(In)visibilization, silencing and diversity washing: an intersectional analysis of diversity discourses

IF 5.7 2区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

Critical Perspectives on Accounting Pub Date : 2025-09-26 DOI:10.1016/j.cpa.2025.102816

Julie Gauneau, Caroline Lambert

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Reporting conveys discourses of power and may give rise to forms of “washing” (greenwashing, diversity washing, etc.). This article analyzes the evolution of textual, quantitative, and visual discourses on diversity in the annual reports of a multinational organization (LVMH) between 2002 and 2019. By adopting an intersectional approach and combining different methods of discourse analysis, we uncover a new modality of diversity washing. We show that this does not take the form of a dissonance between diversity-related discourse and actions, but rather of a rhetorical antinomy between an explicit and an implicit discourse in the annual reports. We show that the implicit discourse sustains a subtext of intersectional oppression that manifests through phenomena of (in)visibilization, othering, exoticization, and silencing. Indeed, this discourse—through the sexual objectification of women, racial exclusion, and the hegemony of white heterosexual masculinity—performs identities by assigning women and individuals at the intersection of several minoritized identities to a defined and subordinate position. Our results also show that the visual (over)representation of women in annual reports does not necessarily indicate progress towards equality but may, on the contrary, perpetuate gender stereotypes.

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可视化、沉默和多样性洗涤：对多样性话语的交叉分析

报道传递权力话语，可能导致“洗绿”（greenwashing）、“洗多样性”（diversity washing）等形式。本文分析了跨国组织（LVMH） 2002年至2019年年度报告中关于多样性的文本、数量和视觉话语的演变。本文采用交叉分析的方法，结合不同的语篇分析方法，揭示了一种新的多样性洗涤模式。我们表明，这并不采取多样性相关话语和行动之间的不协调的形式，而是在年度报告中明确和隐含话语之间的修辞矛盾。我们表明，隐性话语维持着交叉压迫的潜台词，这种潜台词通过可视化、他者化、异国化和沉默等现象表现出来。事实上，这种话语——通过对女性的性物化、种族排斥和白人异性恋男性的霸权——通过将处于几个少数群体身份交叉点的女性和个人分配到一个明确的、从属的位置来表现身份。我们的研究结果还表明，年度报告中女性的形象（过度）代表并不一定表明在平等方面取得了进展，相反，可能会使性别刻板印象永久化。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Critical Perspectives on Accounting BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

9.40

自引率

7.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： Critical Perspectives on Accounting aims to provide a forum for the growing number of accounting researchers and practitioners who realize that conventional theory and practice is ill-suited to the challenges of the modern environment, and that accounting practices and corporate behavior are inextricably connected with many allocative, distributive, social, and ecological problems of our era. From such concerns, a new literature is emerging that seeks to reformulate corporate, social, and political activity, and the theoretical and practical means by which we apprehend and affect that activity. Research Areas Include: • Studies involving the political economy of accounting, critical accounting, radical accounting, and accounting''s implication in the exercise of power • Financial accounting''s role in the processes of international capital formation, including its impact on stock market stability and international banking activities • Management accounting''s role in organizing the labor process • The relationship between accounting and the state in various social formations • Studies of accounting''s historical role, as a means of "remembering" the subject''s social and conflictual character • The role of accounting in establishing "real" democracy at work and other domains of life • Accounting''s adjudicative function in international exchanges, such as that of the Third World debt • Antagonisms between the social and private character of accounting, such as conflicts of interest in the audit process • The identification of new constituencies for radical and critical accounting information • Accounting''s involvement in gender and class conflicts in the workplace • The interplay between accounting, social conflict, industrialization, bureaucracy, and technocracy • Reappraisals of the role of accounting as a science and technology • Critical reviews of "useful" scientific knowledge about organizations