ABSTRACT
This contribution discusses how the concept of ‘diversity’ is used in the social sciences, with a particular attention to the field of ethnic and migration studies. The focus is on how the notion of diversity is used in policy settings and public debates as in academia in a mutually reinforcing manner. Diversity is not just an empirical phenomenon to be observed and measured in a sociopolitical vacuum. The notion of diversity itself is both a technical and a political construct. It is linked to the salience of particular social categorizations, as has become quite apparent in so-called identity politics and its surrounding controversies. Neologisms such as superdiversity and hyper-diversity are discussed, the conceptual importance of intersectionality is highlighted, and the issue is addressed to what extent diversity is used as a notion to evacuate having to talk about discrimination. I focus as a particular case on the analysis of descriptive and substantive representation, illustrating that the normative and technical debates with regard to diversity are highly entangled.
