Wiebke Frieß, PhD thesis, submitted at University of Hamburg (May 2024)
The objective of my thesis is to analyze diversity (management) at a German university and to (re)construct how diversity is produced – via discursive practices, techniques, and strategies. Framed by a poststructuralist theoretical approach I analyze how diversity is socially construed within an organization, by looking at what kind of knowledge is invoked by and what effects of power are connected to it, as well as its impact on the process of subjectification. I define diversity (management) as a dispositif in accord with Michel Foucault’s theory as a result of a strategic combination of heterogenic elements at a certain point in time. In order to unfold these connections as a net in a practical empirical way, I develop an innovative methodical approach of an analysis of the dispositif that connects Foucault’s theory with Adele E. Clarke’s situational analysis framework and ethnographic approaches – following Gilles Deleuze‘s advice to work on the ground. By doing so I examine the emergence, the genealogy, and the functioning of the diversity dispositif at the Rubin University. I discuss the question of how the dispositif produces diversity and use the method of mapping to illustrate the research setting.
Letzte Änderung: 2. April 2026