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Increasing diversity leads to local, national and transnational challenges requiring a novel and explicit problem-solving approach. Practical wisdom, which emerges from an integration knowledge and ability through religious awareness, can promote peaceful coexistence in diverse societies with adequate theological and educational infrastructures. This paper aims to critically examine practical wisdom as the religious awareness to underlying building harmony in the diverse society.

Literature from refereed and peer-reviewed journals and articles was reviewed using thematic topic analysis to propose a model of the practical wisdom as a foundation for building harmony in a diverse society.

This result shows that there are several discussions with specific objectives of practical wisdom as the result of core understanding of religious awareness underlying the potential solutions in the diverse society; the significant essence of practical wisdom as the core element for building harmony; exploring how practical wisdom should be a wide particular element in building integrity and harmony in the diverse society.

Practical wisdom can establish peaceful and respectful relations amongst diverse segments of the population. It is, therefore, crucial for scholars and practitioners to explore practical wisdom in depth and devise ways of promoting this important characteristic at a social level through the exchange of common ideas and goals.

Gender-diverse people experience unique cultural and interpersonal stigma in mainstream society and sometimes within their own communities; they face allegations of inauthenticity based on their nonconformity to either cisnormative or transnormative gender regimes. Based on 21 in-depth life history interviews, we unveil the intricate interactional process of negotiating identity and authenticity in the biographical work of gender-diverse individuals. In this study, gender-diverse people engaged in a “gender audit” with their gender-diverse interviewer. Gender audits yield verbal performances of gender with oneself and others. Ambiguity was “accounted for” or “embraced and created” in their biographical work to organize their life stories and undermine binary essentialism – a discourse that was “discursively constraining.” Gender audits took place in participants' day-to-day lives, either through self-audits, questioning from others, or both. In the final analysis, we assert that we all engage in gender auditing. Gender audits are intersubjective sites of domination, subordination, resistance, and social change. Gender diversity, then, can be viewed as a product of gender in flux.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse two features of multicultural societies: diversity and equity. The author argues that both these features are necessary for multicultural societies and their institutions to be successful. Diversity is understood to include variations in culture, ethnicity, religion, age, gender and sexual orientation. Equity is understood to include inclusive participation and the removal of barriers to such participation. Diversity without the opportunity for equitable participation can lead to a form of separation; equity without diversity can lead to a form of assimilation; the absence of both can lead to marginalisation; and the presence of both can lead to a full integration.

This is a conceptual paper with a focus on better understanding of how to manage multicultural societies and institutions.

The author distinguishes between three meanings of multiculturalism; as demography; as policy; and as ideology. He proposes a conceptual framework to illustrate the various ways in which intercultural relations may take place at three levels (society, institutions and individual), and with two kinds of groups (dominant and non-dominant). An analysis of multiculturalism policy in Canada and internationally reveals three principles needed for success in such societies: the multiculturalism principle; the integration principle; and the contact principle.

The use of these concepts for better management of intercultural relations in multicultural societies and institutions through mutual adaptation is proposed.

With much debate and confusion about the meaning and value of multiculturalism, this paper has sought to clarify many of the concepts and distinctions.

The current research presents findings from an innovative online Teachers Professional Development (TPD) program entitled – The Israeli Society is Meeting Online. This study aims to examine to what extent does online contact promote meaningful acquaintance among teachers from different cultures in Israeli society, and how did the online TPD program influence the way teachers perceive their roles in the Israeli education system.

This study implemented a qualitative phenomenological approach to learn about the teachers’ experiences (through the TPD program.

The findings indicate that teachers who live and study in a diverse and divided society can improve intergroup relations using online contact with teachers from other groups. This contact may lead to a significant acquaintance, which, in turn, prepares teachers as agents of change in the field of multicultural education.

Israeli society is diverse and divided and these divisions are reflected in the educational system, which is characterized by high degrees of prejudice, stereotyping and racism between groups. The findings highlight the educative potential of online contact in a diverse society and the importance of improving intergroup relations between teachers from different cultures prior to their attempts to promote multicultural education.

Diversity plays a vital role in the sustainable development of any country. Discrimination, segregation and bigotry are rampant causes of social evil and do great harm to our society. This study aims to investigate whether ethnic and religious diversity affects the country’s well-being or not, via a comparative analysis between developing and developed countries.

This study used a generalized method of moments technique for empirical analysis of 158 developing and developed countries. For measurement of ethnic and religious diversity, this study used ethnic fractionalization index of Alesina (2003).

The empirical findings indicate that ethnic and religious diversity both increases the economic prosperity for developed countries, and alternatively, it makes it more miserable for developing countries. This study suggests that organizing a diverse society is a difficult task; thus, developing countries need to promote a cohesive society like developed countries by providing equal, secure and peaceful opportunity to get fruitful results of diverse populations.

This study investigates a comparative analysis between developing and developed countries regarding impact of ethnic and religious diversity on economic development.

The knowledge management (KM) models in the African organisations are influenced by the interplay between human agents from diverse societies whose experiences, values, contextual information and insights that are perceived controversial in Africa. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the indigenous assumptions related to knowledge and its management in Africa and the perceived contradictions in the existing models by adopting the Ubuntu philosophy.

The authors used a perspective lens to examine the existing management practices and propose an integrated framework that is appropriate for the utilisation of the Ubuntu epistemic knowledge management practices and at the same time provide highlights on the perceived paradoxes and how they can be managed to improve knowledge management and people management in African societies.

The inductive posteriori knowledge approach is perceived to be dynamic, applicable and more desirable in the African societies as it allows organisational managers and their work teams to embrace knowledge construction, dependent on experiences in form of stories and metaphors that demonstrate successful work samples. The Ubuntu dramaturgical knowledge management approach adds value to the posteriori knowledge by refining the rhetoric stories and metaphors into empirical performance scripts that are tailored to the audiences’ expectations.

The paper adapted a perspective view to explain knowledge management; therefore, it was not possible to provide empirical data on the metaphysical and dramaturgical elements that are assumed to influence knowledge management in Africa. However, based on theoretical analysis, the authors have proposed a coherent knowledge management framework based on the interaction between posteriori KM assumptions and Ubuntu dramaturgy.

Ubuntu ideology has been appreciated since it treasures interdependency and interconnectedness among people. Therefore, collaborating partners working in Africa would be expected to act as interdependent agents, whereby this interdependency is perceived as an integral part of the knowledge management process. The proposed Ubuntu knowledge management model is grounded on the posteriori knowledge approach which assumes that experience is the source of knowledge. Through social interactions and experiences sharing, organisational members can create new processes, innovative technologies and dynamic context based performance scripts that can drive productivity.

The authors concluded that a coherent framework that is tailored to social interactions and contextual needs of the people and their communities can promote productive knowledge and knowledge management systems in the African contexts. Moreover knowledge management requires one to acknowledge the complexity of Ubuntu ideology in a sense that it recognises the past experiences and contributions of the diverse individuals in the same community/organisation.

This paper focused on examining how the Ubuntu philosophy can promote knowledge development and management strategies that are tailored to social and contextual needs of the organisations in Africa to curtail the perceived paradoxes in the existing knowledge management models.