Disability, sameness, and equality: able-bodied managers and employees discussing diversity in a Scandinavian context
By: Nanna Mik-Meyer
Abstract
This article contributes to research examining the work situations of employees with disabilities. This is performed by demonstrating how able-bodied norms affect the work lives of employees with cerebral palsy in Danish work organizations. Thus, this article investigates how able-bodied managers and employees talk about their co-workers with cerebral palsy and examines the narratives of diversity among able-bodied managers and employees when they discuss the work situation of their colleagues with cerebral palsy. The empirical point of departure is 6 weeks of participant observations in 2 work organizations along with interviews conducted in 13 work organizations with 19 managers and 43 colleagues who work with an employee with cerebral palsy on a daily basis. The article finds two dominating narratives regarding diversity that have to do with being either ‘different but the same’ or ‘just different’. These two narratives relate to the highly praised value of equality in Scandinavia.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2016.1224201 | Journal eISSN: 1745-3011
Language: English
Page range: 129 - 139
Submitted on: Oct 30, 2015
Accepted on: Aug 10, 2016
Published on: Aug 2, 2017
Published by: Stockholm University Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
© 2017 Nanna Mik-Meyer, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.