ESRC Funded Seminar Series

Public Policy, Equality and Diversity in the Context of Devolution

Seminar 1: Universal Principles of Equality: Implications for Different Groups

Jointly sponsored by the ESRC and the Northern Ireland Equality Commission

Opening Comments

Linda McKie, Glasgow Caledonian University &

Sheila Riddell, University of Edinburgh

Public Policy, Equality and Diversity • From equalities bodies or a single equalities body,

incorporating a human rights commission

• Equality strands: gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, age and religion

• Mainstreaming• Equalities throughout the processes of

development & implementation • Potential for a generic approach to equality

Aims of the Seminar Series• Nature & implementation of mainstreaming

• Context of devolved governments in UK and wider contexts

• National – local – organisations – individuals: working across bodies and policies

• A single equalities body

• Implications for groups and policies

• Legislative & policy challenges

Aims continued….• Engages with the concerns of academics,

practitioners, policy-makers and equality activists

• Build research infrastructure in the field of equalities

• Promote awareness of research, policy and practice issues in the context of devolution

Seminar 1: Universal Principles of Equality

• Equality of condition

• Groups: Disabled, children, religions

• Bodies to body: drawing across the equality strands

• Discussants

• Networks and outputs

Equality Policies: the importance of equality of condition

Kathleen LynchCentre for Equality Studies, University College Dublin

Mainstreaming Equality Theories: Towards a Generic Model of

Discrimination

Sally WitcherUniversity of Edinburgh

The starting point

Mainstreaming equality means “the incorporation of Equal Opportunities issues into all actions, programmes and policies from the outset” BUT

• Are issues/ barriers the same for all groups?• Do interests of groups conflict?• Separate academic study of different groups• Competing accounts within study of each

The case for a generic approach

• Recognised that in any group members will have multiple characteristics

• Engaging with other perspectives could enable a more holistic, comprehensive appreciation of discrimination/ inequality

• Theoretical level understanding may help avoid mistakes based on superficial evidence

Defining discrimination

• A matter of identifying differences; can be positive or negative

• Process by which people are allocated to social categories with unequal rights, power, resources, etc

• Differential treatment of classes of people• Needs to be morally justifiable and legally

permissible

Defining oppression

• Inhuman & Degrading treatment• Negative & demeaning exercise of power

– zero sum• Social positions linked to values, attributes• ‘norm of the homogenous public’ – the fate

of unassimilated persons

Implications

• Discrimination as ‘process error’?• Oppression – an outcome of ‘process

error’ or a cause of it? – The negative, serious, impact of power on the

powerless– Repression of characteristics, limiting of

potential, reshaping of behaviours– Material disadvantage, poverty

Themes from the group-based literatures

• Social categorisation• Socio-cultural/ political context• Biological and genetic explanations• The psychology of identity and behaviour• Systems and interactive processes

Social categorisation

• Is it intrinsically discriminatory and oppressive?

• Queer theory – rejects categorisation• Essentialist• Race – distinctions not naturally given• Universalising disability• But practicalities, equitable treatment?

Socio-cultural context

• Eurocentrism, androcentrism, ethnocentrism

• Capitalism• Institutional discrimination• The social model

Biological and genetic explanations

• Medical disease, ‘unhealthy’ behaviours• Race – attempts to show genetic inferiority• Gender – intersex interventions, biological

role, behaviours• The search for the ‘gay gene’• The medical model

The psychology of identity and behaviour

• Socialisation, social learning, identification theory (gender)

• Systems/ Transactional model – how interactions can reinforce behaviours (disability)

• Biopsychosocial model – physical limitations filtered through beliefs & expectations

Systems and interactive processes

• Identity as ‘performative’• ‘doing gender’• Interactive model (disability)

– The interface between individual and their environment and systems through which it occurs

– 3 sites for adjustment?

Towards a generic framework

• Themes largely compatible, mutually reinforcing – new insights

• Consistent with discrimination as process error• Criteria, etc set access assessment

categorisation allocation/ delivery• Deliberate/ not deliberate; direct/ indirect; levels

– institutional, personal

Implications for mainstreaming equality

• Involvement of external stakeholders• Deconstruction of processes• Training for assessors• Focus on group commonalities and individual

uniqueness• Reshaping – oppressive/ liberating potential?• Positive action – historical/ psychological

disadvantage

Conclusion

To bring together the group-based literatures poses new questions and reveals fresh perspectives to apply to each. Although it cannot answer every question, a generic model begins to take shape through which to rethink identity and action to remove barriers for everyone experiencing discrimination and oppression

Ensuring Equality of Religion & Belief:New Challenges

John BrewerUniversity of Aberdeen

Children and the Equalities Agenda

Anne StaffordUniversity of Edinburgh

Policy Discussant: Saheema Rawat, Equality Challenge Unit

Working Across the Equality Strands: Lessons from Experience

Evelyn CollinsEquality Commission for Northern Ireland

Policy Discussant: Niall Crowley, Equality Authority Ireland

Academic Discussant: Yvonne Galligan, Queen’s University Belfast

Close

Sheila RiddellUniversity of Edinburgh