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Praxis is from the ancient Greek meaning practice informed by theory. Praxis is the configuration of social practices in which human action unfolds and simultaneously is understood. Praxis and practice are similar, yet the connotation of theory informing practice, the collaborative dialectic, is missing from the mere term practice. Praxis highlights the communal character of human existence, where the skills, habits, customs, public functions, and narratives provide the context of intelligibility for unique individual action. In words and in our thought, of our sense-of-self and of others, we are action oriented toward the good life (e.g. social justice) and to a unique way of being-in-the-world with others. When we view diversity as identities-in-relations, we are highlighting the primacy of relationships, we are saying the self is embodied and is the center of action. The body, the unique self, is the site of tasks to be performed and projects to be carried through. Those projects of the self are in constant negotiation and dialogue with our surroundings, with others and with institutions, including institutional narratives. Those projects are the projects of emancipation.
Emancipation is to free the individual from all forms of discrimination, oppression and domination, including language. Discourses are the language games we use to speak about ourselves and about forms of knowledge such as professional disciplines. It is the "me" of a narrative communicating meaning about my self-identity to others within the context of societal narratives. Narratives provide the ongoing context that embeds my discourse about myself, the reference point and horizon of possible meanings that are used in discourses. The work of emancipation, then, is simultaneously the work of building a counter narrative about my identities (such as race, religion, gender, sexuality, etc) as it reinvents discourse, develops new syntheses, and creates networks of solidarity with others who recognize themselves in the narrative. Emancipation not only eliminates barriers to employment, self-esteem, civic participation, and citizenship privileges, but it also reinvents language. It empowers by demanding the right to be different and fundamentally changing the ways in which the definition of identity (hence the me) is understood. Discourses and narratives are reworked to include diversity, multiplicity, hybridity and identities in relations instead of the language of bipolar superiority - inferiority or totality - particularity.
For The Global Diversity Institute, the work of diversity and multiculturalism is praxis oriented toward emancipation. We are not just theory driven or tools and techniques driven. Moving from a theoretical to a praxial orientation is like moving from antecedent rule-governed criteria to context-informed criteria, or moving from making choices by waiting for a theory to swoop down on you to making choices that are fully ensconced in the everyday communicative practices where life's decisions take place. Hence, our praxis is centered on emancipating the individual within the social workplace-environment by facilitating the emergence of ethical pluralism in workplace vitality. Ours is a humanist endeavor to free the individual towards empowered creative engagement and away from domination.
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