Reclaiming Identity: The Critical Diversity Project

Abstract

Critical scholars of identity and diversity share an interest in uncovering social injustice and domination in organizations. Their chief object of criticism is the perceived apolitical approach of mainstream identity and diversity management research. Such practices are criticized for being blind to measures of managerial control and marginalization through identity categorization and assignment. The critical perspective focuses on how organizational members as agents can actively alter and resist organizational modes of domination. However, we also contend that a critical approach must be supplemented with the development of practical solutions to the progressive changes that the critical scholarship otherwise expounds. This chapter ends with a discussion of how this might be achieved.