Customised Diversity? Education, capitalism and diversity in the digital present: An Editorial

The notion of diversity is widely accepted as a positive value in Europe and beyond. Corresponding discussions can be differentiated from heterogeneous theoretical and empirical perspectives. Generally, diversity refers to meanings clustered around variety, assortment, mixture, range, and multiplicity, as well as difference, segregation and inequality, and these are applied to a wide range of phenomena. Diversity can also be seen as a marker and driver for societal and cultural change but this is not always the case, it can lead to a standstill situation or even regression. This understanding of diversity foregrounds socio-political categories of differentiation such as ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality. However, in the context of current capitalist relations in general, diversity has long since developed into a marketable slogan and, in the form of “diversity management”, has been customised as a technology of corporate management (Krell 2015). In the political arena, such a logic of diversity, compatible with capital structures and utilising capitalist relations, corresponds to a dominant liberal anti-racism that – cynically speaking – resigns itself to the equal exploitation of all (Roldán Mendívil & Sarbo 2022: 34)...