“Dangerous conversations”: a case study involving language

Abstract

Notwithstanding greater concern about the experiences of minorities, responding effectively to diversity issues has becomes increasingly challenging. Anxiety around how best to meet minority needs can stifle debate enabling the emergence of new, more subtle forms of oppressive practices. Drawing on the approach of Bourdieu (1979, 1986), and using language as an exemplar, this paper engages in a 'dangerous conversation' to explore how issues of diversity were mobilised, ignored and leveraged in one particular service context and to what ends. The argument is made that in some service contexts, a habitus obtains that renders reflexivity about diversity issues problematic and predicates against the critical reflection necessary to promote anti oppressive practice. We intend our paper to encourage greater reflexivity in instances when diversity issues are raised and to render simplistic any attempt to validate or invalidate claims of discrimination.