Geographic scale acknowledgment in EDI
Scientists are human and so they are more prone to focus on local factors that affect the academic success of individuals in their working environment. The reason why most of the discussion on EDI from the Global North is about D is that local variations in T,L, and N are not large enough to spark a debate. When we discuss EDI from a global perspective, say Global North vs. Global South, T, L, and N become the main drivers of variation in academic success. Therefore, we should realize that D occurs everywhere in the world (local dominant groups are typically advantaged), whereas disadvantages in T, L, and N are localized (some countries struggle more than others). True inclusivity should not be partial and EDI discussion should integrate a geographic scale when invoking ‘diversity’ to highlight whether the discussion is about local or global diversity.
Here, we distinguish between the microdiversity ─ people living in the same place, sharing the same scientific infrastructure, having different genders, skin colors, sexual orientations, disabilities, etc., and macrodiversity ─ the sum of microdiversities across the globe, including a plethora of institutions and people from different countries, ethnicity, and backgrounds (Fig. 2c). Having such stratification of diversity acknowledges the ‘existence’ of a huge diversity of people outside our working environment that we do not see and interact with but share the same objectives and go through immense barriers to reach them.