The Theory and Practice of Equal Opportunities Policies: Liberal and Radical Approaches

TLDR

Confusions in equal‑opportunity policy arise from power struggles among workplace participants, not merely intellectual error. The paper investigates conceptual confusions in workplace equal‑opportunity policy practice. The study distinguishes and describes the liberal and radical approaches to policy making. The authors argue that, although liberal and radical approaches are conceptually distinct, they are routinely confused and conflated, with liberal procedures often mistakenly assumed to achieve radical outcomes.

Abstract

This paper explores the conceptual confusions characteristic of the practice of equal opportunities policies the workplace. The differences between ‘liberal’ and ‘radical’ approaches to policy making are identified and described. It is argued that, while these are conceptually distiner from one another, in practice they are routinely confused and conflated. In particular the preferred procedures of the liberal approach are widely assumed to result in the preferred outcomes of the radical approach. It is suggested that these confusions are not merely the product of intellectual error but arise from misunderstandings and deceptions generated in the struggle for power between participants in the work process.