Beyond Confessional Cultures: Identity and the Role of Silence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Interventions

Abstract

Data Availability Statement: Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.This paper interrogates the confessional foundations of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work, which have emerged predominantly from Global North traditions rooted in Christian understandings of subjectivity. In such traditions, identity is asserted through self-declaration, visibility, and vocal articulation of difference, what we term a confessional culture. Drawing on Foucauldian critiques, we explore how this imperative to “confess” produces an extreme form of subjectivity that is paradoxically both overexposed and untrue to itself. In contrast, Global South contexts, particularly those shaped by Islamic epistemologies, offer alternative modalities of identity work rooted in subtlety, silence, and communal ethics. Here, the good is practiced rather than pronounced, and self-description can be experienced as disrespectful or even transgressive. By juxtaposing these divergent cultural logics, the paper challenges the universality of DEI frameworks that prioritize self-expression and visibility. It argues for the need to reimagine DEI practices that are attuned to silent negotiations of identity, relational forms of recognition, and implicit pathways to social change. In doing so, the paper offers a deeper, more culturally pluralistic understanding of co-existence, belonging, equity and inclusion beyond the confessional paradigm.This research was supported by a grant from the Carlsberg Foundation (Grant No. CF23-1184)