The Theory and Practice of Equal Opportunities Policies: Liberal and Radical Approaches

This paper explores the conceptual confusions characteristic of the practice of equal opportunities policies the workplace. The differences between ‘liberal’ and ‘radical’ approaches to policy making are identified and described. It is argued that, while these are conceptually distiner from one another, in practice they are routinely confused and conflated. In particular the preferred procedures of the liberal approach are widely assumed to result in the preferred outcomes of the radical approach. It is suggested that these confusions are not merely the product of intellectual error but arise from misunderstandings and deceptions generated in the struggle for power between participants in the work process.