Diversity and Difference

Diversity characterizes societies of the present. Some fight using the slogans “We’ll come united”, “Leave no one behind,” “Black lives matter”, and “Trans rights”. Others, however, experience diversity as a loss of control, which they counter with defense mechanisms, including an “us” versus “them” mindset. Accordingly, demands for inclusion and integration are often interwoven with diffuse fears of “new identities” (Hall), for example of refugees and migrants, but also of queer persons and non-heteronormative ways of life. In turn, demarcation struggles and identitarian divisions within social groups can arise from emphasizing difference, and can lead to “positional fundamentalism” (Villa Braslavsky) or so-called social "trigger points" (Mau/Lux/Westheuser). The publication takes these points of departure to explore processes of subjectivation, that is, processes of becoming a subject shaped through discourses, power relations, and social practices.The volume includes contributions that offer feminist, post/decolonial, and intersectional perspectives on subjectivation research, alongside critiques of ableism and racism, in order to analyse existing relations of diversity and difference, including the privileges and disadvantages, discriminations, inequalities and racisms embedded in them.