A Bourdieusian Exploration of Ethnic Inequalities at Work: The Case of the Nigerian Banking Sector

Chidozie Umeh, Nelarine Cornelius and James Wallace
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Chidozie Umeh: University of York, UK
Nelarine Cornelius: Queen Mary University of London, UK
James Wallace: University of Hertfordshire, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2024, vol. 38, issue 4, 885-910

Abstract: This article draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s critical sociology to explore the socio-political processes through which social resources or capital are sought and ethnic inequalities negotiated, legitimated and enforced in a postcolonial work context. Applying Bourdieusian analysis to data from interviews and vignettes in the Nigerian banking sector, the constructs ‘ethnicised identity’ and ‘symbolic identity’ are developed to show how employees across ethnic divides and work hierarchies use symbolic ethnic markers to negotiate benefits and enforce control as a status-independent capital. Realising diversity management goals in multiethnic workplaces may, therefore, require refocusing initiatives from racial to ethnic inequalities and, consequently, from inter-group inequalities (ethnic membership) to intra-group discriminations (ethnic affiliation). This research suggests that a more nuanced, contextually sensitive perspective is necessary to address workplace inequalities linked to ethnic diversity in organisations with indigenous multiethnicities.

Keywords: Bourdieu; diversity management; ethnicised identity; inequality; Nigeria; status; symbolic identity; work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:4:p:885-910

DOI: 10.1177/09500170231173604

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