Governing racial justice through standards and the birth of ‘White diversity’: a Foucauldian perspective

Abstract

Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative approach to corporate diversity policies in France, based on more than 80 in-depth interviews (N = 86), this paper examines the paradox conveyed within these policies by the rise of ‘raceless’ diversity concepts. This is what I term White diversity, exploring its construction and appropriation in the light of technologies of normalisation, referred to in English as standards. Building on a Foucauldian approach to normalisation, the paper engages with the case study of the French Diversity Label. It explores the ways in which market-based mechanisms of regulation have shaped the management of race difference. It demonstrates in particular how normalising antidiscrimination through voluntary social certification has contributed to upholding whiteness in organisations.

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