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This thesis adopts the methodology of systems theory to examine the limits of anti-discrimination law. The sociology of Niklas Luhmann, alongside extensions provided by Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, is applied to construct a versatile re-description of anti-discrimination law. This is an innovative approach because it articulates the social basis for discrimination alongside a legal picture of anti-discrimination within the same theoretical framework. By considering each side of this discrimination/anti-discrimination equation the capacity of law to address discrimination is put into question. The difficulty of providing a philosophically sound explanation for discrimination involves a legitimate academic question, but it also indicates its limitation. This thesis argues that this difficultly reflects a genuine divergence between the social meaning of discrimination and the ability of moral philosophy to comprehend this phenomenon. Racism is analyzed as a confluence of moral, artistic, and mass mediated communications; it is communicated through inconsistency and complex repetition. This confluence is described by tracing societal differentiations and self-descriptions, as developed by Luhmann, with an emphasis on the history of manners as a precursor to modern racism. The legal picture of anti-discrimination presented here is divided into argumentation and decision. Firstly, the description of direct and indirect discrimination in terms of justice is questioned through an examination of argumentative limits, with legal liability being re-interpreted in the light of how concepts and interests inform argumentation. Secondly, the validity of a decision is analyzed as a separate problem for anti-discrimination law. The jurisprudence of the positivist Joseph Raz is criticized from the perspective of a Luhmannian theorization of law as symbolically valid decisions. This thesis constructs an explanatory framework that redraws the limitations of anti-discrimination law by revealing [1] how racism is a protean social phenomenon, and [2] that separation of the legal understanding of anti-discrimination law into discrete streams exposes the concrete limitations available for engaging issues of justiciability.

This dissertation proposes a multi-level explanatory framework that strengthens explanations of variation in European Union member states’ compliance with the Anti-Discrimination Directives, and offers novel approaches to testing relationships between key constructs situated at multiple levels of analysis. The framework entails three different yet inter-related levels: system structure, organizational design of public agencies, and the attitudinal and behavioral attributes of civil servants. The theoretical model, proposed in this dissertation, conceptualizes compliance from an integrative approach, and also enables more accurate explanations of the role of information in modifying compliance behavior. This dissertation relies on a multi-method empirical approach, and a combination of secondary and primary sources (i.e. surveys, interviews, observations, and primary documents) to provide answers to the research questions raised in this dissertation.

This dissertation proposes a multi-level explanatory framework that strengthens explanations of variation in European Union member states’ compliance with the Anti-Discrimination Directives, and offers novel approaches to testing relationships between key constructs situated at multiple levels of analysis. The framework entails three different yet inter-related levels: system structure, organizational design of public agencies, and the attitudinal and behavioral attributes of civil servants. The theoretical model, proposed in this dissertation, conceptualizes compliance from an integrative approach, and also enables more accurate explanations of the role of information in modifying compliance behavior. This dissertation relies on a multi-method empirical approach, and a combination of secondary and primary sources (i.e. surveys, interviews, observations, and primary documents) to provide answers to the research questions raised in this dissertation.

Legislation and litigation aimed at ending discrimination against transgender people has been both critiqued as eliding the structural roots of discrimination and celebrated as an important visibility project that helps to highlight the struggles trans people face. Approaching law as an ongoing interaction where meaning unfolds, I investigate what is being made visible through transgender anti-discrimination law and how it might variously impact trans and gender justice movements in the future. I analyze three different articulations of transgender anti-discrimination law, attending to the rhetorical configurations of sex, identity, and discrimination that emerge in them and the political and ethical implications of those configurations. Ultimately, I argue that this rhetorical mapping complicates how we understand identity to function within anti-discrimination law and, more importantly, that it highlights the ethical possibilities that lurk beneath simple understandings of anti-discrimination law. / Ph. D.

This thesis is based on a qualitative research made on a public university in La Paz, Bolivia. The aim was to examine the beliefs and perceptions of the employees regarding the ethnic anti discrimination work at the university. As the Bolivian anti discrimination law and the constitution of 2009 has been made to improve the rights for the indigenous groups in Bolivia,we also wanted to hear if the laws have been implemented in their daily work.Seven interviews were done with the help of an interpreter, and a mix of goal oriented and snowball selection was used. Through the interviews, we found out that the ethnic anti discrimination work at the university is almost non-existing. It also showed that not much has been done to follow the law and the reforms of the constitution. This can be seen as nonperformative.Even though there are regulations about discrimination, the university is not actively working on the implementation of them. The opinion if an anti discrimination work was needed varied among the employees, as some respondents said that discrimination did not even exist at their faculty. To improve the ethnic anti discrimination work many of the respondents pointed on the need of a change in the culture. One important discussion has been about the lack of communication, information and education. These facts together with the change of culture can be seen as the most important factors to make progressions within the ethnic anti discrimination work at the university.

<p>The European Union is the Community made on bases of multiculturalism, diversity and</p><p>equality between Members and its citizens. From the very beginning of being social actor, the European Union has wanted to fight with discrimination. In the July 2008 the Council Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation was announced. This essay is about the problem of discrimination on the ground of ethnic origin, disability and sexual orientation in</p><p>the European Union. According to the Eurobarometer survey these types of discrimination are the most spread within the European Society. With help of this survey I set a hypothesis and I tested it. The question was if the “Old” Member States are more successful with the fight with the problem that “New” Member States. There are acts of law considering and protecting</p><p>citizens against discrimination. Most of the regulations include the unequal treatment in</p><p>employment, is why I wanted to make researches about the same problem outside the</p><p>employment. I checked what kind of minorities protection exist in legal framework of the EU and I concluded that the New Directive Proposal is actually answer for their problems and in the same time legislation changes are not enough.</p>

The European Union is the Community made on bases of multiculturalism, diversity and equality between Members and its citizens. From the very beginning of being social actor, the European Union has wanted to fight with discrimination. In the July 2008 the Council Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation was announced. This essay is about the problem of discrimination on the ground of ethnic origin, disability and sexual orientation in the European Union. According to the Eurobarometer survey these types of discrimination are the most spread within the European Society. With help of this survey I set a hypothesis and I tested it. The question was if the “Old” Member States are more successful with the fight with the problem that “New” Member States. There are acts of law considering and protecting citizens against discrimination. Most of the regulations include the unequal treatment in employment, is why I wanted to make researches about the same problem outside the employment. I checked what kind of minorities protection exist in legal framework of the EU and I concluded that the New Directive Proposal is actually answer for their problems and in the same time legislation changes are not enough.

The aim of this study is to examine whether, and to what extent, the differences in wages between women and men can be explained by discrimination against women in the labour market.The first part of the analysis is a cross-sectional analysis. Firstly, a model is estimated with wages as the dependent variable and with sex, individuals' qualifications, personal characteristics, occupation and the branch of industry in which they are employed as the independent variables. The results of this regression reveal that the hourly wage for a woman is about nine SEK lower than for a man. Separate wage functions for women and men show that women obtain a lower return from both education and work experience. A breakdown of the difference in wages reveals that most of the dissimilarity is explained by discrimination against women and very little by differences in men's and women's productivity. In the absence of discrimination, women's relative pay would be between 16 and 25 percent higher. The stability of the findings is checked by means of reverse regression. This resulted in discrimination against men in some cases and against women in others. Thus, different conclusions can be drawn from the two methods. In certain special cases the results produced by reverse regression are correct, whereas, in more general cases, the direct method shows itself to be more satisfactory. The study ends with an analysis of the effects of various laws and agreements on the development of women's wages and employment in Swedish industry. The introduction of equal pay, the removal of the ban on night work for women in industry and the wage solidarity policy have had a positive influence on the relative demand for women workers. The study's conclusions are, firstly, that the differences in pay between the sexes can partly be explained by discrimination against women. Secondly, within industry, wage discrimination against women has declined as a result of changes leading in an anti-discrimination direction. / digitalisering@umu

Developing equitable practices that provide fair access for all individuals to the benefits and burdens within an organisation remains a dilemma for management both in policy and practice. Research continues to show that the employment status and representation of women is significantly less in relation to those of men. Conflicting arguments on the causes of disparity and competing ideals on the value and means for addressing the disparity have resulted in a number of different opinions on the implementation and practice of equity management. This dissertation contributes to the current knowledge of equity management, exploring contemporary equity management strategies, identifying the approaches of its implementation and analysing these against the outcomes for the status of women's employment. The equity management practices of more that 1900 Australian Private Sector organisations are explored in order to identify the common themes of equity management. Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factory Analysis are used to analyse the data. A model of strategic equity management practice was developed that identifies different structures, strategies and distribution principles designed to address the disparity between men and women. A major aim of this thesis was to explore the ability of a typological theory of equity management approaches to account for the differences in the status of women's employment. The thesis proposes a typology of equity management approaches that explain the implementation of equity management strategies based on structure and process. Four ideal-typical equity management approaches to achieving workplace parity are identified and explored. The traditional (non-compliance), anti-discrimination, affirmative action and gender diversity approaches proposed inform the a priori Cluster Analysis process that grouped Australian organisations based on their use of the approaches to equity management. Significant numbers of Australian organisations were identified utilising each of the identified approaches to equity management. It was further proposed that the different equity management approaches would be predictors of different outcomes for the employment status of women. MANCOVA was used to analyse the equity management approaches (as the independent variables) and the data on the status of women's employment (as the dependent variables). The findings indicate that the different approaches to equity management are predictors of different outcomes for the employment status of women. Results show that the traditional approach to equity management, which includes the use of none of the equity management strategies identified, is not a predictor of increases in any of the employment measures of women. The anti-discrimination approach, which includes the use of a limited number of equity management strategies identified, is a predictor of increases in some of the employment measures of women. The affirmative action approach to equity management, which includes the use of a number of proactive equity management strategies identified, is a predictor of increases in the employment status of women across a number of measures. The gender diversity approach to equity management, which includes the use of all the equity management strategies identified, is a limited predictor of increases in the employment status of women across some of the measures of employment. Managing the equity process within organisations is increasingly identified as an important tool in managing human resources in competitive, global environments that require productive workers and quality outputs. If equity management is to provide an effective means of addressing disparity between men and women in organisations, this thesis argues for the development of a strategic process to address the specific issues of disparity and the particular needs of the individual and the explicit goals of the organisation in equal opportunity.