WHAT IS SOCIAL DIVERSITY? - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

The social diversity is a concept that defines and encompasses the variety of different features and the like that are shared between all human beings, both personal and group level. A country is said to be socially diverse when its inhabitants or residents have different physical and cultural characteristics.

It is the range or extent in which a community manages to fairly and successfully integrate the largest number of groups of individuals with different traits and particularities, where all enjoy the same rights and exercise the same duties.

The dimensions in which the human race exhibits its individual or collective differences are more and more; a fact that makes this issue both controversial and trending, because currently societies around the world are re-shaping themselves based on this.

With countries becoming more diverse, ideas and understanding of social diversity continue to evolve and expand, driven by the access that everyone has to interact with more people around the world through digital media.

Mostly it talks about differences of gender, race, ethnicity, age, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, language, sexual orientation, sexual identity, culture, geographical origin, disabilities, among others.

But it has been extended to include in these subjects the different types of knowledge, antecedents, experience, interests, occupation, profession and even in aspects of personality. All with a view to a society that is as inclusive and functional as possible.

Social diversity: the same or different?

Humans are as similar as they are diverse. Therefore, it has not been easy to decide among all these dimensions which are the most determining or valuable for conducting empirical studies; especially among geneticists and social scientists.

However, the media and political environments currently use many standards, discursive terminologies and propositions accepted by the international community and by Human Rights Associations.

The definition is one of them, which in social contexts will always be linked to certain concepts that are fundamentally opposite, such as equality, equity, variety and differences.

There are numerous and controversial debates about the human nature of an individual identifying himself differently from others and demanding respect for / for his differences, but at the same time identifying himself as equal to another (or member of a particular group) and subsequently demanding to be treated as everyone else.

In this particular, there are many discussions directed at the ethical, moral and legal difficulties of achieving the goal of true global social equality, when all the members are so different and each time they defend their differences with more force.

Better approaches have been achieved to deal with these issues, coining concepts such as “equal opportunities”, “social conscience” and “social responsibility”, which better protect and defend diversity, but also reinforce the rights and duties of all by same.

In this way it seeks to work to reduce the distrust that social minorities have in systems and institutions, such as laws, education and justice.

At the same time, it makes them aware of the individual responsibilities of their decisions as members of a society.

Dimensions in social diversity

There are many obvious and visible dimensions in which the human is diverse: height, weight, age, hair, color, among others.

But in the world of social relationships and people's self-concepts, the dimensions that are most handled - and in which people most reflect or identify themselves - are race and, particularly, sex.

From a human communicative platform, analyzes and studies on the dimensions of social diversity focus on people's self-concepts, their own perception and the world and expectations.

The levels at which these three human communicative approaches are developed are explained below.

- Intrapersonal dimension

Self-concepts are the basis for intrapersonal communication, because it determines how a person sees himself and how he orients himself towards others. Also called self-awareness or self-awareness, it involves beliefs, values, and attitudes.

The beliefs are basic personal orientation toward what is true or false, good or bad. They can be descriptive or prescriptive.

The values are guidelines and ideals deep - seated in people. They are generally consistent and based on right or wrong beliefs, ideas and actions.

The attitudes are learned predispositions for or against a particular issue. They are generally consistently rooted in values, and tend to be global and typically emotional.

Beliefs, values, and attitudes influence behavior, which functions as a mode of communication for all ideas within the person. It can manifest itself as an opinion (spoken or written) or with a physical action.

Some psychologists include the physical image, since it also communicates how the person perceives himself, positively or negatively, depending on the social standards of the culture.

Self-concepts are also influenced by personal attributes, talents, social role, including the order at birth.

The perception of the world is also based on beliefs, values ​​and attitudes. Internal and external perception are so interrelated that they feed each other, creating a harmonious and constant understanding of being and environment.

- Interpersonal dimension

The way relationships develop between one person to another is the focus of interpersonal communication, and everything starts from the family nucleus.

Long and close relationships between family members are based on sharing similar values, beliefs, and rituals.

This varies between spouses, parents and children, between siblings and between the wide range of relationships with the rest of the family, which lately shows the first platform of diverse thoughts and lifestyles harmoniously relating.

Then communication circles are expanded in educational institutions and organizations, where close personal or work relationships are established (between friends, colleagues, between employee and employer).

Additionally, some social scholars include impersonal communication, based on the quality of the relationship.

This involves short exchanges with a store clerk, a neighbor in the elevator, a waiter, among others. Everything is building a diversity of patterns of acceptance and social expectation.

- Cultural and inter-cultural dimension

Social norms are the guides (or limits) of the relationships between people and groups in a society. They are the rules that groups establish for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.

They can be implicit or explicit. They indicate how it is accepted to do things, dress, speak, etc. This varies over time, between different age groups, between social classes, and between social groups.

The great range of diversity of attitudes and behaviors from one culture to another indicates the product extension of its own cultural norms.

Social behavior works best when everyone knows what is accepted and expected by the other.

Norms can restrict and control people, but they also lubricate the social machinery towards harmony of the parts.

Here, conscience and social responsibility play a very important role, from which concepts such as respect, acceptance and tolerance derive.

References

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6. Office of Multicultural Affairs. Diversity and Social Justice - A glossary of working definitions (Online document). University of Massachusetts Lowel. Recovered from uml.edu.