It is a platitude to say that ever-accelerating flows of ideas, commodities and people across the globe are changing the nature of societies forever. The migration of people, real human bodies seems to present the greatest challenges to whatever sense of equilibrium may have prevailed in earlier times. Flows of people add to the complexity of societies and place demands on both the migrants and the hosts at individual and societal levels to think and behave differently in regard to “others.” Evidently, the old ways of engaging human diversity simply will not suffice in a closely-knit, interdependent world in which societal heterogeneity has become the norm and some form of integration has become imperative.
This course will give delegates insight into how we came to think about differences the way we do in the modern era – which differences came to matter, and why -- evaluate some of theories and approaches that have been proposed to engage with diversity, and offer a critical perspective on how we may think in new ways and better equip ourselves for an interrelated future.
Topics
Deep ideologies: the construction of difference in the modern social imaginary.
Diversity dimensions, intersections, and unravelling binaries: National status, Race, gender, sexuality, disability, coloniality.
Some theories/approaches to integration: Multiculturalism, “Berry boxes,” Cultural translation; Critical Diversity Literacy.
Diversity in organisations: The challenges get personal.
Dialogue: some principles and limitations.
Community Peace Building
Master of Advanced Studies in
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
