Work between differences and ability of subjectification

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Alfredo Ferrara
Publishing Year 2014 Issue 2014/134 Language Italian
Pages 14 P. 40-53 File size 109 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2014-134002
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In the course of the past decades western countries’ workforce has witnessed different phenomena that have deeply transformed its composition, making it more and more heterogeneous; diversity management is what enterprises have offered in response to these new needs; it thus recognizes their legitimacy and turns them into an opportunity in the dynamics of value creation. After offering a picture of the main demographic trends that testify this process of transformation, as well as a short history of diversity management practices, the article focuses on the ambivalence of these very practices. On the one hand, they provide citizenship to the various dimensions of personal and collective identity in workplaces. On the other hand, they take elements of material sharing away from new workers, thus contributing to challenging their ability of subjectification. In doing so, the paper also takes into account the main critiques that have originated from this debate.

Keywords: Keywords: needs, conflict, diversity, diversity management, identity, subjectivity

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Alfredo Ferrara, Il lavoro tra differenze e capacità di soggettivazione in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 134/2014, pp 40-53, DOI: 10.3280/SL2014-134002