PROBLEMATIZATIONS ABOUT DIVERSITY, DIFFERENCE AND THE NEOLIBERAL RATIONALITY IN THE LABOR MARKET

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the “Diversity” Program that is part of an international agribusiness
industry in order to understand how diversity has become a theme present in different spaces, including the labor market, more specifically the industry. In the study, we establish some connections with Foucault’s propositions, among them the problematization that is the analytical tool used to build this article. We analyzed three interviews with company directors about their understanding of diversity, and how this theme enters the company. To problematize these interviews, we sought, from post-structuralist lenses, theorists who address the concepts of diversity and difference and the relationship between these themes and neoliberal rationality. The analysis of empirical data shows that discourses about the diversity program are permeated by neoliberal rationality, and at the same time it does not guarantee the inclusion of difference, since diversity dialogues with the universal, and difference with the unique. It is also evident that the company, by including this theme as a value, seeks to have in its staff a certain reflection of the society in which it operates. We believe that this research is powerful in terms of better understanding how diversity is understood in the manufacturing context,
and how this concept is worked for the inclusion of subjects in the work environment.