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22 Cases and Articles to Help Bring Diversity Issues into Class Discussions

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• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

T he recent civic unrest in the United States following the death of George Floyd has elevated the urgency to recognize and study issues of diversity and the needs of underrepresented groups in all aspects of public life.

Business schools—and educational institutions across the spectrum—are no exception. It’s vital that educators facilitate safe and productive dialogue with students about issues of inclusion and diversity. To help, we’ve gathered a collection of case studies (all with teaching notes) and articles that can encourage and support these critical discussions.

These materials are listed across three broad topic areas: leadership and inclusion, cases featuring protagonists from historically underrepresented groups, and women and leadership around the world. This list is hardly exhaustive, but we hope it provides ways to think creatively and constructively about how educators can integrate these important topics in their classes. HBP will continue to curate and share content that addresses these equity issues and that features diverse protagonists.

Editors’ note: To access the full text of these articles, cases, and accompanying teaching notes, you must be registered with HBP Education. We invite you to sign up for a free educator account here . Verification may take a day; in the meantime, you can read all of our Inspiring Minds content .

Leadership and Inclusion

John Rogers, Jr.—Ariel Investments Co.

—by Steven S. Rogers and Greg White

Gender and Free Speech at Google (A)

—by Nien-hê Hsieh, Martha J. Crawford, and Sarah Mehta

The Massport Model: Integrating Diversity and Inclusion into Public-Private Partnerships

—by Laura Winig and Robert Livingston

“Numbers Take Us Only So Far”

—by Maxine Williams

For Women and Minorities to Get Ahead, Managers Must Assign Work Fairly

—by Joan C. Williams and Marina Multhaup

How Organizations Are Failing Black Workers—and How to Do Better

—by Adia Harvey Wingfield

To Retain Employees, Focus on Inclusion—Not Just Diversity

—by Karen Brown

From HBR 's The Big Idea:

Toward a Racially Just Workplace: Diversity efforts are failing black employees. Here’s a better approach.

—by Laura Morgan Roberts and Anthony J. Mayo

Cases with Protagonists from Historically Underrepresented Groups

Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital

—by Laura Huang and Sarah Mehta

United Housing—Otis Gates

—by Steven Rogers and Mercer Cook

Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee

—by Steven Rogers and Alterrell Mills

Dylan Pierce at Peninsula Industries

—by Karthik Ramanna

Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of St. Luke

—by Anthony J. Mayo and Shandi O. Smith

Multimedia Cases:

Enterprise Risk Management at Hydro One, Multimedia Case

—by Anette Mikes

Women and Leadership Around the World

Monique Leroux: Leading Change at Desjardins

—by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Kaweyan: Female Entrepreneurship and the Past and Future of Afghanistan

—by Geoffrey G. Jones and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Womenomics in Japan

—by Boris Groysberg, Mayuka Yamazaki, Nobuo Sato, and David Lane

Women MBAs at Harvard Business School: 1962-2012

—by Boris Groysberg, Kerry Herman, and Annelena Lobb

Beating the Odds

—by Laura Morgan Roberts, Anthony J. Mayo, Robin J. Ely, and David A. Thomas

Rethink What You “Know” About High-Achieving Women

—by Robin J. Ely, Pamela Stone, and Colleen Ammerman

“I Try to Spark New Ideas”

—by Christine Lagarde and Adi Ignatius

How Women Manage the Gendered Norms of Leadership

—by Wei Zheng, Ronit Kark, and Alyson Meister

Is this list helpful to you? What other topics or materials would you like to see featured in our next curated list? Let us know .

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Diversity matters even more: The case for holistic impact

Diversity Matters Even More

Diversity Matters Even More is the fourth report in a McKinsey series investigating the business case for diversity, following Why Diversity Matters (2015), Delivering Through Diversity (2018), and Diversity Wins (2020). For almost a decade through our Diversity Matters series of reports, McKinsey has delivered a comprehensive global perspective on the relationship between leadership diversity and company performance. This year, the business case is the strongest it has been since we’ve been tracking and, for the first time in some areas, equitable representation is in sight. Further, a striking new finding is that leadership diversity is also convincingly associated with holistic growth ambitions, greater social impact, and more satisfied workforces.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Dame Vivian Hunt, representing views from UnitedHealth Group, and Sundiatu Dixon-Fyle , Celia Huber , María del Mar Martínez Márquez , Sara Prince , and Ashley Thomas , representing views from McKinsey.

At a time when companies are under extraordinary pressure to maintain financial performance while navigating a rapidly changing business landscape, creating an internal culture of transparency and inclusion, and transforming operations to meet social-impact expectations, the good news is that these goals are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, our research suggests a strong, positive relationship between them. And in an increasingly complex and uncertain competitive landscape, diversity matters even more .

For this report, the fourth edition of Diversity Matters , we drew on our largest dataset yet—spanning 1,265 companies, 23 countries, and six global regions, and multiple company interviews. We also extended our research and interview focus beyond the relationship between diversity and financial performance, for the first time exploring the holistic impact  of diversity on communities, workforces, and the environment.

The most compelling business case yet

There have been far-reaching changes in the business environment over the past few years, yet, companies with diverse leadership teams continue to be associated with higher financial returns. Our expanded dataset shows this is true across industries and regions, despite differing challenges, stakeholder expectations, and ambitions.

The business case for gender diversity on executive teams 1 The business case is the percent difference in likelihood of outperformance between companies in the top and bottom quartile for a characteristic. Outperformance is calculated as the likelihood to place above the median profitability of other companies in the same industry and region. For more information on our calculation of the likelihood of outperformance analysis, see “Methodology for financial performance.” has more than doubled over the past decade. Each of our reports—2015, 2018, 2020, and now 2023—has found a steady upward trend, tracking ever greater representation of women on executive teams. At each time point we have assessed the data, the likelihood of financial outperformance gap has grown: Our 2015 report found top-quartile companies had a 15 percent greater likelihood of financial outperformance versus their bottom-quartile peers; this year, that figure hits 39 percent (Exhibit 1).

A strong business case for ethnic diversity is also consistent over time, with a 39 percent increased likelihood of outperformance for those in the top quartile of ethnic representation versus the bottom quartile. This has persisted even with eight new economies added in our analysis of 2022 financial data. 2 Our 2023 report draws on data that was collected in both 2021 and 2022. For this analysis, we used data collected in 2022.

The penalties 3 Rewards and penalties refer to the likelihood of outperformance, or underperformance, on profitability compared to companies in the other three quartiles. for low diversity on executive teams are also intensifying. Companies with representation of women exceeding 30 percent (and thus in the top quartile) are significantly more likely to financially outperform those with 30 percent or fewer. Similarly, companies in our top quartile for ethnic diversity show an average 27 percent financial advantage over others (Exhibit 2).

Both forms of diversity in executive teams appear to show an increased likelihood of above-average profitability. Companies in the top quartile for both gender and ethnic diversity in executive teams are on average 9 percent more likely to outperform their peers. (This gap has closed slightly since our previous report.) Meanwhile, those in the bottom quartile for both are 66 percent less likely to outperform financially on average, up from 27 percent in 2020, indicating that lack of diversity may be getting more expensive.

Our latest analysis shows that companies with greater diversity on their boards of directors are more likely to outperform financially. For the first time, this correlation is statistically significant for both gender and ethnicity. Companies in the top quartile for board-gender diversity are 27 percent more likely to outperform financially than those in the bottom quartile. Similarly, companies in the top quartile for ethnically diverse boards are 13 percent more likely to outperform than those in the bottom quartile. These findings support the hypothesis that diversity benefits extend across top corporate leadership to boards, where DEI policy decisions for the whole organization are often made. We also examined diversity in emerging and advanced economies, finding that while advanced economies see a much higher likelihood of outperformance for executive gender diversity, emerging economies have shown meaningful progress in recent years and may have the most to gain from increasing diversity.

Equitable representation at the top is within reach

Since McKinsey first started tracking data on representation in 2015, women have made substantial gains in the workplace and in leadership. The current global dataset shows that one-fifth of executive team members are women, a third higher than reported in 2020. Eight in ten surveyed companies now have at least one woman on their executive team (up from fewer than two-thirds), while seven in ten have more than 10 percent. Since 2020’s Diversity Wins  (and with an expanded dataset), we have now seen the highest increase in diversity in a decade and more representation at the highest levels than ever before (Exhibit 3).

Because each region has a unique ethnic makeup and cultural norms, we have assessed rates of ethnic representation by evaluating equitable representation levels—how closely leadership mirrors regional demographics. 4 Equitable representation refers to the level at which a leadership team's diverse representation matches the level of representation of historically underrepresented ethnicities within a given region’s population. US companies are currently the closest to representing the population at 20 percent ethnic representation, but still lag behind the population share of 41 percent.

We have continued to look at boards, given the association of diverse boards with better financial performance and inclusive growth 5 Companies in the top quartile of board-gender diversity are 27 percent more likely than those in the bottom quartile to outperform financially, and companies in the top quartile for ethnically diverse boards are 13 percent more likely to outperform than those in the bottom quartile. We tested a variety of inclusive growth metrics, including social and environmental impact. For every woman added to a company board with ten directors, there was on average a two-point increase in holistic impact scores. Additional detail located in “Diversity supports inclusive growth” section. ; even more than executive teams, they can also be a strong positive influence on the societal disposition of a company. This year we once again found that financial impact is linked to increased representation of women on boards. For the first time, we also see a significant association with ethnic representation.

Over the past eight years, we have tracked over 330 companies’ progress on representation and diversity in leadership, and segmented these companies into five cohorts based on both 2015 levels of executive-team diversity and progress since then: Diversity Leaders, Fast Movers, Moderate Movers, Resting on Laurels, and Laggards (Exhibit 4).

It has been particularly inspiring to find that Diversity Leaders have attained gender parity and equitable ethnic representation, showing that equitable representation at the top is not just a lofty dream but a realistic goal. Further, our Fast Movers demonstrate that change can happen at speed and scale, with gender representation reaching 32 percent—the first time we’ve seen such a promising outcome in this cohort. These companies have raised the bar to keep pace with the changing landscape of diversity representation in leadership. Their strong performance prompted us to raise the improvement thresholds for companies from our 2020 Diversity Wins  report to reflect the gains seen in top-performing quartiles (five percentage points for gender and ten percentage points for ethnicity).

Companies in our top cohorts have shown rapid, groundbreaking growth in representation, with some even attaining gender parity. In fact, diversity-leading companies in the United Kingdom have reached an ethnic-representation average, at 28 percent, that exceeds the region’s general population. Diversity-leading US companies have reached 50 percent representation of women on executive teams. In addition, leading companies in the United States now have on average 39 percent of executives from historically underrepresented ethnicities.

Considering the dataset as a whole, however, there is still a substantial gap in ethnic representation at top levels. For companies included in both our 2020 and 2023 reports, only 16 percent of leaders on executive teams belong to historically underrepresented ethnicities. 6 Historically underrepresented group refers to populations who have historically not been represented within leadership teams at the same rate that they exist within the general population. These gains have slowed since 2019. At the time of Diversity Wins , 61 percent of companies had at least one person in leadership from a historically underrepresented group; this figure has grown only slightly (68 percent).

While there is some good news on progress in the area of equitable representation, across most geographies, significantly more work is needed. Diversity Leaders are beacons for other companies, demonstrating that scaling and institutionalizing policies that promote multiple forms of diversity can move the needle on representation.

Diversity supports inclusive growth

While year over year financial performance remains critical, businesses are increasingly aspiring to have positive, long-term impact on all stakeholders—the core tenet of stakeholder capitalism. This emphasizes the interests and needs of a wider set of stakeholders, including employees, customers, and investors, prioritizes social and environmental goals, and drives towards sustainable, inclusive growth—in short, what we refer to as holistic impact.

In many parts of the world there is a growing call for organizations to consider their holistic impact, not only within their own business environment, but on a wider scale, both locally and globally. Our research points to five main areas of holistic impact : financial and operational, capabilities, health and workforce, and environmental and social. In this report, we broaden the lens of our research, placing particular focus on environmental and social-impact elements.

Our findings are striking. Across all industries surveyed, more diversity in boards and executive teams is correlated to higher social and environmental impact scores.

We recognize that creating social impact, alongside other business priorities, is a challenging task, even for companies who have strong intentions to do so. Yet, over half of sampled companies in our dataset perform well in community involvement. 7 Defined as scoring above 75 on the community measure. We find that diverse leadership teams could help to bolster community involvement, positively impacting ethical disposition, community orientation, and the general image of a company.

We examined how leadership diversity could be linked to three components of holistic impact—community, workforce, and environment—which all have particularly close connections with employee and community well-being. The results were pronounced: across all three components, we found positive correlations with gender and ethnic leadership diversity (Exhibit 5).

We also found a link between greater diversity in leadership roles and diversity across the organization. 8 Organization-wide and management diversity is a workforce submetric score within the social pillar. These data points were then compared against our dataset for executive teams. For a 10 percent rise in women’s executive representation in our 2019 dataset, we see on average a 2.1 increase in the percentage of both women employees and women managers in 2021. A similar, if somewhat smaller, effect holds with ethnic representation. 9 We recognize that there is, naturally, a degree of overlap in these scores. When there is a path for women and ethnic minorities to step into the highest roles, it suggests that there are inclusive practices at play, making it possible for all to succeed.

Overall, there is a strong correlation between diversity in influential company leadership roles and multiple indicators of holistic impact across workforce, community, and environmental components. These relationships hold across sectors.

Five levers for change

The last decade has been a period of notable progress on equitable representation in leadership. Yet representation alone is an insufficient and unsustainable outcome. Since Why Diversity Matters in 2015, our thinking has evolved with continued engagement in this field. From our initial focus on diverse representation in leadership, we added a perspective on the practical steps companies can take to increase leadership diversity. From there, we broadened our focus to highlight the importance of inclusion and equity.

Now, we are beginning to distill the essence of holistic impact, and the role that leaders play in cultivating visionary workplaces. By building inclusive and supportive workplace cultures where diverse leaders and allies are truly heard, companies can chart a path towards impact beyond financial performance.

Leveraging our company interviews as a valuable source of refreshed insight, our data shows that the more diverse the leadership team, the more likely they are to have made public, mature commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their decision-making strategies. Transforming this commitment into bold action is the natural next step. To facilitate this transformation, we conducted interviews with diversity leaders who shared invaluable insights. These interviews surfaced five strategies to effectively turn words into action:

• Commit to a systematic, purpose-led approach to benefit all stakeholders. Companies should frame and pursue their DEI aspirations—internally and publicly—as core to their mission and embedded into their strategic goals. Having diverse perspectives and backgrounds may be uniquely helpful, as suggested by the relationship between ethnic and gender diversity and companies’ inclusive-growth performance.
• Embed your strategy in company-wide business initiatives while tailoring to local context. While DEI strategy is typically shaped at the top, giving local teams license to tailor to local contexts is key to building ownership and local impact. Agilely launching test and learn cycles for DEI initiatives in specific localities before rolling them out corporate-wide can also support larger DEI goals. In crafting a “global-local” approach to establishing their DEI strategy and values, leaders should build open lines of communication to develop a deep understanding of their workforce, community, and customers. This ensures DEI moves from abstract ideals to concrete actions. 10 Ella Washington, “The five stages of DEI maturity,” Harvard Business Review , November 1, 2022.
• Prioritize belonging and inclusive practices to unlock performance. Diverse representation will have the most impact within a culture that fosters inclusion and belonging—which also facilitates retaining diverse talent, innovation, and customer centricity. This support should include making inclusive leadership the norm through management training and accountability, as well as providing high-impact support to affinity and Employee Resources Groups (ERGs) to boost employee satisfaction.
• Embolden and activate champions and allies by providing adequate resources and support. DEI efforts of individual leaders, particularly women, are often less high-profile or officially rewarded, including their contributions to inclusive leadership, allyship, and employee well-being. Companies that recognize these efforts and provide a supportive environment can help these leaders thrive. This support could include mentorship and sponsorship, as well as encouraging and celebrating allyship. Leaders could be measured on their contributions to DEI and employee wellness in their performance evaluations.
• Act on feedback, including dissenting voices. A culture of feedback on DEI strategy from the workforce and wider stakeholders can provide valuable insights, identifying both strengths and opportunities for change. Leaders can use routine company pulse surveys to collect feedback internally, and social listening externally. It is important for dissenting voices to also be heard to pinpoint root causes of any roadblocks and contribute towards optimizing impact of the DEI strategy.

Despite a challenging business environment, the business case for diverse leadership teams is clear and growing stronger. In this report, our findings also show a statistically significant link between diverse boards and executive teams and higher holistic-impact scores, including on environmental and social measures.

To achieve lasting impact along these dimensions, companies must move boldly beyond increasing diverse representation to integrating DEI in a purpose-driven approach, broadening the company’s positive impact across stakeholders, employees, the external community, and the environment.

Sundiatu Dixon-Fyle is a senior fellow in McKinsey’s London office; Celia Huber is a senior partner in the Bay Area office; María del Mar Martínez Márquez is a senior partner in the Madrid office; and Sara Prince is a senior partner in the Atlanta office, where Ashley Thomas is a client delivery director. Dame Vivian Hunt is the chief innovation officer at UnitedHealth Group and a McKinsey alumna.

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Diversity And Inclusion: Best Practices And Case Studies

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A  company culture where employee s  feel empowered to use their voice is the  most  crucial  talent imperative  facing workforce planners  today .  A   Gallup  poll  revealed that only 55% of  US workers feel that their organization prioritizes Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)  policies.   

This low figure is especially worrying when contrasted with the  percentage of new-age workers (64%) for whom diversity is a crucial factor before accepting a job offer.   

Achieving diversity in the workplace is not just a n  ethical me tric that needs to be ticked off to placate stakeholders. It is also a fiscally important metric.   Companies in  the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity   experience ~40% more profitability than those in the bottom fourth quartile.   

We have covered these benefits in detail in our discussion on   Measures to Implement Diversity & Inclusion.  

In this post, we will focus our discussion on highlighting some  best  practices when  it  comes to implementing D&I through some exceptional case studie s .  

Outreach Programs Should Be Your First Step  – IBM    

Nothing shows the world that  you’re  serious about your D&I program than a fully-fledged outreach program.  These outreach initiatives show that you are actively seeking to incorporate diversity into your company ethos and are willing to go the extra mile to make people feel more inclusive.   

A great example of this is IBM’s Girls’ Outreach  Program .  Started in 2008 to mitigate the  declining  pipeline  of female tech talent,  the program encourages girls to think seriously about a career in tech and business.  The highly successful program targets girls in the 15-16 years age range and offers them a chance  to shadow senior employees and gain practical experience to increase their knowledge and skills.  This has a direct correlation with the number of girls  expressing interest in taking up an apprenticeship  or participating in future placement drives.  

Since 2012, the program has shifted focus to schools with a high percentage of  Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic (BAME) students.  

Set Ambitious Goals & Achieve Them  –  Accenture  

Accenture was ranked no 1 in the Thomson Reuters’ 2018 D&I index. They were ahead of their peers by a large margin. Their secret?   

The company set a n  ambitious  challenge to achieve 50/50 gender balance by 2025  and have women comprise 25% of their managing directors by 2020.   

To achieve this, the company has  taken  several  steps ,  including:  

• Setting clear & measurable diversity targets  and publishing its workforce demographics across countries like the US, India, Japan,  & South Africa.  
• Driving initiatives that provide women with training for in-demand skills like AI, Analytics, Cloud etc.  
• Collaborating across business and government to further gender equality in the workplace.  

Suffice to say,  by  attuning  the entire organization towards achieving this goal, Accenture has completely overhauled its hiring and promotion strategies.   

Other t op IT enterprises are actively  hiring   diverse  talent across  different  sexual orientation s , ethnicit ies  & physica l disabilities as well.  

Set Up Empowerment Programs for the Marginalized – GAP  

The garment industry is notorious for exploiting cheap  labour  in third-world countries. Most of the clothes available in the Western world are often spun by underpaid ,   female  workers in  countries like Bangladesh and India.   

Launched in 2007 by apparel giant GAP,  the  Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement (PACE)  program is actively imparting women with foundational life skills, technical  training  and  support to help them advance in their professional and personal lives.  

In 2016, GAP expanded the program to include adolescent  girls as  well. As of 2020, over 500,000 women in 17 countries have undergone this life-changing program.   

Empowerment programs can even be something  like   creating health insurance coverages for transgender folks as well. Most of us take our health coverage for granted. However, traditional coverages often leave out conditions that are uni que to the transgender community. The Lalit Suri Hospitality  G roup in India has taken their inclusi vity measure to the next level by not only hiring trans individuals but also providing them coverage for Sex Affirmation surgeries in their  medi -claim.   

Best Practices  To  Ensure D&I  

While the above case studies have been eye-opening  in regards to  how far some companies are willing to go to create an inclusive atmosphere, they are simply not practical for enterprises operating  at a smaller scale.   

Draup has curated the following list of best practices to help workforce planners  ensure that the workplace does not leave a  particular community  behind.   

• First & foremost, perform a thorough  audit of your existing diversity scenario.  The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging it.  
• Ensure that everyone, from the janitor to the CEO, is  committed to upholding diversity values.  This  has to  be ensured right at the onboarding process itself.   
• Opt  for transparency wherever possible.  It’s  one thing to boldly proclaim that you are inclusive, and another to publicly display the numbers to back your claim. This diversity dashboard  should be accessible at all times  and visible to every stakeholder.  
• Develop a D&I roadmap.  This could be something as simple as committing to hire women to a certain percentage of leadership roles or even something as like  committing to create safe spaces & environments for minorities to air their grievances.  
• Monitor & report on progress.  Ideally, every  company  wo uld have a Chief Diversity Officer to take care of this. If not, there should be a SPOC for all diversity-related matters.  

You can also make use of third-party consultants or tools like  Draup’s  Diversity Navigator to help your enterprise achieve its diversity goals.   

Using the Diversity Navigator, you can recruit candidates with queries such as  “female data analyst in the  B ay  A rea”, “Black female data scientist in New York ” or “Transgender Sales Executive in  Denver.”  

The tool also features a Hiring Opportunity Index and provides a deep dive into their skill sets while also ranking them in  terms of New-Age skills set.  

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Highlighting Pathways to Equity and Engagement using our DE+I Insights to Action Analytics Platform

Driven by its own core values and renewed conversations regarding racial inequity & injustice in 2020, Monday Night Brewing, an award-winning food and beverage company, decided to take concrete steps regarding DE&I  and their own employee equity and engagement. The organization’s goal was to take a hands-on approach to tailor its immediate steps and future planning to meet the encompassing DE&I related needs of its own employees as well as corporate responsibility of driving societal change. Having previously won an award as one of the ‘best places to work’ in a major city, the organization wanted to make sure its approach addressed the many challenges of 2020. This diversity and inclusion case study details the analytics-driven approach the company embarked on with Clarkston.

Download the Diversity and Inclusion Case Study Here

The client engaged Clarkston to support the administration and analysis of a diversity, equity, and inclusion focused employee survey aimed at understanding employee engagement and the customer experience through a DE&I lens. The survey was a tool to support immediate changes as well as guide their plans for 2021 and beyond. By tailoring the ‘Insights to Actions’ tool, Clarkston provided statistically based insights into the role of variables such as gender, race, location, work role, tenure, and others in across work outcomes such as pay, promotions, hiring, recruiting, and benefits. Leveraging the organizational network analysis, Clarkston was able to map both formal and informal employee networks to assess how ‘connectedness’ of employees can factor into retention and overall job satisfaction. The network maps also provided a subsequent blueprint for the execution of internal endeavors, knowledge transfers, attrition analysis, and succession planning.

By analyzing the survey results, Clarkston was also able to make customized recommendations regarding representation, pathways to leadership, collaboration, community, and culture categories ranked by effort to implement & return on value. By using employee insights that are position, race, age, and gender agnostic, the organization has taken a data-driven, employee-centric approach to driving organizational transformation, staying true to its core beliefs and taking tangible steps to honor its corporate responsibility.

The primary objectives for this project team included gaining insights into the current employee perception of DE&I practices, improve the company understanding of formal and informal coworker networks and how it relates to metrics, and developing a foundation for shaping organizational practices and polices in the future. This resulted in customizing the Clarkston ‘Insights to Action’ DE+I diagnostic survey to include the client requirements relating to internal employee equity and engagement networks and inclusivity of marketing messages and customer engagements.

Some of the key benefits that resulted from this project for the client partnership included protecting the confidentiality of employees by serving as an unbiased third party and provided end-to-end management of survey results and analysis. The team was able to provide validity to the results of the equity and engagement employee findings by utilizing Clarkston’s proprietary ‘Insights to Action’ platform, and in turn created a baseline to compare future growth to better understand the effectiveness of future endeavors for the company.

Download the full diversity and inclusion case study here .

In addition to the diversity and inclusion case study, Clarkston sat down with Monday Night Brewing to discuss the project, Clarkston’s Insights to Action DE+I Platform, and actionable analytics around equity and engagement. View the testimonial video below:

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Comfort over Change: a Case Study of Diversity and Inclusivity Efforts in U.S. Higher Education

• Published: 11 March 2021
• Volume 46 , pages 445–460, ( 2021 )

Cite this article

• Leslie D. Gonzales   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6935-7281 1 ,
• Kayon Hall 1 ,
• Amber Benton 1 ,
• Dana Kanhai 1 &
• Anne-Marie Núñez 2  

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Efforts to diversify and make historically white organizations more inclusive are as varied as they are numerous. Yet, for all their ubiquity in U.S. higher education, few studies have examined them in real time. This case study thus features a two-day meeting where stakeholders were invited to consider how to make science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields not only more diverse but also inclusive. Drawing on observational, documentary, and interview data, we offer three findings. First, we share how facilitators were ill-prepared to define diversity for their project. Second, we share that facilitators and most white participants hesitated and sometimes directly avoided conversations about historical and contemporary exclusion in STEM, especially regarding racism. Third, we show that, while facilitators and most white participants avoided specific conversations about the exclusionary nature of STEM spaces, racially minoritized participants repeatedly requested more concrete conversations. We conclude the paper with several implications for future research and practice for administrators, professors, DEI practitioners, and funders.

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Data availability.

The data (e.g., field notes) are currently stored on a laptop in a locked file cabinet in the lead author’s office.

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18 march 2021.

The original version of this paper was updated to present the correct format of the author name in reference Stewart, D-L. (2017).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the participants that allowed us to observe them while working through these complex matters. We also want to express our gratitude to Dr. Manuel S. González Canche for being an early thought partner in this project. Finally, we thank the Reviewers for thier generous and constructive criticism.

This work was funded by National Science Foundation Grant Award #00358854.

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EAD, College of Education, Michigan State University, 620 Farm Lane, Room 426, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

Leslie D. Gonzales, Kayon Hall, Amber Benton & Dana Kanhai

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Anne-Marie Núñez

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All authors were involved in data collection and data analysis processes. Gonzales, the lead and corresponding author, conceptualized the study and wrote the majority of the paper. Hall, the second author, supported the data management and analysis process and contributed significantly to the literature review and implications sections. Benton and Kanhai, participated in analytical work and provided critical feedback on all drafts of the manuscript, particularly the introduction and discussion. Núñez collected data, participated in data analysis, and provided feedback on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

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Gonzales, L.D., Hall, K., Benton, A. et al. Comfort over Change: a Case Study of Diversity and Inclusivity Efforts in U.S. Higher Education. Innov High Educ 46 , 445–460 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09541-7

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09541-7

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Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case

• Robin J. Ely
• David A. Thomas

Leaders may mean well when they tout the economic payoffs of hiring more women and people of color, but there is no research support for the notion that diversifying the workforce automatically improves a company’s performance. This article critiques the popular rhetoric about diversity and revisits an argument the authors made 25 years ago: To fully benefit from increased racial and gender diversity, organizations must adopt a learning orientation and be willing to change the corporate culture and power structure.

Four actions are key for leaders: building trust and creating a workplace where people feel free to express themselves; actively combating bias and systems of oppression; embracing a variety of styles and voices inside the organization; and using employees’ identity-related knowledge and experiences to learn how best to accomplish the firm’s core work.

It’s time for a new way of thinking.

Idea in Brief

The context.

Business leaders often make a business case for diversity, claiming that hiring more women or people of color results in better financial performance.

The Problem

There’s no empirical evidence that simply diversifying the workforce, absent fundamental changes to the organizational culture, makes a company more profitable.

A Better Approach

Companies can benefit from diversity if leaders create a psychologically safe workplace, combat systems of discrimination and subordination, embrace the styles of employees from different identity groups, and make cultural differences a resource for learning and improving organizational effectiveness.

“The business case has been made to demonstrate the value a diverse board brings to the company and its constituents.”

• RE Robin J. Ely is the Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the faculty chair of the HBS Gender Initiative.
• DT David A. Thomas is the president of Morehouse College. He is also the H. Naylor Fitzhugh Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School and the former dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

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Planning for multiculturalism: the case for equity and justice in communities, canada architecture news - apr 25, 2023 - 09:00   2162 views.

Multicultural planning has slowly but steadily been growing in importance. There have been arguments that speak to the failure of multicultural planning advocacy translating into effective multicultural planning practice. Multicultural planning has been discussed with respect to marginalized and/or disenfranchised groups predominantly, but not so much on pluralistic planning pertaining to multi-ethnic groups. As minority groups have often been pushed to the sidelines, inclusive physical and/or spatial planning may actually be the answer to effecting change. But the research on inclusive physical planning within multicultural planning literature is limited at best. The concepts of equity and justice have not been analyzed as much either within the realm of multicultural planning. This article (and my future research) will help to have those discourses within multicultural planning, and can aid in formulating a policy framework for multicultural spaces in Canadian communities than can incorporate the tenets of equity and justice.

In 1971, Canada was the very first country in the world to float a Multiculturalism Policy under the Liberal Party of Pierre Trudeau. The concepts of equity and justice have been contextualized within this and other Multiculturalism Acts, but have not really penetrated into multicultural planning policy and practice.

Evolution of equity and justice within the realm of multicultural planning

Multicultural planning is essentially planning for multiculturalism that calls for an awareness of race and culture among planners and elected officials 1 . The amalgamation of the concepts articulated by Sandercock, Qadeer, and Fincher on diversity/multicultural planning brings about an adaptive, recognitional form of planning that engenders inclusive multiculturalism which speaks to the involvement of different ethnic, cultural, minority and/or disenfranchised communities (in terms of power and income inequalities) in planning processes and policies 2,3,4,5 .

Recognitional Planning: Planning for the disenfranchised

Krumholz believed in the ideology of equity planning, which fundamentally meant planning for those who belonged to the weaker and poorer sections of society; this meant that planners would need to be especially conscious of the political and professional facets of planning problems in order to become thoroughly conscientious 6 . Though equity planning is critiqued for its utopianism regarding how planners’ actions play out in the real world because of their inability to influence the implementation of plans, planners need to be able to overcome the barriers of political unwillingness in order to catalyze policy change for the disenfranchised 7 .

Harvey and Fainstein advance the idea of addressing the needs of the marginal and powerless, and include those whose diverse needs are categorized based on race, ethnicity, immigration status, age and gender. With the plurality of competing interest groups, the universality and homogenization of an overarching public interest that masks heterogeneity and rests on the supremacy of scientific reasoning becomes all the more problematic 8,9,10 .

Multicultural Planning: Renewed version/Expansion of recognitional planning

The term multicultural is ambiguous with regard to its meaning and scope. Planners can find the answer in addressing ethnocultural diversity with adaptive and responsive planning, rather than being preoccupied with the term’s ambiguity 11 . Diversity is also a term that has several meanings within urban literature 12 .

As contemporary social movements began mobilizing for justice around issues concerning ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, and sexuality, in Western industrialized countries in the 1960s and 1970s, the term ‘multiculturalism’ started gaining prominence in planning and policy discourse. Pluralist planning gradually replaced monistic planning that ignored the needs of disenfranchised groups, and broadened its scope from a singular concern for the physical environment to advocacy planning for the disadvantaged groups 13 . As a result, cosmopolitanism, which meant being open to and having an appreciation for cultural diversity, started gaining traction 14 . Intercultural dialogue that provides a platform for authentic dialogue, which engages marginalized people, individually and as a collective force, should normatively take into account critical multiculturalism as a social movement that provides opportunities for minority groups to live together in a diverse society symbolized by mutual respect and understanding 15 .

Healey proposes communicative planning to be conducive to the challenges presented within multicultural contexts 16 . She advances the idea of intercultural dialogue that is reflective of the diverse meanings and understandings that proffer respect for individual and cultural differences. Campbell and Marshall acknowledge the fragmented, fluid dynamics of multicultural societies of the western world, and ask whether communities of shared interests can even be identified in such complex scenarios 17 .

Hoernig and Walton-Roberts emphasize that a lot of the conceptualizations of the city have fallen behind with respect to the explicit recognition of cultural diversity and ethnic difference, and propose for a transformative multiculturalism that “draws upon cultural difference to destabilize the status quo and work toward more equitable, intercultural relations” 18 . The theory of hyper-diversity has been introduced to shed light on cultural pluralism that goes beyond mere ethnicity to explore differences between attitudes, activities and lifestyles among diverse (immigrant) populations 19 .

In the world of literature that surrounds the contextualization of cultural diversity within the realm of urban planning, the theoretical dilemmas concerning difference are not really reflected in planning practice 20 . The concepts of equity and justice have been discussed in a lot of the planning literature on participatory planning theory, but have not been discussed as much in the literature on multicultural planning. A lot of the planning scholars speak to the idea of pluralism and multiculturalism in a way that addresses marginalized and/or disenfranchised communities alone, and not in a way that addresses different identities and/or multi-ethnicities (in the way that I have framed what multicultural planning encompasses).

Influence of multicultural planning on physical and spatial planning

Though spaces are physical, the effects these spaces have on users can both be physical and intangible. As planners, who are not urban designers, the onus is on us to be able to tease out the intangible as well, and not think of spaces as physical entities alone. Since places are integral to human existence, the attributes and qualities that distinguish places from one another need to be carefully thought out as well 21,22,23 . Places are relational constructions, and can have different meanings when experienced by different social, cultural and/or ethnic groups 24 .

'Grit' laneway murals reflect diversity of Toronto's neighbourhoods. Image via TO Times

There are some planners who acknowledge the fact that multiculturalism is transforming the environments (both urban and suburban) in which they function along with the assumptions (cultural and other) they once upheld. Despite the reluctance of some planners to accommodate for diverse ethnicities and cultures, and their insistence on basing their planning decisions on the technical/scientific qualities of the proposal, the dilemmas and complexities attributed to multiculturalism cannot be ignored from planning practice and policy 25 . As multicultural planners and designers, we ought to create meanings out of those places by invoking a sense of place. A multicultural approach to planning would need to acknowledge that the experiences and priorities of different cultural communities be taken into account when making decisions about the design and development of their spaces. Sandercock advocates for invoking a sensibility that caters to the emotional and political economies of cities; that is alert to the diverse publics of the city and the city senses of sound, smell, taste, touch and sight; and that is responsive to the desires of all its citizens and the physical infrastructure 26 .

Public Realm

Just as public spaces are heterogeneous and ambiguous, the concept of integration is also complex through discourses and/or practices followed within the realm of multiculturalism 27 . Like the aforementioned sentence suggests, these spaces can range from a community centre in a neighbourhood that holds programs for welcoming immigrant communities or a park where people gather around after work to a congregational place of worship that provides support (social and/or cultural) to diverse communities. Like de Certeau observed in Basu & Fielder’s article, these then become ‘polyvalent’ spaces that can take on many forms where the experience of integration is both fragmented and incremental; fragmented because of the different ways in which migrants navigate these very spaces, and incremental because of how they form networks of affiliations with the multiplicity of these places 28 . Mixed-life public spaces are inherently diverse, democratic and inclusive 29 .

These spaces can also be underutilized and vacant spaces that are not essentially planned spaces, where ‘empowering’ relationships can be formed through community building 30 . The terms of engagement or micropolitics of the public sphere (through everyday social contact and encounter) are crucial for overcoming and reconciling ethnic differences, as these are platforms for open dialogue that may not necessarily end in consensus 31 .

The dearth of information pertaining to the influence of multicultural planning on physical and spatial planning is evidenced by the findings from the conducted literature review discussed in the aforementioned written section. Most of the papers discuss planning for communities that are primarily identified by their marginalized/disenfranchised statuses alone and not by their cultural/ethnic identities.

Implications of multicultural planning interventions for equity and justice

As Galanakis observes, Toronto is a multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual city of striking contrasts, it also happens to be a city of socio-spatial polarization 32 . Multicultural planning interventions can have a number of implications for equity and justice. All the same, these interventions may also have the potential to create new forms of inequality and injustice through the reinforcement of power imbalances and the exclusion of certain groups. Discerning the actions committed by planners (sometimes complicit) in perpetuating racism is the need of the hour as there is no doubt that racial discrimination is systemic, and is tied to public policy even now 33 .

A Black Lives Matter protest held in Montreal in June, 2020. Image © Michael Passet , Shutterstock.com

Fincher introduces the idea of recognizing and supporting accessible spaces that encourage convivial interaction to be included in planning thought 38 . With respect to social planning aims, apart from planners only thinking about developing community that is realized as an attempt to help people foster long-term relationships and connections to a specific place, they can also be tasked with facilitating opportunities for conviviality that encourages autonomous, fleeting, often spontaneous encounters that may result in participants experiencing a special sense of belonging 39 . Even though a respect for difference may be generated from particular kinds of micro-public encounters, concerns regarding the scaling up of such encounters remain, considering that White majority prejudices are rooted in narratives around economic and cultural victimhood, wherein established certainties are being continuously eroded by unprecedented socioeconomic change 40 . Valentine proposes an urban politics that addresses inequalities of a real and perceived nature by identifying the need to unite seemingly disparate debates around prejudice and respect with questions regarding inequalities and power relations 41 .

Although the public realm is principally plural exhibiting the polyphonic nature of the community, it is contested because of the competing discourses that reflect political and historical power maintaining the status quo of a single hegemonic story of the ruling class 42 . Being heavily reliant on commonality rather than difference can conceal the inherent plurality of communities, where artwork and memorials commemorate European colonial history while the erasure of the histories and identities of Indigenous and other peoples (Black and other people of colour) occurs on a regular basis 43 .

The Chinatown neighbourhood after dark in Toronto. Image © José Ramírez , Unsplash.com

Ethnic enclaves are a spatial manifestation of cultural diversity on the ground 44 . All the same, the issues associated with the integration of ethnic enclaves within the diverse cultural urban fabric and the reconciliation of different ethno-cultural interests with the overarching goals of equitable development and fair housing remains to be confronted 45 . Zhuang discusses the (c)overt racism and discrimination, along with the conflicts that arise between immigrants and established community members, who perceive differences along racial, class and ethnic lines to be threats to the stability of the neighbourhood 46 .

The article suggests that the benefits of citizen participation do largely outweigh the cons, but only if done earnestly and with extreme caution. Planners are compelled to acknowledge the market forces that continually erode influence the democratic face of good governance. Within an inclusive participatory association, governance systems that are beyond-the-state may prove to be heavily networked and foundationally based on the interactive relationship between actors who share a high level of trust amidst internal conflict and opposing agendas, but their incorporation into (informal) grassroots civil activism can be precarious with respect to representation 47 .

An exhibit organized by the students of University of the Fraser Valley's Centre for Indo-Canadian studies to attain the vote for Indo-Canadians in 2017. Image via UFV Today

Conclusion: Towards devising a framework for multicultural planning

Based on a critical assessment of the relevant literature, multicultural planning requires active engagement with diverse cultural communities and the incorporation of their different perspectives and needs into the planning process, and also mandates addressing the issues of discrimination and inequality that can be propagated by inefficient planning practices. Since the values and norms upheld by the dominant culture are legislated in both the current frameworks of planning and in the practices of planners, they are not in alignment with the principles of multicultural planning, as has been elucidated in this article 48 .

Equity and justice narratives would need to be able to permeate equitable public policy and inclusive guidelines resulting in the creation of truly pluralistic, multicultural communities. As Sandercock has proposed, restructuring the planning system is absolutely critical - by reformulating legislation, challenging the same through a regulatory framework for its consistency with antidiscrimination and/or endorsed multicultural policies 49 . Municipal policymakers are yet to be fully informed of the challenges that immigrant communities are confronted with and the roles (direct and indirect) they play in moulding ethnic neighbourhoods 50 .

An important condition for planning to be genuinely multicultural is for the planning process to be able to evolve and transform by ensuring uniformity pertaining to the access to and the effective delivery of planning services to traditionally marginalized groups discriminated against by the planning process 51 .

1. Qadeer, M. A. (1997). Pluralistic Planning for Multicultural Cities: The Canadian Practice. Journal of the American Planning Association, 63 (4), 481-494.

2. Sandercock, L. (2000). Cities of (In)Difference and the Challenge for Planning. DisP - The Planning Review, 36 (140), 7-15.

3. Sandercock, L. (2009, January 01). From Nation to Neighbourhood: Integrating Immigrants through Community Development. Plan Canada, Special Edition , 06-09.

4. Qadeer, M. A. (2009). What is this thing called multicultural planning? Plan Canada: Special Edition: Welcoming Communities: Planning for Diverse Populations, 10-13.

5. Fincher, R. (2003). Planning for cities of diversity, difference and encounter. Australian Planner, 40 (1), 55-58.

6. Krumholz, N., & Forrester, J. (1990). Making Equity Planning Work: Leadership in the Public Sector . Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

7. Krumholz, N., & Hexter, K. W. (Eds.) (2018). Advancing Equity Planning Now . Cornell University Press.

8. Harvey, D. (1992). Social Justice, Postmodernism and the City. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 16 (4), 588-601.

9. Fainstein, S. S. (2000). New Directions in Planning Theory. Urban Affairs Review, 35 (4), 451-478.

10. Campbell, H. & Marshall, R. (2002). Utilitarianism’s Bad Breath? A Re-evaluation of the Public Interest Justification for Planning. Planning Theory, 1 (2), 163-187.

11. Qadeer, M. A. (2015). The Incorporation of Multicultural Ethos in Urban Planning. In M. A. Burayidi (Ed.), Cities and the Politics of Difference: Multiculturalism and Diversity in Urban Planning (pp. 58–86). University of Toronto Press.

12. Fainstein, S. S. (2005). Cities for diversity. Should we want it? Should we plan for it? Urban Affairs Review, 41 (1), 3-19.

13. Burayidi, M. A. (Ed.) (2000). Urban Planning in a Multicultural Society . Westport, CT: Praeger.

14. Umemoto, K., & Zamonelli, V. (2012). Cultural Diversity. In R. Crane & R. Weber (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Urban Planning (pp. 197-217). Oxford University Press.

15. Stokke, C., & Lybæk, L. (2018). Combining intercultural dialogue and critical multiculturalism. Ethnicities, 18 (1), 70-85.

16. Healey, P. (1999). Institutionalist analysis, communicative planning, and shaping places. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 19 (2), 111-121.

17. Campbell, H. & Marshall, R. (1999). Ethical Frameworks and Planning Theory. International Journal of Urban of Urban and Regional Research, 23 (3), 464-478.

18. Hoernig, H., & Walton-Roberts, M. (2009). Multicultural City. In R. Kitchin & N. Thrift (Eds.), International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography (pp. 201-210). Elsevier Science.

19. Dean, J., Regier, K., Patel, A., Wilson, K., & Ghassemi, E. (2018). Beyond the Cosmopolis: Sustaining Hyper-Diversity in the Suburbs of Peel Region, Ontario. Urban Planning, 3 (4), 38-49.

20. Perrone, C. (2011). What would a “DiverCity” be like? Speculation on Difference-sensitive Planning and Living Practices. In C. Perrone, G. Manella & L. Tripodi (Eds.), Everyday Life in the Segmented City (Vol. 11) (pp. 1-25). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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22. Lynch, K. (1984). Good City Form . Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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24. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1979). Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture . Rizzoli.

25. Wallace, M. (2000, July-September). Where Planning Meets Multiculturalism: A View of Planning Practice in the Greater Toronto Area. Plan Canada, 40 (4), 19-20.

26. Sandercock, L. (2004). Towards a Planning Imagination for the 21st Century. Journal of the American Planning Association, 70 (2), 133-141.

27. Basu, R., & Fiedler, R. S. (2017). Integrative multiplicity through suburban realities: exploring diversity through public spaces in Scarborough. Urban Geography, 38 (1), 25-46.

28. Basu, R., & Fiedler, R. S. (2017). Integrative multiplicity through suburban realities: exploring diversity through public spaces in Scarborough. Urban Geography, 38 (1), 25-46.

29. Lesan, & Gjerde, M. (2021). The role of business agglomerations in stimulating static and social activities in multicultural streets. Australian Planner , 57 (1), 65-84.

30. Amin, A. (2008). Collective culture and urban public space. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 12 (1), 5-24.

31. Amin, A. (2002). Ethnicity and the multicultural city: Living with diversity. Environment and Planning A, 34 , 959-980.

32. Galanakis, M. (2013). Intercultural Public Spaces in Multicultural Toronto. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 22 (1), 67-89.

33. Marcuse, P. (2012). Justice. In R. Crane, & R. Weber (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Urban Planning (pp.141-165). Oxford University Press.

34. Turok, I., Kearns, A., & Goodlad, R. (1999). Social exclusion: in what sense a planning problem ? Town Planning Review, 70 (3), 363-384.

35. Zhuang, Z. C. (2020). Cities of Migration: The Role of Municipal Planning in Immigrant Settlement and Integration. In International Affairs and Canadian Migration Policy (pp. 205-226). Springer International Publishing.

36. Zhuang, Z. C. (2020). Cities of Migration: The Role of Municipal Planning in Immigrant Settlement and Integration. In International Affairs and Canadian Migration Policy (pp. 205-226). Springer International Publishing.

37. Zhuang, Z. (2021). The Negotiation of Space and Rights: Suburban Planning with Diversity. Urban Planning, 6 (2), 113-126.

38. Fincher, R. (2003). Planning for cities of diversity, difference and encounter. Australian Planner, 40 (1), 55-58.

39. Fincher, R. (2003). Planning for cities of diversity, difference and encounter. Australian Planner, 40 (1), 55-58.

40. Valentine, G. (2008). Living with difference: Reflections on geographies of encounter. Progress in Human Geography, 32 (3), 323-337.

41. Valentine, G. (2008). Living with difference: Reflections on geographies of encounter. Progress in Human Geography, 32 (3), 323-337.

42. Toolis, E. E. (2017). Theorizing critical placemaking as a tool for reclaiming public space. American Journal of Community Psychology, 59 (1-2), 184-199.

43. Toolis, E. E. (2017). Theorizing critical placemaking as a tool for reclaiming public space. American Journal of Community Psychology, 59 (1-2), 184-199.

44. Qadeer, M. A. (2015). The Incorporation of Multicultural Ethos in Urban Planning. In M. A. Burayidi (Ed.), Cities and the Politics of Difference: Multiculturalism and Diversity in Urban Planning (pp. 58–86). University of Toronto Press.

45. Qadeer, M.A., & Agrawal, S. K. (2011). The Practice of Multicultural Planning in American and Canadian Cities. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 20 (1), 132-156.

46. Zhuang, Z. C. (2020). Cities of Migration: The Role of Municipal Planning in Immigrant Settlement and Integration. In International Affairs and Canadian Migration Policy (pp. 205-226). Springer International Publishing.

47. Swyngedouw, E. (2005). Governance Innovation and the Citizen: The Janus Face of Governance-beyond-the-State. Urban Studies, 42 (11), 1991-2006.

48. Sandercock, L. (2000). Cities of (In)Difference and the Challenge for Planning. DisP - The Planning Review, 36 (140), 7-15.

49. Sandercock, L. (2000). Cities of (In)Difference and the Challenge for Planning. DisP - The Planning Review, 36 (140), 7-15.

50. Wood, P. K., & Gilbert, L. (2005). Multiculturalism in Canada: Accidental Discourse, Alternative Vision, Urban Practice. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29 (3), 679-691.

51. Burayidi, M. A. (Ed.) (2015). Cities and the Politics of Difference: Multiculturalism and Diversity in Urban Planning . University of Toronto Press.

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Case Study: Toronto's Plan for Diversity, Inclusion and Urban Resilience

With recent waves of migration, Toronto city planners, the public and other community stakeholders are working together to build a city that is inclusive, equitable, meaningful and culturally distinguishable

• Jan 09, 2020

Toronto has been well recognised as one of the most multicultural cities in the world – even the city’s motto ‘Diversity Our Strength’ celebrates its multicultural diversity.

However according to Dr Zhixi Zhuang, an Associate Professor at Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning and a Registered Professional Planner in Ontario, an ethno-culturally diverse population does not necessarily lead to diverse, inclusive, and resilient communities.

Like many other cities around the world, Dr Zhuang writes that Toronto is facing “unprecedented challenges associated with its diverse and fast-changing demographics”.

In this Cities of Migration case study,  Dr Zhuang presents some key takeaways from Toronto’s planning practices as part of the Building Inclusive Cities initiative.

• Public art planning is a way to connect and engage community members, create common ground and build social bonds among stakeholders. An art mural on a building in Toronto’s St. James Town neighbourhood depicts a soaring phoenix painted in bright colours. It reflects the themes of diversity, accessibility, safety, happiness and local culture. Hundreds of community members helped paint it, and the process helped build a sense of community among residents.
• Build inclusive, culturally meaningful and inclusive shared public spaces – in Toronto, this includes R.V. Burgess Park in Thorncliffe Park, which has the first Canadian outdoor tandoori oven in a public park and has created a welcoming community environment for everyone.
• Create community spaces that are cultural hubs – Regent Park Aquatic Centre and Daniels Spectrum were designed with diversity and inclusion in mind and offer culturally sensitive programs that meet the needs of residents. For example, the pool in the Aquatic Centre is screened in on Saturday evenings to provide a safe space for Muslim women to swim.
• Focus on equity and inclusion-embedded planning policies and programs – to build inclusive cities, it is critical to develop planning policies, programs and professional training that are focused on equity and inclusion to guide urban growth and change. Toronto’s Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) 2020 is an action plan that seeks to activate people, resources and neighbourhood friendly policies.

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Strategies for Achieving Diversity in Urban Planning: A Case Study at the University of Illinois

2010, Implementing Diversity

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When people go to a medical facility for help, they expect the doctor to make appropriate health decisions for their optimal health and outcome.

Doctors and other health care providers are increasingly using healthcare algorithms (a computation, often based on statistical or mathematical models, that helps medical practitioners make diagnoses and decisions for treatments) and  artificial intelligence (AI) , to diagnose patient illnesses, suggest treatments, predict health risks, and more. In some cases, this is fine. However, using healthcare algorithms and AI can sometimes worsen things for people from certain ethnic or racial groups. This is because algorithms and AI are based on data from one set of the population that may not work well for others.

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Healthcare algorithms and AI bias can contribute to existing health disparities for certain populations based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, or other demographic factors.

One reason for healthcare algorithm and AI bias is the lack of diversity in the data used to train computer programs. It is important to use data from patients with diverse demographic factors when creating AI computer programs to ensure the algorithm works well for everyone.

Another way bias can enter healthcare algorithms and AI is through the assumptions made by the people who create them. For example, if developers assume that some symptoms are more common in non-Hispanic White women than in Black/African American women. This can lead to algorithms producing unfair or inaccurate results for Black/African American women with those symptoms.

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If a woman has had a cesarean delivery, also known as a C-section, there is a chance that a subsequent delivery can be attempted through a vaginal birth, which is known as Vaginal Birth after Cesarean Delivery or VBAC. However, there are known risks associated with attempting VBAC, such as uterine rupture or other complications.In 2007, the VBAC algorithm was designed to help healthcare providers assess the likelihood of safely giving birth through vaginal delivery. The algorithm considers many things, such as the woman's age, the reason for the previous C-section, and how long ago it happened. However, in 2017, in a study by Vyas, et al., researchers found the original algorithm was not correct. It predicted that Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino women were less likely to have a successful vaginal birth after a C-section than non-Hispanic White women. This caused doctors to perform more C-sections on Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino women than on White women.

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There are best practices that healthcare data scientists and developers can incorporate to address the challenges of using algorithms and AI. These include:

• Have a more diverse body of people review and supervise the algorithms and AI.
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The Office of Minority Health (OMH) is focused on helping to reduce differences in health outcomes, known as health disparities, for racial and ethnic minority populations and American Indian and Alaska Native communities. By encouraging equity in the lifecycle of algorithms and AI, OMH and other federal agencies aim to lower the risk of bias and improve healthcare outcomes for everyone.

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Harris, L. A. (2021). Artificial Intelligence: Background, Selected Issues, and Policy Considerations. Congressional Research Service.  https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46795

Huang, J., Galal, G., Etemadi, M., & Vaidyanathan, M. (2022). Evaluation and Mitigation of Racial Bias in Clinical Machine Learning Models: Scoping Review. JMIR Medical Informatics, 10(5), e36388. Free PMC article:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc9198828/

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• Homework Questions

CASE 6 DIVERSITY CLIMATE

Autodesk University 2024: Call for Construction Session Proposals 

Autodesk University 2024, a top construction industry event, comes to San Diego on October 15-17. The event promises to bring even more value and insight this year, and we want you to be a part of it!   

Our call for proposals is now open, and you can share your expertise, ideas, and insights by submitting to be one of our construction session speakers.  

You can apply to join this dynamic group of experts and thought leaders by leading your very own session. Submit your proposal between April 2-30, to be considered as an Autodesk University 2024 speaker. But don’t wait – we suggest you submit your proposal as early as possible.  

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

Read on for more details about Autodesk University 2024 and our call for construction proposals to find out how you can become a speaker at this year’s event.  

What Is Autodesk University?  

Autodesk University 2024 is a global event that will offer exciting keynotes, interactive workshops, and valuable learning sessions from some of the industry’s leading innovators.   

Professionals in the construction, design, manufacturing, media, and engineering fields attend Autodesk University each year to connect, trade knowledge, and explore the technologies shaping these converging industries and the world. Each year, the conference explores themes relating to the future of the construction industry and provides excellent educational, professional development, and networking opportunities to attendees.  

We’re excited to once again offer a hybrid experience for attendees with opportunities for in-person as well as virtual attendees.   

What Topics and Themes Will Be Prioritized at AU 2024?  

Show us how your work is reimagining what’s possible in the construction industry and how you use technology in new ways. We want to see proposals from projects of all sizes and from all sides of the industry, including owners, general contractors, and specialty contractors, as well as across segments from infrastructure to education.   

We want to hear from you if you’re leveraging solutions within  Autodesk Construction Cloud,  whether that be  Autodesk Takeoff for quantification,  Autodesk BIM Collaborate for coordination, or  Autodesk Build for project management, cost management, quality, and field collaboration. We’d also love to learn how you are utilizing  BuildingConnected for bid and risk management,  Pype for workflows like submittals and closeout,  ProEst for estimating, Bridge for data federation, Payapps for payment management, and Autodesk Construction Cloud ( ACC Connect ) to help connect to other applications such as your ERP system.   

We have opportunities for different types of talks: 

We’re looking for you to share your why. Why are you using these technologies and the benefits it brings, your use of data and insights, the changing landscape of construction, and why you want to be ahead of the curve.

This provides the chance to share your opinions about the industry, alternative ways of thinking about challenges like sustainability, skills, diversity and inclusion, procurement, legal issues, and technology trends that the industry should be aware of.  

Industry Talks  

We’re looking for you to share your why. Why are you using these technologies and the benefits it brings, your use of data and insights, the changing landscape of construction, and why you want to be ahead of the curve. 

This provides the chance to share your opinions about the industry, alternative ways of thinking about challenges like sustainability, skills, diversity and inclusion, procurement, legal issues, and technology trends that the industry should be aware of.  

Technical Instruction  

This is the how. We’re looking for everything from introductions to products and workflows right up to advanced tips, tricks, and best practices for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. We want to see how you use the products in real life and meet the demands of your projects. We want to hear about the full range of use cases for Autodesk Construction Cloud, introductions to Bridge, deep dives on Cost Management, your top tips for winning bids with Bid Board Pro, and your safety workflows and processes in Build.  

Case studies  

We want to hear about how Autodesk Construction Cloud has supported you to build anything from simple and small to large and complex projects and your broader portfolio. We want to hear from general contractors, subcontractors, and owners on your experiences, good, bad, and everything in between with the outcomes you achieved. 

Here you can share your adoption story on how you scaled technology on a project or across your organization. You can talk about the transition from technologies like BIM 360 and PlanGrid to Autodesk Construction Cloud and why you did it. Show how a common data environment (CDE) changed how stakeholders work together, and how you are adopting industrialized construction methodologies.  

Product Demos  

These sessions are an opportunity to show how products can work for you. Typically, we see employees, partners, and sponsors presenting these, but there are lots of opportunities for you to show how you demonstrate the products to your internal and project teams.  

Panels  

We always look for a diverse mix of panels at Autodesk University, covering everything from BIM standards to equity in the workplace, and how different parties can and should work together on a project. 

Think about who your potential panelists might be and what topics they may discuss. We know construction is a collaborative industry with a lot of conflict. Think about how you can bring some of these differing opinions into your subject matter    

Looking for Inspiration for your Proposal? 

Take a look at previously accepted sessions for inspiration and ideas on what makes a good class. You can still find these sessions, keynotes, and all previous year’s sessions on the Autodesk University Construction homepage .  

You can also see sample proposals here .   

How to Submit a Proposal  

Submit your proposal via the AU 2024 proposals page . You’ll need an Autodesk ID to sign in. If you don’t already have an Autodesk ID, you’ll be prompted to create one. We recommend drafting your ideas offline using the Proposal Worksheet and viewing sample proposals, both available on this page, prior to submitting. Do not submit test proposals.  

What Happens Next?  

Proposals go through an extensive review process by industry experts and your peers. We consider how well proposals align with the specified topics and themes, industry trends and best practices, the holistic AU experience, AU community feedback, and how content will support year-round learning initiatives globally. Improve your chances of getting accepted by sharing your proposal for others to recommend for inclusion. Each proposal will have a unique URL to share with your social networks.  

Have Questions About AU 2024 Proposals?   

Want to learn more about how to get your AU 2024 proposal accepted or specific details on the selection process? We have pulled together a must-read Proposal Guide to help you through the process.   

Submit Your Proposal Today!  

Submit your Autodesk University 2024 construction session proposal by April 30. Remember, the earlier you submit, the better. We can’t wait to hear from you! 

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