Marjolein Dennissen

89 Diversity killjoys? (Nicolini, Gherardi & Yanow, 2003). From these studies I learn that processes of networking are political processes: they reproduce and constitute power in interaction in everyday organizational life and make an important contribution to the perpetuation of inequalities in organizations (Benschop, 2009; Janssens & Steyaert, 2019). With its focus on the actual sayings and doings of people, a practice approach accounts for what is tacit, normative, familiar and taken for granted (Nicolini, 2012), and helps to gain better insights in the dynamics that shape, (re)produce or counter inequalities in organizations. In this study on diversity networks, I am particularly interested in the specific networking practices that occur in diversity networks, and how they as collective network for equality in organizations. Theorizing diversity networking practices Overall, I observe that the diversity network literature hitherto does not look at the real-time doings and sayings of diversity networks in organizations. Thus far, little is known about how diversity networks collectively come to action. Previous studies predominantly focus on the networking practices of individual actors, and how they as individual agents (re)produce or challenge organizational structures. Collective networking practices and how the networking practices of collective agents contribute to equality in organizations remains understudied. To fill this gap and to better understand the processes of collective action in organizations, I take a practice- based approach to study the diversity networkingpractices that occur in diversity networks. Drawing on Van den Brink and Benschop (2014), I define diversity networking practices as the collective sociopolitical actions of building, maintaining, and using relations in the workplace to advance organizational equality. Focusing on diversity networking practices, enables the examination of the actual activities and strategies of diversity networks in an organizational context. Thus, with this study, I contribute to the diversitymanagement literature by taking practices as the unit of analysis and explore what diversity networks actually do tomake a contribution to organizational equality. Methodology Research design and cases Studying practices requires a methodology that is committed to the processual nature that underpins a practice approach (Nicolini, 2012). I therefore rely on a qualitative methodology to study diversity networking practices in their real-life, organizational context (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007; Yin, 2009). A qualitative approach enables the appreciation of the how of processes of collective networking, and provides insight into practices that are unreflexive and taken for granted (Benschop, 2009; Manning, 2010; Nicolini, 2009). Studying networking practices implies a focus on the collective sayings and doings of the networks and the network members in their capacity as network leaders, rather than the number of frequency of measurable occurrences (Gioia et al., 2013).