Globalisation, diversity and academic practice: reflections from South Africa and Sweden

Abstract

In the context of globalisation, the expansion of the higher education sector has been accompanied by growing demands for greater socio-economic responsiveness on the part of universities. In turn, these changes have been accompanied not only by calls for greater diversity and wider representation of 011 social groups in university life, but also by a range of specific diversity practices. The impact of these diversity practices, with particular reference to the everyday academic practices of research enquiry and collaboration, is the primary focus of this article, which draws on country studies of South Africa and Sweden to explore a series of issues ranging from competition over funding and research assistance, through contestations over what constitutes valid research, to the impact of positive and negative stereotyping of fellow academics. The article concludes that diversity practices do not tamper substantially with existing social relations but tend merely to integrate those who were once perceived as different.