Interested in Gender, Diversity, and Race in Organization? Eager to connect or collaborate with like-minded others? Then join us in Paris for EURAM which is sponsoring a plenary session titled, "Postcolonialism, Power and Diversity" on Friday, 3 June 2016, 10:50-12:20.

Plenary speakers

Beverly Dawn Metcalfe, Jawad Syed, Hamid Kazeroony, Faiza Ali, and Harry Van Buren

Overview

The plenary will offer a global perspective on postoclonialism, power, and diversity. It will highlight and challenge the power of colonial and neo-liberal knowledge that dominates much thinking in management and development. With the emergence of BRICS and other growing economies, there is a need to engage with the post-colonial and transnational landscape and consider alternatives to Western voices to critique and reform the political economy of inequality.

How far has the power of postcolonial discourse been embedded in institutions and cultural practices, or resisted? While two states as part of BRICS – China and Russia - promote socialism and secularism, both of these states have questionable equality and human rights records. For example, there seems to be far right and white supremacist resurgence and the persecution of feminist and gay activists in Russia. Similarly, a masculinist social ethic seems to prevail in China that excludes women. There is also an issue of mass increase of sexual violence against women in India. Another pressing issue is the persecution and violence facing non-Muslims and non-Salafi/Deobandi Muslims in Muslim majority countries. In Africa, postcolonial issues such as indigenous perspectives and rights, developing a regional academic voice and the role of culture in diversity are some of the key issues that require critical assessment.

These relational dynamics all are interweaving and also affect the approach to management of and the organization of diversity. Never have issues of inequality, gender, race, religion and diversity and their intersections, been so prominent on the world stage. Our aim in this plenary is to recapture the power of postcolonial thinking to advance equity and human rights debates.