Centre for Equality and Diversity

Directors: and Professor Bill Hughes

The Centre for Equality and Diversity has been used as a vehicle by Sociologists and others in the School of Law and Social Sciences since 2003 to make bids for external income and to bring together academic interests in social divisions (class, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, age, religion, national identity) equal opportunities and diversity.

The centre is concerned with socially embedded forms of social inequality and the impact that these have on life chances and lifestyles, on access to socially desirable resources and on the production of shared social identities.

In addition, members of the Centre take the view that social difference and diversity should be celebrated. We believe that forms of discrimination and exclusion that close down opportunities, restrict life chances and perpetuate social inequality should be challenged as they are not commensurate with social justice and inhibit social progress.

Selected Recent Funded Research Projects

DFID: Narratives of Gender: Law, Rhetoric and Reality: Gender and Development in Post- Conflict Rwanda

European Equal Programme: Positive Action for Black and Ethnic Minorities in Employment

European Genderwise Programme: The Business Case for Gender Equality in Employment in Scotland

EU 6th Framework: Social Quality and the Changing Relationship between Work, Care and Welfare in Europe

INTAS: Childhood and Youth Transitions in a Transforming Society: The Case of Moldova

Strathclyde Police and Lothian and Borders Police: Researching 3rd Generation Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in Scotland