1st Edition

Routledge International Handbook of Diversity Studies

Edited By Steven Vertovec Copyright 2015
    422 Pages
    by Routledge

    422 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In recent years the concept of ‘diversity’ has gained a leading place in academic thought, business practice and public policy worldwide. Although variously used, ‘diversity’ tends to refer to patterns of social difference in terms of certain key categories. Today the foremost categories shaping discourses and policies of diversity include race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexuality and age; further important notions include class, language, locality, lifestyle and legal status. The Routledge Handbook of Diversity Studies will examine a range of such concepts along with historical and contemporary cases concerning social and political dynamics surrounding them. With contributions by experts spanning Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, History and Geography, the Handbook will be a key resource for students, social scientists and professionals. It will represent a landmark volume within a field that has become, and will continue to be, one of the most significant global topics of concern throughout the twenty-first century.

    Introduction  Part I: Dimensions of Diversity  1. Gender – a Central Dimension of Diversity  2. Age, Ageism and Social Identity in Later Years  3. Disability and Diversity  4. Thinking about Race in an Age of Diversity  5. Racing Diversity: Ethnicity, euphemisms and ‘others’  6. Analysing Status Diversity: Immigration, asylum, and stratified rights  7. Sexual Diversity  8. Language: The great diversifier  9. Religious Differentiation and Diversity in Discourse and Practice  10. The Diversity of Milieu in Diversity Studies  11. Caste in India: Constructs and currents  Part II: Historical Geographies of Diversity  12. Diversity and the Roman Empire  13. Diversity and the Nature of the Ottoman Empire: From the construction of the imperial old regime to the challenges of modernity  14. Race and Labour, Forced and Free, in the Formation and Evolution of Caribbean Social Structures  15. Silent Minority: Celebrated difference, caste difference, and the Hinduization of independent India  16. ‘Reimagining’ the Balkans Diversity beyond and ‘Straight through’ the Ethno-national  17. European Fascism and its Aftermath  18. Diversity, Xenophobia and the Limits to the Post-Apartheid State  19. Situating Diversity in the Global City: Emerging challenges and possibilities in Singapore  20. Racial Boundaries and Persistent Inequality: The case of African Americans  21. The Question of Sectarianism in Middle East Politics  Part III: Policies and Politics of Diversity  22. Governing Diversity  23. Equality for Whom?  24. Fundamental Rights and Minorities  25. When Law Meets Diversity: Implications for women’s equal citizenship  26. Diversity and Social Welfare: To restrict or include?  27. Diversity Management  Part IV: Encounters and Diversity  28. Diversity Unpacked: From heterogen

    Biography

    Steven Vertovec is Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany. He is Co-Editor of the journal Global Networks, author of four books including Transnationalism (Routledge, 2008) and Super-Diversity (Routledge, forthcoming), and editor or co-editor of over thirty volumes including Conceiving Cosmopolitanism (Oxford University Press, 2003), Migration (five volumes, Routledge 2010), and The Multicultural Backlash (Routledge 2010).

    "Fittingly and somewhat ironically, this book helps delimit and define what diversity studies means for the 21st century. Through inputs from a wide range of scholars on a broad range of themes, the text at once introduces topics and synthesises what might otherwise remain disparate areas of inquiry. While Diversity Studies may never supplant disciplines, this text is invaluable in revealing the complexity of our world and providing tools for how we might understand it." - Loren B. Landau, South African Research Chair in Mobility and the Politics of Difference, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

    "Contemporary societies are preoccupied by the challenges of living with diversity, whether it be in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality or other differences. This volume provides a comprehensive and at the same time engaging discussion of the whole field of diversity studies. Each chapter is concise, to the point and full of ideas that will be of interest to academic and general readers alike. It is a real must for all those who want to understand the complexities of how we live with difference and diversity in our ever changing globalised environment" - Professor John Solomos, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick

    "The editor and contributors to this handbook have effected an unlikely triumph -- turning a vague journalistic, official and corporate description ('diversity') into a serious social scientific concept". - Robin Cohen, Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford

    "In one compendium, the Routledge International Handbook of Diversity Studies brings together a wide array of definitions, dimensions and discourses that have contributed to shaping the emerging field of diversity studies. Not only does this collection help us revisit perennial questions about ethnicity, gender, class and multiple modes of social classification, it equips us with a set of new lenses to v