The Social diversity Is a concept that defines and encompasses the great variety of different and similar characteristics that are shared between all human beings, both personally and at a group level.
It is the range or extent to which a community can integrate just and successfully the largest number of groups of individuals with different characteristics and particularities, where everyone enjoys the same rights and perform the same duties.
The dimensions in which the human race exhibits their individual or collective differences are more and more; A fact that makes this subject both controversial and biased, because today societies around the world are being re-molded based on this.
With countries becoming more diverse, ideas and understanding of social diversity continue to evolve and expand, driven by the access they all have to interact with more people around the world through digital media.
Gender, race, ethnicity, age, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, language, sexual orientation, sexual identity, culture, geographical origin, disability, among others are widely discussed.
But it has extended to include also in these subjects the different types of knowledge, antecedents, experience, interests, occupation, profession and even in aspects of the personality. All with a view to a society as inclusive and functional as possible.
Social diversity: same or different?
Humans are as similar as they are different. Therefore, it has not been easy to decide among all those dimensions which are the most decisive or valuable to drive Empirical studies ; Especially among geneticists and social scientists.
However, many standards, discursive terminologies, and propositions accepted by the international community and the Human Rights Associations are currently being handled in the media and political environments.
The definition is one of them, which in social contexts will always be linked to certain concepts that are fundamentally opposed, such as equality, equity, variety and differences.
There are numerous and controversial debates about the human nature of an individual by identifying himself differently from others and demanding respect for / their differences, but at the same time identifying himself as equal to another (or member of a particular group) and later demanding to be treated as everyone else.
In this regard, there are many discussions aimed at the ethical, moral and legal difficulties of achieving the goal of true global social equality, when all members are so different and increasingly defend their differences more strongly.
Better approaches have been achieved to address these issues, coining concepts such as"equal opportunities","social awareness"and"social responsibility", which better protect and defend diversity, but also reinforce the rights and duties of all same.
In this way, the aim is to work to reduce the mistrust that social minorities have in systems and institutions, such as laws, education and justice.
At the same time, it makes them aware of the individual responsibilities of their decisions as members of a society.
Dimensions in social diversity
There are many obvious and visible dimensions in which the human is diverse: height, weight, age, hair, color, among others.
But in the world of social relations and self-concepts of people, the dimensions that are most handled-and in which people most are reflected or identified-are race and, in particular, sex.
From a human communicative platform, analyzes and studies on the dimensions of social diversity focus on people's self-concepts, self and world perception and expectation.
The levels at which these three human communicative approaches are developed are explained below.
1- Intrapersonal dimension
Self-concepts are the basis for intrapersonal communication because it determines how a person sees himself and how he or she is oriented toward others. Also called self-awareness or self-awareness, it involves beliefs, values and attitudes.
The Beliefs Are basic personal orientations towards what is true or false, good or bad. They can be descriptive or prescriptive.
The values Are orientations and ideals deeply rooted in people. They are generally consistent and based on beliefs, ideas, and right or wrong actions.
The Attitudes Are predispositions learned for or against a particular topic. They are usually rooted consistently with values, and tend to be global and typically emotional.
Beliefs, values and attitudes influence behavior, which functions as a mode of communication of all ideas within the person. It can manifest as an opinion (spoken or written) or with a physical action.
Some psychologists include the physical image, as it also communicates how the person perceives themselves, positively or negatively, depending on the social standards of culture.
Self-concepts also influence personal attributes, talents, social role, including order at birth.
The perception of the world is also based on beliefs, values and attitudes. The inner and outer perception are so interrelated that they feed each other, creating a harmonious and constant understanding of the being and the environment.
2- Interpersonal dimension
The way in which relationships develop between people is the focus of interpersonal communication, and everything starts from the family nucleus.
Long, close relationships between family members are based on sharing similar values, beliefs, and rituals.
This varies between spouses, parents and children, between siblings and between the wide range of kinships with the rest of the family, which lately shows the first platform of various thoughts and lifestyles relating harmoniously.
Communication circles are then expanded in educational institutions and organizations, establishing close personal or work relationships (between friends, peers, between employee and employer).
Additionally, some social scholars include impersonal communication, based on the quality of the relationship.
This involves short exchanges with the seller of a store, a neighbor in the elevator, with an innkeeper, among others. Everything is building a diversity of patterns of acceptance and social expectation.
3- Cultural and inter-cultural dimension
The social norms Are the guides (or limits) of the relations between people and groups in a society. They are the rules that groups establish for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.
They can be implicit or explicit. They indicate how it is accepted to do things, dress, talk, and so on.
This varies over time, between groups of different ages, between social classes and between social groups.
The wide range of attitudes and behaviors from one culture to another indicates the extent of their own cultural norms.
Social behavior works best when everyone knows what is accepted and expected by the other.
Standards can restrain and control people, but they also lubricate the social machinery towards the harmony of the parts.
Here, the consciousness and social responsibility from which concepts such as respect, acceptance and tolerance .
References
- Cage Innoye (2015). Social Diversity, 4 Levels of Society, Subsumes and Family. Diverse Philosophy. Retrieved from diversephilosophy.blogspot.com.
- Troy Duster (2014). Social Diversity in Humans: Implications and Hidden Consequences for Biological Research. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology Laboratory Press. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
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- Dania Santana (2017). What Is Diversity And How I Define It In The Social Context. Embracing Diversity. Retrieved from embracingdiversity.us.
- John B. Rijsman (1997). Social Diversity: A Social Psychological Analysis and Some Implications for Groups and Organizations (Online document, 2010). European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Vol. 6, Iss. 2. Taylor & Francis Online. Retrieved from tandfonline.com.
- Aamna Haneef (2014). Social Diversity (online document). SlideShare. Recovered from slideshare.net.
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- Office of Multicultural Affairs. Diversity and Social Justice - A glossary of working definitions (Online document). University of Massachusetts Lowel. Retrieved from uml.edu.