Shavit, Ayelet and Kolumbus, Anat and Ellison, Aaron M. (2016) Two Roads Diverge in a Wood: Indifference to the Difference Between ‘Diversity’ and ‘Heterogeneity’ Should Be Resisted on Epistemic and Moral Grounds. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

We argue that a conceptual tension exists between “diversity” and “heterogeneity” and that glossing over their differences has practical, moral, and epistemic costs. We examine how these terms are used in ecology and the social sciences; articulate a deeper linguistic intuition; and test it with the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The results reveal that ‘diversity’ and ‘heterogeneity’ have conflicting rather than interchangeable meanings: heterogeneity implies a collective entity that interactively integrates different entities, whereas diversity implies divergence, not integration. Consequently, striving for diversity alone may increase social injustice and reduce epistemic outcomes of academic institutions and governance structures.

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Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Shavit, Ayelet ashavit@telhai.ac.il Kolumbus, Anat anatush999@gmail.com Ellison, Aaron M. aellison@fas.harvard.edu 0000-0003-4151-6081
Keywords:	collectivity, diversity, ecology, heterogeneity, injustice, institutional diversity
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology General Issues > Ethical Issues General Issues > Feminist Approaches Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Values In Science
Depositing User:	Dr. Ayelet Shavit
Date Deposited:	15 Sep 2016 12:51
Last Modified:	04 Oct 2016 14:31
Item ID:	12432
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology General Issues > Ethical Issues General Issues > Feminist Approaches Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Values In Science
Date:	2016
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12432

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• Two Roads Diverge in a Wood: Indifference to the Difference Between ‘Diversity’ and ‘Heterogeneity’ Should Be Resisted on Epistemic and Moral Grounds. (deposited 12 Sep 2016 14:43)
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