Diversity and its management as a dialectical process: Encountering Sweden and the U.S.

This article approaches diversity and its management from a dialectical, socio-historical perspective. Two social-historical contexts are examined: the U.S., where social productions of ideas of diversity (management) first appeared; and Sweden, where some original ideas about diversity and its management relocated and were partly reinterpreted, creating new ideas about diversity. The article shows linkages between the development of the ideas and praxes of diversity in these contexts, drawing attention to different actors and milieus, and their often-conflicting ideas and interests, as well as unequal power relations. Like many other social phenomena, diversity and its management are mediated by socio-historical relationships that reflect their ongoing productions. Consequently these productions are not fixed realities immune to human intervention and change.