Creating and Sustaining Evidence for “Failed Multiculturalism”

Abstract

In recent years, so-called "honor killings" came onto the political agenda of many migrant-receiving societies including Germany. There were heated debates over the meanings of these murders in courts, parliaments, media, and the broader public sphere. These debates centered mainly on the question of whether "honor killing" is a culturally specific type of violence that occurs only in certain cultural communities, or a form of violence against women that cuts across all cultures. In Germany, "honor killing" acquired a particular and relatively well-entrenched meaning when it first came to fore in 2005 after the murder of Hatun Sürücü; it has since been understood as a culturally specific form of violence illustrating the irreconcilable differences between minority and majority cultures. As such, it has been associated with the "failed multiculturalism" diagnosis, indicating the inability of traditional migrant communities to integrate into mainstream society. This article seeks to problematize the discursive link between "honor killing" and failed multiculturalism and to explore the factors that help establish and sustain this link in Germany. The article identifies the dominant and competing frames of "honor killing" as articulated in the course of parliamentary debates and the broader public sphere and seeks to understand the reasons for the dominance of culture-based frames. It explains the presumed linkage between "honor killing" and failed multiculturalism by drawing attention to the institutional and discursive context within which these murders were debated. This analysis reveals the significance of the broader context in shaping the way multiculturalism is understood and practiced in culturally plural societies.

Interactive Political Leadership in Theory and Practice: How Elected Politicians May Benefit from Co-Creating Public Value Outcomes

“…The enquiry resulted in a new understanding of the problem, which the select committee ended up describing as 'so-called "honor" killings' (House of Commons 2008, p. 8). Instead of following the mainstream culture-based framing of 'honor' killings as an ethnic aberration, the select committee adopted a gender-based framing that regards 'honor' killings as an extreme form of violence against women that should be treated as such in criminal law (Ercan 2015). As a result of this innovative problem definition, the select committee concluded that there was no need for new legislation, as the laws against violence against women were deemed perfectly capable of handling this particular form of violence.…”

Violations of basic deliberative norms: The systemic turn and problems of inclusion

“…Similarly, other case studies of citizen deliberation have highlighted how they affect broader structures of the public sphere that also affect the institutions (Ercan, 2015; Holdo, 2019, 2018a). Deliberative institutions represent ideals concretely and incentivize and inspire actions that correspond to the ideal.…”

Studying public deliberation after the systemic turn: the crucial role for interpretive research

“…In this context, frame analysis offers a particularly useful interpretive tool to identify and track the flow of discourses from one site to another. It requires paying particular attention to the way policy problems are defined by policy relevant actors; it involves portraying the dominant and alternative ways of understanding the issue at stake in different sites, and by different types of actors (Ercan 2015). 15 one site to another.…”