(Re-)framing diversity in discourse: impact of recent social movements on corporate communication

This paper presents the findings of a study of the linguistic and discursive construction of a key concept in the field of corporate management and communication, namely diversity. On the basis of two comparable corpora of mostly CSR reports published in 2020 and 2015, the analysis is intended to shed light on the main discursive strategies adopted by a sample of American, British and Japanese companies to promote diversity before and after the recent wave of social movements (such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo). The quantitative and qualitative investigation of the phraseology of a selection of keywords, obtained by comparing the 2020 reports with the 2015 disclosures, points to increasing attention being paid to protection against racism and other forms of discrimination, and a more comprehensive approach to diversity that embraces equality, equity and inclusion.