Welcome to The Fourth International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations

Background Advisory Committee Who Should Attend Supported By Conference Organisers

Welcome to website of The Fourth International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations. To be held at the University of California Los Angeles, from 6-9 July 2004, the conference will address a range of critically important themes in the study of diversity today. Main speakers will include some of the world’s leading thinkers in the field, as well as numerous paper, workshop and colloquium presentations by teachers, researchers and practitioners.

This is a conference for any person with an interest in, and concern for, mediating cultural difference. All are encouraged to register and attend this significant and timely conference. A range of travel, tour and accommodation options is also available.

Participants are also welcome to submit presentation proposals, either as 30 minute papers, 60 minute workshop or jointly presented 90 minute colloquium sessions. Presenters may choose to submit written papers for publication before or after the conference in the International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations. Presentations submitted for publication will be fully refereed and published in print and electronic formats. For those unable to attend the conference in person, virtual registrations are available, which provide access to the online edition of the conference proceedings. Virtual participants can also submit papers for refereeing and publication in the International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations.

If you would like to know more about this conference, bookmark The Fourth International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations site and return for further information—this site is regularly updated. You might also wish to subscribe to The Fourth International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations Newsletter. For any other inquiries, please contact us.

 

Background: The International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations

The Diversity Conference has a history of bringing together scholarly, government and practice-based participants on diversity and community. This conference examines the concept of diversity as a positive aspect of a global world and globalised society. Diversity is in many ways reflective of our present world order, but there are ways of taking this further without necessary engendering its alternatives: racism, conflict, discrimination and inequity. Diversity as a mode of social existence can be projected in ways that deepen the range of human experience. The conference will seek to explore the full range of what diversity means and explore modes of diversity in real-life situations of living together in community. The conference supports a move away from simple affirmations that 'diversity is good' to a much more nuanced account of the effects and uses of diversity on differently situated communities in the context of our current epoch of globalisation.

Los Angeles is an excellent place from which to address precisely such issues. It is one of the most globalised and diverse cities on earth. The conference will highlight this aspect of Los Angeles civic life with all its richness and inevitable contradictions throughout the conference program. As one of the major centres of the global media industry, and the dominant source of English-language film, Los Angeles is also a perfect location for directing the conference themes towards a focus on globalising media of all kinds.

The conference looks at the realities of diversity today, critically as well as optimistically and strategically. The conference will be a place for speaking about diversity, and in ways that range from the 'big picture' and the theoretical, to the very practical and everyday realities of diversity in organisations, communities and civic life.

In the realm of civic life, local and national communities daily negotiate the diversity resulting from immigration, refugee movement, settlement and indigenous claims to prior ownership and sovereignty. And at the same time, communities increasingly recognise and negotiate a plethora of other intersecting and sometimes contrary diversities. At the local level this may create a kind of civic pluralism, a new way of living in community. Nationally, governments sit uneasily between increasingly demanding local diversities and the cultural and political forces of globalisation. And within organisations, 'diversity management' has emerged as a field of endeavour to negotiate human resource and customer relationship issues arising from differences of gender, ethnicity/race, sexual orientation and disability (to name a few aspects of diversity). To what extent, however, do these remain marginal managerial concerns? Could or should diversity become a 'mainstream' issue for the whole organisation?

 

Diversity Conference Advisory Committee and Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations

• Paul James, Globalism Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
• Prof. Mary Kalantzis, Innovation Professor, RMIT University, President, Australian Council of Deans of Education, and Editor, International Journal of Learning.
• Andrew Jakubowicz, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
• Jock Collins, Faculty of Business, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
• Geoffrey Stokes, Chair of Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
• Brendan O'Leary, Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
• Samuel Aroni, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
• Barry Gills, University of Newcastle, UK.
• Walter Mignolo, Duke University, USA.
• Michael Shapiro, University of Hawai'i, USA.
• Duane Champagne, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
• Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
• Owens Wiwa, African Environmental and Human Development Agency, Toronto, Canada.
• Jackie Huggins, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Australia.
• Mililani Trask, Indigenous Expert to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for the Economic Council of the UN Assembly, Hawai’i, USA.
• Armareswar Galla, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
• Peter Phipps, Globalism Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
• Bill Cope, Centre for Workplace Communication and Culture, Australia.

 

Who Should Attend

• Academics and educational administrators in the fields of globalisation, nationalism, anthropology and cultural studies, ethnic studies, indigenous studies, gender studies, disability studies, gay and lesbian studies, diversity management.
• Research students.
• Public administrators and policy-makers.
• Private and public sector leaders: diversity management, equal employment opportunity, human resource development.
• Workplace trainers and change agents.

Supported By

The Globalism Institute, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.

UTS Trans/forming Cultures, Sydney, Australia.

UTS:Humanities & Social Sciences, Sydney, Australia.

Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

Conference Organisers

Common Ground Conferences (ABN: 66 074 822 629)