theoretical approach for rethinking identity, difference and work in the diversity and cross-cultural management fields.

“Superdiversity”: a new paradigm for inclusion in a transnational world

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 477-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Banu Ozkazanc-Pan
Keyword(s):  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Nation States ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Diversity Research

Purpose Transnational migration has become a defining feature of many societies across the globe. This paper focuses on contributions to diversity theorizing and research available from “superdiversity”, an analytic framework derived from transnational migration studies. “Superdiversity” speaks to the novel social transformations taking place globally and provides new opportunities, albeit with critique, for conceptualizing and studying people, difference and inclusion. The purpose of this paper is to provide innovative ways to rethink hallmark concepts of diversity scholarship by offering new insights about the role of nation-states, the concept of difference and inclusion in the midst of mobility. Design/methodology/approach The paper relies upon transnational migration studies as an emergent field of inquiry about societal level changes brought upon by the ongoing movement of people. The social, cultural and political transformations growing out of transnational migration are used to theorize new directions for diversity research in the context of management and organization studies. By relying on “superdiversity” and its mobility-based ontology, epistemology and methodology, the paper proposes new ways to think about and carry out research on difference and inclusion. Findings Deploying the analytic framework of “superdiversity,” the paper offers “belonging” as the new conversation on inclusion and proposes mobile methods as a means to study mobile subjects/objects. In addition, it discusses how the ongoing transformative societal changes by way of transnational migration impact the ways in which the author theorizes and carry out diversity research. Questions and concerns around ethics, (in)equality and representation are considered vital to future research in/around diversity. Originality/value Extensive changes in societies emerging out of ongoing encounters between/among different kinds of people have taken shape by way of transnational migration. As a result, emergent and novel notions of difference have been forged in a transnational manner across social fields. By examining these transformations, the paper provides new directions and challenges for diversity scholarship in the context of rising societal tensions and rhetoric around difference and “belonging” in nation-states. It also provides alternative considerations for understanding and theorizing inclusion in diversity research.

Race, Ethnicity, and Nation

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polly Rizova ◽  
John Stone
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Colonial Expansion ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
State Boundaries ◽  
The Impact

The term “race” refers to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant, meaning that people treat other people differently because of them. Meanwhile, ethnicity refers to shared cultural practices, perspectives, and distinctions that set apart one group of people from another. Ethnic differences are not inherited; they are learned. When racial or ethnic groups merge in a political movement as a form of establishing a distinct political unit, then such groups can be termed nations that may be seen as representing beliefs in nationalism. Race and ethnicity are linked with nationality particularly in cases involving transnational migration or colonial expansion. Anthropologists and historians, following the modernist understanding of ethnicity, see nations and nationalism as developing with the rise of the modern state system. They culminated in the rise of “nation-states,” in which the presumptive boundaries of the nation coincided with state boundaries. Thus, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation, developed in the context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined. Theories about the relation between race, ethnicity, and nationality are also linked to more general ideas about the impact of genomics on social life—ideas that often refer to the growing “geneticization” of social life.

Transnational Migration and the New Subjects of Work

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Banu Özkazanç-Pan
Keyword(s):  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Social World ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Methodological Nationalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Diversity Research

This book brings about insights and key concepts from the field of transnational migration studies to bear upon the field of organization studies. It expands upon multiscalar global perspective, moving beyond methodological nationalism, and historical global conjuncturesas relevant transnational concepts for studying people and difference in novel ways including agentic, reflexive mobile subjectivities as the new subjects of diversity research that emerge in a ‘post-identitarian’ world. Specifically, the book offers transmigrant, hybrid, and cosmopolitan subjectivities as new the subjects of diversity research. Beyond new subjectivities, mobility ontology requires rethinking the epistemology of multiculturalism, examining inequalities, and redirecting the methodologies adopted to attend to difference. In expanding on these, the book offers new frameworks for the study of people on-the-move and organizations through a mobility ontology that foregrounds movement as the natural order of the social world. It also calls into question the ways existing research paradigms and approaches have potentially replicated the creation of boundaries and borders through implicit assumptions about difference, race/ethnicity and belonging. By shifting the ontological premise upon which the field of organization studies rests, this book provides novel ways of theorizing difference, people and work beyond static epistemologies guiding much of the field.

Transnational Migration Studies

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Banu Özkazanç-Pan
Keyword(s):  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Social Condition ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Methodological Nationalism ◽  
Social Fields ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
Management Scholarship

This chapter outlines the three main concepts that are derived from transnational migration studies. Transnational migration signifies mobility that not only spans geographies but also space and social fields, allowing scholars to account for and understand how (new) forms of identity, belonging, and nationhood materialize. In turn, the ongoing societal changes taking shape by way of transnational migration reflect a new reality and social condition, that of mobility and encounters between/among people across relations of difference that are themselves constantly shifting. To expand on new directions for management scholarship that are possible based on transnational migration studies, this chapter identifies three key concepts: multiscalar global perspective, moving beyond methodological nationalism and globalhistorical conjunctures. Each of these concepts are expanded upon in terms of their main points and contributions to thinking about the new social condition of mobility as it relates to theorizing people, difference and work—an endeavour that is the focus of the following three chapters.

Beyond Ethnicity

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Ethnic Difference ◽  
Mixed Heritage ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Political Configuration ◽  
The U.S

From the perspective of the U.S. continent, Hawai‘i is a land of aloha that enjoys all manner of peace and harmony, particularly among the races and for peoples of mixed heritage. It is a tourist paradise where visitor, local and Native mingle without incident. Ethnic difference is celebrated as a sign of multicultural globalism that designates Hawai‘i as the crossroads of the Pacific. The contributors of this volume reimagine these ways of thinking about Hawai‘i as a model of racial and ethnic harmony. Beyond Ethnicity examines the dynamic between race and ethnicity to challenge the primacy of ethnicity and ethnic difference for examining difference in the islands. This original and thought-provoking volume poses questions about the role of race in the current political configuration of the islands and in so doing, challenges how we imagine and conceptualize race on the continent.

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