Diversity Definition

1. Characteristics manifested through the contrast of the actors, who are recognized and grouped in some way.

2. Biology. Set of species of the animal, plant, fungi, protest and/or monera kingdom, present in the same space, be it a region, or the planet.

3. Society. Religions, customs, languages, races, etc., that constitute the cultural dynamics and identity of the towns and their inhabitants.

4. Set of elements or ideas capable of differentiating from each other.

Etymology: By the modes of Latin diversĭtas, diversĭtātisregarding variouswhich refers to the term ‘diverse’, property of the passive participle of the verb I will have funas ‘carry, change or turn something the other way’, formed from the prefix gave-because of ‘division’, ‘difference’, the verb I will pouras ‘to pour’, and the suffix -dad, given in -tas, -ātisas a quality agent.

Grammatical category: noun fem.
in syllables: diversity.

Diversity

lilen gomez
Professor in Philosophy

Sociocultural diversity

Human diversity, from a sociocultural perspective, is understood as the plurality of ways of life, thought, customs, traditions, modes of expression, that exists between the different individuals that make up a society, or between the societies themselves, along the history.

However, the differences assigned to human groups based on their gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, social class, religion, language, have also been used as a criterion for the fragmentation of society to subsequently justify the segregation of certain groups by of others, reaching extreme levels of violence.

In this sense, different theoretical currents in the field of education have raised the need for two central objectives to be assumed within the educational field for the transformation of social dynamics: on the one hand, the fight against all forms of exclusion and, on the other, the other, the development of strategies that promote common projects with shared values, within which each person can participate from their own singularity.

The issue of respect for difference within the community, namely, the relationship between the singular and the common, has been one of the most relevant issues for thought in the 20th and 21st centuries, after the great crimes against humanity events during that period. In this sense, the question about how to live together became a paradigmatic question within contemporary philosophy.

Diversity and equal opportunities

One of the most important aspects for respect for identity diversity to be effective in practice is the guarantee of equal opportunities in access to social rights that, in a large number of places, are denied to certain groups. , regardless of its numerical scope. The so-called “minorities”, thus, many times are, in truth, social majorities that are relegated by the groups that hold power. Such is the case, for example, of the lack of compliance with the rights of women throughout the world, despite making up a large sector of the world population.

As a result of the crisis of the Welfare States and the increase in material inequalities when neoliberal regimes were imposed on the threshold of the 21st century, strong social demands appeared around the generation of policies for the inclusion of marginalized groups, usually economic conditions. precarious

The notion of multiculturalismIn this sense, it has been proposed as a way of understanding the State, not from uniformity and homogeneity, but from the need to make citizen rights effective for the entire population, taking into account the particular identity of each social group. It has been pointed out, in turn, that the idea of ​​a multiculturalismas a counterpart, would run the risk of fixing the subjects to watertight identities, assigning them immobile essences.

diversity and tolerance

One of the most widespread versions around the issue of human diversity is one that considers the other as someone who must be tolerated. The discourse of tolerance as a condition of possibility for the exercise of freedom and human life presents a series of problems, to the extent that it is a recognition that assumes, as a starting point, one’s own identity, based on which different subjects can be admitted at the discretion of whoever holds the hegemonic identity within the group.

In this sense, the notion of tolerance has been criticized as insufficient when it comes to recognizing radical alterity that, to be understood as such, cannot be referred to the parameters of homogeneous identities taken as a point of reference.

Then, the idea of ​​tolerance towards the different other weakens the acceptance of the other as such and the assumption of responsibility before him; while it masks inequalities, since the model that promotes tolerance does not call into question the relations of exclusion, but is oriented towards the maintenance of the given order.

Following

References

Bartolomé, M., Cabrera, F., Espín, JV, Marín, M. Á., & Rodríguez, M. (1999). Diversity and multiculturalism. Educational Research Journal, 17(2), 277-319.

Duschatzsky, S., Skliar C., (2000) “Diversity under suspicion. Reflections on the discourses of diversity and its educational implications” in Cuadernos de Pedagogía, 4(7).