Certified Human Beings: Diversity, Inclusion, and the Commodification of Belonging

• In Event: 30420 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Racial State and City Dynamics

Abstract

In recent years, local sanctuary policies and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs have increasingly come under attack by conservative law makers who see these measures as a sign of reverse discrimination. Simultaneously, defying some of the conservative backlash, various cities and institutions have begun to actively reframe their inclusionary practices as tools to foster belonging among their constituents. Caring about peoples’ emotions, these places promise, will help bridge the social divide and ultimately benefit everyone. But what sparked the sudden interest in belonging? And how do their strategies conceptualize the feeling? To address these questions, this paper brings together data from two separate qualitative research projects, one investigating the intertwining of urban revitalization and immigrant incorporation strategies in Detroit, MI, the other tracing the emergence of corporate Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) programs in the US. By comparing and contrasting the data from interviews with urban and corporate stakeholders, as well as a sociological discourse analysis of policy documents in these two settings, I show that urban and organizational commitment to belonging is at least partially an attempt to pacify sanctuary policy and DEI critics by foregrounding the economic returns of inclusionary policies and practices. Yet, this management of people’s emotions for the primary purpose of reaping the economic benefits, what I have termed commodification of belonging, ultimately threatens to undermine the very efforts of establishing an inclusive, equitable environment by further reproducing existing racialized and gendered inequalities. More broadly, this paper underscores the rising prevalence of emotions in economic place-making endeavors, as well as the dangers of pursuing racially progressive goals with neoliberal means.

Author

• Janina Selzer, Hamilton College