'Race', employment and equal opportunities: towards a political economy and an agenda for the 1990s1

This paper attempts to provide a broad overview of the recent history of equal opportunities, particularly of work-place policies and programmes directed towards ethnic minorities. It identifies three main stages in the recent history of equal opportunities at the work-place and seeks to connect these with an analysis of the economic arrangements and dominant political philosophies characteristic of each phase. The paper concludes by noting that there is currently a widespread view that equal opportunities policies represents a happy coincidence of principle and expediency for firms in the 1990s. It suggests that whilst a number of trends with the potential to realise this promise can be discerned, other outcomes are possible. Writing in mid-1992, it remains to be seen whether the new rhetoric of citizenship and business efficiency can secure both the continuing commitment of those with the power to make changes and the enduring support of the disadvantaged.