The Case of Vanishing Borders: Theorizing diversity management as internal border control

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the theorizing of diversity management, studied from a postcolonial perspective. This paper draws on an empirical study of a Swedish municipal school for adults in order to theorize how construction of privileged and disadvantaged ethnic identities is an integral diversity management practice, situated in the Swedish context. Further, the paper looks not only at limiting identity construction effects, but also at the traces of ongoing resistance. The contribution of the postcolonial lens in the study of workplace diversity lies in the conceptual space it provides for rendering visible, and legitimizing, non-traditional forms of resistance to hierarchical differentiation of cultural identities.