Diversity, Disrupted

A Critique of Neoliberal Difference in Tech Organizations

Bibliographic Data

ID2363720
AuthorsLauren M Alfrey (0000-0003-2910-173X, University of Portland, Portland, OR, USA, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume65
Issue6
Pages1081-1098
Publication date2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0731-1214 • E-ISSN: 1533-8673
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/07311214221094664
OpenAlexW4281696139
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited28

Since 2014, technology companies have spent an estimated $1.2 billion on diversity efforts. Despite these investments, Black and Latinx Americans remain starkly underrepresented. How is this problem understood by people in tech? Connecting theories of white racial ideologies and research on racialized organizations, I show how understandings of tech's 'diversity problem' paradoxically serve to naturalize tech organizations as white spaces. Using interviews and surveys of 69 tech workers, I identify several semantic maneuvers used to defend predominantly white workplaces as 'diverse.' Together, they demonstrate a pattern I call neoliberal difference. Neoliberal difference is a culturally authorized ideology that expresses support for pluralism and progressive ideals while ignoring systems of racial exclusion. The theory of neoliberal difference expands and complicates our existing knowledge of white racial ideologies using the tech industry as an important case study. Implications for a sector so powerful in shaping social life are discussed

Epistemology · Ideology · Inequality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Racism · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Labor Movements and Unions · Law

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