Diversity

Abstract

In ecology, where the concept is most highly developed, the simplest description of “diversity” is the number of species living in a specific environment: the greater the number of species, the higher the level of diversity. When describing social phenomena, “diversity” generally refers to the distribution of units of analysis (e.g., people, students, families) in a specific social environment (e.g., workplace, classroom, state) along a dimension (e.g., race, social status, political orientation). When measured empirically through one or more of a variety of indexes (such as the index of diversity), the highest levels of diversity occur when the units of analysis (e.g., people) are distributed evenly across the social dimension (e.g., racial categories). However, it is also common for a political ideal to serve as the benchmark for the assessment of levels of diversity. An American work setting may be considered to be appropriately diverse, for example, if the proportions of workers who are African American or Asian are comparable to the proportions of people in the general (or local) population who are African American or Asian. More loosely, some observers consider a setting to be diverse when the proportions of people with a selected characteristic (e.g., membership in a minority group) are relatively high.