Literature on Diversity

Bauböck, Rainer/Heller, Agnes/Zolberg, Aristide (Hg.) (1996):
The Challenge of Diversity: Integration and Pluralism in Societies of Immigration,
Avebury, Aldershot.

finut 2005

31. Kongress "Frauen in Naturwissenschaft und Technik" in Bremen.

Der Kongress "Frauen in Naturwissenschaft und Technik" (FiNuT) bietet Frauen seit 25 Jahren die Möglichkeit, sich mit ihrer Studien-, Arbeits- und Karrieresituation auseinander zu setzen und Strategien zur Verbesserung der eigenen Situation zu erarbeiten. Hier analysieren und diskutieren sie ihre Arbeits- und Studienfelder und entwickeln aus einer kritischen Perspektive wissenschaftliche und technische Inhalte, Theorien und Methoden.Alle Frauen aus den mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen und technischen Berufsfeldern sind eingeladen, den Kongress als Forum zu bereichern und zu nutzen.

In dieser Tradition veranstaltet TuNiF Nordwest - Technik und Naturwissenschaften in Frauenhand e.V. den FiNuT-Kongress 2005 unter dem Motto

gezeitenwechsel

mit den Schwerpunktthemen "Frauenräume" und "Internationalisierung". Für die Vorbereitungsgruppe suchen wir weitere Frauen, die an einem oder an mehreren Punkten bei uns mitarbeiten wollen. Wir freuen uns aber auch über ideelle und materielle Unterstützung.

Informationen zu vorhergehenden Kongressen stehen unter FiNuT.net.

Commission takes Member States to the European Court of Justice for failing to implement EU anti-discrimination rules

Reference: IP/04/1512 Date: 20/12/2004

Brussels, 20 December 2004

The European Commission has announced that it will refer five Member States to the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the Employment Equality Directive. The Directive, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of age, disability, religion and sexual orientation in employment and vocational training should have been incorporated into national law by December last year.
The European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, expressed his disappointment at having to refer Austria, Germany, Finland, Greece and Luxembourg to the Court. 'But I am encouraged that many Member States, in particular the majority of the new ones, have made real efforts to put anti-discrimination legislation in place on time,' he said.
The Member States had until 2 December 2003 to implement the Directive prohibiting discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in employment and vocational training (Directive 2000/78/EC). Only France, Spain, Italy and Sweden had fully transposed the Directive into their national legislation by the dead-line, and the Commission therefore launched infringement procedures against the other Member States.
Just over a year after this dead-line, five Member States have failed, either partially or completely, to transpose the Directive into their national law. The Commission has therefore decided to take the final step of the infringement procedure and to refer Germany, Luxembourg, Greece, Austria and Finland to the European Court of Justice.

The new Member States had to ensure that their legislation complied with the Directives when they joined the EU on 1 May 2004.
Following the entry into force of national legislation, the next step for the Commission is to examine whether the Directives have been properly implemented.

21 May, World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

The last decade of the 20th century has seen the advent of the conflicts of so-called “cultural origins”. The beginning of a new millennium did not turn out to be much successful in conjuring the mistrust that one feel towards “the others”. Yet, our Planet counts an endless number of peoples and communities, each with its specific languages, traditions, know-how and identities, which is an infinite source of creativity and as such should enrich our lives . In this era of Globalization, where the contact with the others is a daily matter, can we keep on rejecting or ignoring this wealth?

Far from separating us, the cultural diversity is a collective strength, which should benefit the entire world. In this sense, it should be recognized and affirmed as a “Common Heritage” of Humanity.

Further to the adoption of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in November 2001, the General Assembly of the United Nations welcomed the Declaration and the main lines of Action Plan and proclaimed 21 May, World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

The Day will provide us with an opportunity to deepen the understanding on the values of the Cultural Diversity and to learn to better “live together”. This is why UNESCO appeals to the Member States as well as to all the civil society to celebrate this World Day, involving as much actors and partners as possible.

We will be pleased to hear about your inititaves and original ideas. write us !!: Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue, UNESCO, 1 rue Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15 or m.chiba@unesco.org.

Documents about diversity

"Global broadcasting, cultural diversity and regulation";

An international meeting of audiovisual regulatory authorities, which, together with broadcasters, production companies, consumers and sectorial experts, met under the auspices of the Barcelona Universal Forum of Cultures 2004.

THE GOALS

• To study how to foster cultural diversity in a world where cultural industries are at the forefront of globalisation which are being consolidated into large international media groups.
• To define the role that broadcasting regulatory authorities should play in order to promote cultural diversity and pluralism.

Bilingual brains ...

Article in Nature:

Neurolinguistics: Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain

Humans have a unique ability to learn more than one language — a skill that is thought to be mediated by functional (rather than structural) plastic changes in the brain. Here we show that learning a second language increases the density of grey matter in the left inferior parietal cortex and that the degree of structural reorganization in this region is modulated by the proficiency attained and the age at acquisition. This relation between grey-matter density and performance may represent a general principle of brain organization.

Autors: ANDREA MECHELLI*, JENNY T. CRINION*, UTA NOPPENEY*, JOHN O'DOHERTY*, JOHN ASHBURNER*, RICHARD S. FRACKOWIAK*† & CATHY J. PRICE*

* Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
† Fondazione Santa Lucia, Roma 00179, Italy

Respect diversity (Wikipedia)

The prerogative to respect diversity, often said to "begin with biodiversity" of non-human life, is basic to some 20th century studies such as cultural ecology, Queer studies, and anthropological linguistics.

In various forms it is promoted by many political movements, most notably feminism, gay rights, green politics and the anti-globalization movement. However it means somewhat different things in each of these. To some, diversity means bio-diversity and the existence of several distinct races and cultures. To others, diversity means the mixing and reunification of races and cultures back into one, as per the melting pot idea.

Prescriptions to respect (non-biological) diversity are common in:

• community-based economics, i.e. no one policy for all regions, especially all ecoregions
• diversity training that is designed to eliminate racism and clique relationships in the workplace that can direct blame to specific people for lack of conformity
• consensus decision making support

However, some believe "diversity" is but a meaningless buzzword used only by those who espouse political correctness.

This article is a copy of the article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia. It is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Diversity definition, Thomas 1996

Diversity, as Thomas (1996, 5) states, “refers to any mixture of items characterized by differences and similarities”.

Thomas, Alexander (1996): Psychologie interkulturellen Handelns, Göttingen: Hogrefe.

Diversity definition, Webster Dictionary

In a social context, the term diversity refers to the presence in one population of a wide variety of cultures, opinions, ethnic groups, socio-economic backgrounds, et cetera.

Culture (working definition)

Culture is understood here as a shared system of beliefs, values, and/or learned patterns of behavior.

Culture shapes how we explain and value our world; and culture is the lens through which we give the world meaning.

This understanding of culture extends beyond racial/ethnic groups and includes also e.g. “culture of medicine”, “academic culture”, “gay culture”, and “corporate culture”.