Difference and Diversity in the workplace

Difference and Diversity in the Workplace

Lecturer: Gerhard Maré
Semester: Two

General Introduction

What is this course about?

When, in the nineteenth century, the social thinker and activist Karl Marx drew the distinction between `class in itself? and `class for itself? he was drawing attention to those expectations. The idea of a `class in itself? is that people who sell their labour ? their ability to work ? for a wage, because they have no real alternative, share a similar position in society, even if they are not aware of what they share with others. We could say that structurally they are members of the working class. A `class for itself?, on the other hand, indicated that Marx believed that workers would act in their own interests, against those whose interests were different from their own ? the capitalists (those who owned the land or the machinery or the raw material), for whom they had to work. They would do so if they became conscious of their shared exploitation and of alternatives to the capitalist system.

He acknowledged that workers act (or remain passive) for reasons and in ways other than those to be understood by their structural location as workers, or even by their shared exploitation. So, while Marx argued that it was inevitable that workers would, because of the contradictions inherent in capitalism, come to realise their shared interests and social identity and act on it, many Marxists have felt disappointment when workers seemed to act against those shared interests ? such as voting for the conservative Margaret Thatcher in Britain, or leaving trade unions when their personal position does not seem to be threatened. There is a similar argument from some in South Africa that the objective interests of workers are no longer met through their historical alliance with the ANC in the tri-partite alliance of COSATU, SACP and the ANC.

The point is that workers are not only workers but also women and men, belonging to different `races? and ethnic groups and religions, or to no religion, and have life histories that are shared but that are also unique. Even when they act collectively as workers, they also have social identities other than those of being workers, and they experience being workers in different ways. The same statement could, of course, be made in other ways: men are not only men, but also belong to different ethnic groups, religions, generations, and so on. In addition every member of a social group is also an individual with her or his own unique set of experiences that `filters? socially shared experiences and expectations of behaviour.

In the world of the late-twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries, we look at class, and other social groupings, in different, more complex, less essentialist ways. In other words, as social scientists we do not often perceive people as born with, rather than born into social identities. To take just some of the major factors of change over the past 30 years:

• `actually existing communist societies? exist no more (such as in the case of the USSR) or are drawn into the capitalist world system in ways that would have been unimaginable 25 years ago (such as in the case of China) ? it is, therefore, very difficult to have the same view of the inevitable historical role of the working class and of a class-driven revolution;
• the influence of post-modernism as a way of looking at the world, suggests a non-hierarchical and non-determinist perspective on social action and social identity;
• wars continue to pitch workers against workers in defense of national or ethnic identities;
• globalisation affects workers, and all people, in unequal ways, and yet demands international solidarity to counter its negative effects.

South Africa is part of this complex world, and does not stand apart from identity politics, even (or should that be `also’) in a post-apartheid society and in the workplace. On the one hand, we have moved beyond apartheid’s classifications and exclusions in very important ways, with a Constitution that confirms that we live in an inclusive liberal democracy. On the other, the legacy of the past lives on in social and economic conditions and also in attitudes and perceptions of the self and of others.

In the course we will examine some of the theoretical positions on social identity and identity formation, concentrating on the ways in which identities can be seen as fixed, or in which the appearance of fixed identities come to dominate (we will often call this an approach that focuses on difference). Or the ways in which identities can be seen as more fluid, constructed by us in our everyday lives, and not simply as recipients of identities, through biology, nature, or social structures (we will call this an approach that stresses diversity).

We will examine actual and potential conflict within the workplace (such as `factional’ conflict on the mines) and by implication conflict around social identity in society in general; as well as the effects (intended or unintended) of legislation aimed at redressing past identity-based discriminatory interventions in the workplace. We will examine the approaches to social identity underlying interventions in the workplace and within perspectives on the workplace. Some of the aspects of the wider world, beyond the workplace strictly, of which workers are inextricably part and that impinges on social identities in the workplace, will be discussed (issues such as race, gender, HIV/AIDS, ethnicity).

This course will draw most of its illustrative material from the workplace, but the broad approach and the issues are relevant in a much wider context. Similarly, while we will look nearly exclusively at South Africa, reference will be made to other places, and you, the student, can draw on material beyond this country and region, material with which you may be more familiar.

Named topics:

While readings are provided for each topic these are often guidelines. Innovative use of alternative material – including your own experiences – will be rewarded. However, take great care that you apply sociological methods to what might be common sense.

The topics to be covered are as follows (topics one and two are central to the rest of the course):

• topic one: what is social identity: the individual and collective and personal identities;
• topic two: standpoint theory and multiculturalism: can we possibly understand others;
• topic three: migrant labour and xenophobia;
• topic four: violence on the mines: manipulating or creating identities;
• topic five: ethnicity and conflict;
• topic six: race thinking:locked in by our appearance;
• topic seven: affirmative action and employment equity;
• topic eight: HIV/AIDS, the body, and social identity in the workplace.