The Social Justice and Radical Diversity Approach: Combining Structural Analysis and Transformative Practice

Abstract

Drawing on the Social Justice and Radical Diversity approach, an existing discrimination-critical approach applied in the field of anti-discrimination theory and education, this paper proposes to combine a structural perspective on discrimination with a phenomenologically inspired understanding of radical diversity. Although often perceived as mutually exclusive philosophical avenues for theorizing discrimination, these approaches are explicated here as distinct, but methodologically compatible. Whereas a structural approach to discrimination is introduced as a relational theory of oppression in its historical and intersectional dimensions, the concept of radical diversity is emphasized in its capacity to transform existing categories of social difference and power structures on a practical level. It is argued that combining both perspectives according to the Social Justice and Radical Diversity approach, attests to the specific logic of how discrimination and diversity intertwine in societal reality.