Called Upon or Stumbled Upon? A Careers Perspective on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Work in UK Higher Education

Social scientists are showing increasing interest in workers engaged in social change work and related organizational roles. While the sociological literature on occupational activism as well as scholarship on organizational change agents have provided insights into this work, the career pathways employes take to these roles are rarely the explicit focus of this research, prompting the following research question: how do workers enter socially conscious jobs, and with what consequences? I address this question by drawing on qualitative interviews of professionals working in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) roles across universities in the United Kingdom. My analysis finds three divergent pathways to EDI roles: the activist, the administrative, and the hybrid pathway. These different occupational pathways are further related to varied occupational rhetorics, workplace challenges, and career outlooks. My research contributes to scholarship on occupational activism, the literature on social change within organizations, and the sociology of EDI.