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Two cases recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court will likely determine the future direction of U.S. higher education. The cases Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger challenge the legality of affirmative action programs in the University of Michigan Law School and in the University of Michigan Undergraduate College. The plaintiffs, supported by the Center for Individual Rights and other conservative organizations, contend that the University of Michigan's affirmative action programs engage in “reverse discrimination” by favoring Black and Latino students for admission over equally or better qualified white students. The University of Michigan, joined by a broad coalition of universities, corporations, and social activist organizations, reject characterizations of affirmative action programs in the Law School and Undergraduate College as “racial preferences” or “racial quotas.” Instead, the University argues that race is but one of several factors legitimately considered in the effort to assemble a diverse student body where the educational benefits of diversity are maximized.

Symbolic interaction may not have much of a future. Rome is burning; the Titanic is sinking; and still the band plays on. With some notable exceptions, we symbolic interactionists, as a group, appear to be sitting around, paralyzed, watching events unfold from the dizzying heights of our ivory tower, grumbling under our collective breath about how bad things are, but not yet doing enough, much like the rest of the world.You take the blue pill; the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Morpheus from The Matrix)

Although interest in inclusion is becoming widespread, there remains limited understanding of how organizations can create environments that promote inclusiveness and unlock the benefits of workforce diversity. Additional research is needed to better understand how inclusion is conceptualized and experienced in contexts other than North America and Europe. Taking an exploratory approach, the present research seeks to answer the question of how employees in Peru – one of the most socially and economically unequal nations in Latin America – understand the concept of inclusion in the workplace. Semi-structured interviews with 30 employed individuals found that inclusion was generally described as comprising belongingness, uniqueness, and equal treatment. Six elements emerged as key to the creation of workplace inclusion: participation, positive relationships, equality, feeling valued, climate and culture, and positive work conditions. As inhabitants of a developing country with high levels of inequality and discrimination, Peruvian employees’ views provide valuable insight into how inclusion is lived and understood in such a context, and how it may be augmented.

The aim of this chapter is to examine the role of real exchange rates in the relationship between tourist arrival and economic growth in Malaysia over the period of 2000–2018. We disaggregate Malaysian tourists into six geographical regions, namely Asia, Singapore, Europe, Pacific region, Americas, and Africa. Using a non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model, we find that the appreciation of real exchange rates with positive growth of economy plays a prominent role in influencing international tourist arrivals from Singapore, other Asian countries, Pacific region, Europe, and Americas. Our study suggests that real appreciation is important in providing some insights into the effectiveness of growth-led-tourism policies. In line with this, some implications are provided at the end of this chapter.

This multiple case study investigates the impact of technology on organizational change in public libraries. Over the past 12–15 years, public access computers (PACs) have been introduced into public libraries. Once these PACs were connected to the Internet, they attracted patrons who had not previously used public library services. The main themes around which this study was organized relate to the implementation of technology with facilities and services, city government, and people. The main research questions were following: (1) How has public library culture changed since the introduction of computers for patron use? (2) What adjustments were necessary to deal with the influx of computers and other technology in public libraries? (3) Have PACs changed the way the libraries are organized and how they are staffed? The findings of the study included how technology influenced changes in staffing in the public libraries. Each of the libraries has undergone a culture shift due to the introduction of technology. One of the shifts is the change of the reference desk from general reference to the addition of a help desk with reference responsibilities. Another concern of the directors was constantly funding the upgrades necessary for software and hardware that technology requires. As not all of the directors have supportive city government, this can be problematic. Finally, the facilities where the public libraries were housed had undergone changes either through renovations or through new buildings to accommodate technology and the infrastructure needed to support it.

This chapter examines the rights of those who have their photograph taken for use by non-profit organisations (such as non-governmental organisations, charities, and academic institutions) and the obligations of those producing and using these images to not abuse those rights. The chapter focusses on informed consent as the key intersection of these rights and obligations. It examines the specifics of what is meant by ‘informed consent’ and the importance of the process of it being requested and given. The argument presented suggests, rather than seeing this process as a legal, one-off contract, that it should be seen as a relationship that may evolve over time and, to a degree, attempts to establish a more equitable relationship between those who produce and publish images and those who appear in them. It is suggested that this process can play a role in addressing a number of ethical issues, including the safety of the individual being photographed and how vulnerable populations are represented visually.

Even though trans and nonbinary athletes regularly experience oppression and exclusion in sport, many encounter sport as a site of gendered liberation. Most literature on trans and nonbinary athletes focuses on experiences of oppression; much less examines trans and nonbinary athlete resistance. Centring the voices of trans and nonbinary athletes in sport is essential for attending to the complexity of their experiences in sport. I draw on my own experiences as a nonbinary elite boxer to explore what is at stake in sport and demonstrate how sport can function as a site of joy and resistance for trans and nonbinary athletes. Amid ongoing debates about whether or not it is fair for trans women athletes to compete in sport, Gleaves and Lehrbach (2016) argued that sport does not solely concern who wins but also encompasses the ‘the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves’ in competitive sport. I argue that the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves in competitive sport stay with us for a lifetime. These stories shape how we make sense of ourselves and others. I explore how women, trans, and nonbinary boxers issue a threat to patriarchal cisheteronormative customs in boxing, precisely because we disrupt the assumption that aggression is the male domain and that masculinity equals cisgender maleness. I contribute to the growing body of literature centring trans and nonbinary voices by drawing attention to how trans and nonbinary athletes' experiences of sport are characterized not only by exclusion and oppression but also by joy and resistance.

In this chapter, we will be describing the situation of minority groups in the labour market and in organizations in Québec and Canada. We will be focussing mainly on the situation of women and ethnocultural minorities. First, we will present a statistical picture of their situation. Second, we will explore in more depth the situation of two ethnocultural groups – the Maghrebians and the French – in Québec, ¹ to demonstrate the complexity of the situation of minority groups that cannot be portrayed by statistics alone. Then, third, we will examine some tensions specific to Western societies that have an impact on the dynamics of culturally diverse enterprises. This assessment will show that even though much progress has been made, especially for women, there is still much to do to ensure full equality and greater fairness between minority and majority groups in Québec and Canada. Furthermore, by means of a more qualitative analysis of the situation of these two ethnocultural groups, we will see that statistics do not tell the whole story.

How do cultural organizations handle the competing demands of isomorphism and differentiation? Strategic balance theory is a promising point of departure. Proponents argue that while isomorphism contributes to legitimacy, differentiation minimizes competition through innovation or niche control. However, most research has focused on successful cases of optimal performance in core or world cities. I introduce data from three seasons (250+ hours) of ethnographic research on fashion weeks in both a core city and semi-peripheral city. I find that geography acts as a structural barrier to competition: while semi-peripheral producers pursue some standards of fashion capitals in world cities, they cannot compete on the basis of style. Rather than optimizing through strategic balance, cultural organizations embrace a double edge of legitimation. Their sub-optimal vision of organizational survival cultivates legitimacy from available but symbolically polluting sources. Imperfect imitation is suggested instead as a viable legitimation strategy. I call for more attention to semi-peripheral geography and imperfect imitation in culture industry research.