Taking a step back … diversity
“According to the philosopher Ly Tin Wheedle, chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.� (Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett)
If you are new to this series, catch up here, here, here and here.
Moving on … narrative theory is informed heavily by the social constructionist approach to understanding reality. In such an approach words are of paramount importance … they are not meaningless intimations of our need to communicate, but are the skeleton and the body our communicative substance. This approach tends to be hectically intellectual with many theorists, intellectuals, philosophers and educators titillating on the subject until it bears no real value or proposition to our everyday world! But when it comes to taking a step back on diversity, I trust you’ll let me stir up your grey matter just a tad …
What is a word without its context? E.g. you might expect a quizzical look in 1850 when speaking of a “laptop�, however today the concept makes sense. This process also applies to words in isolation, as a word is contextualized by the words on either side of it. So, to understand a word in isolation is futile. I believe the same process applies when we consider diversity. In and of itself, diversity is meaningless. But when held up against its opposite conformity you begin to understand what diversity represents. So what can we learn about diversity when we consider conformity? Let’s see..
(Oh, Freud also applied the same logic to his understanding of sexual abnormality – he mapped abnormality as a means of understanding normality)
What is it about conformity that makes business seem easier?
How does one reconcile the order of conformity and the chaos of diversity?
Who benefits from conformity?
Who benefits from diversity?
Is it in the interest of market share, share price, bottom line and short term profits to do so?
Does the embracing of diversity perhaps point us away from the capitalist business model?
That’s all for now … remember to keep an eye out for Taking a step back … narrative means to business ends appearing on TKB soon to see what a prison can teach us about diversity and more on using a Narrative approach.
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