UBC-DIBS Behavioural Insights Seminar
Friday, May 9, *10-11am PT*
Note: This seminar is in the morning, rather than our usual afternoon time slot.
Register to attend on Zoom at https://bit.ly/DIBS2425.
When Diversification Policies Reify the Status Quo:
Indigenous Identity Fraud as Institutional Maintenance
Jennifer Rokaya Sedgewick
York University
Amid pressures for institutions to address inequities toward Indigenous Peoples in Canada, organizations have increasingly implemented diversification initiatives designated for Indigenous applicants. Examples of these efforts include the creation of opportunities (e.g., cluster hiring, quotas for government contracts with Indigenous businesses), resources (e.g., scholarships, funding for entrepreneurs), and accolades (e.g., prestigious awards and honours) intended to support Indigenous workers, students, and entrepreneurs. However, organizations’ reliance on self-identification for applicants accessing these initiatives has resulted in their exploitation through Indigenous identity fraud—the act of individuals with no ancestral or contemporary connection to their proclaimed Indigenous community who appropriate Indigeneity for personal, professional, or economic gain. In this presentation, I illustrate how “Indigeneity fraud” effectively enacts “institutional maintenance” within organizations, society, and business scholarship; that is, it reinforces the settler colonial status quo embedded in these domains. Informed by the recent development of Indigenous affirmation policies in higher education, I also outline managerial recommendations for how organizations can move beyond self-identification to uphold the integrity and overarching objectives of Indigenous-specific initiatives. By illuminating the insidious harms of Indigeneity fraud, this may galvanize organizations and business academia to confront this social problem that they are implicated in incentivizing.
The UBC-DIBS Behavioural Insights Seminar series features researchers and practitioners sharing their field and lab projects using the behavioural and decision sciences to “nudge for good”. Recordings of past seminars are available on the BI wiki here. To subscribe or unsubscribe, email dibs@sauder.ubc.ca.