Integration and Identity in an International Context: Problems and Ambiguities in the New Politics of Multiculturalism

Abstract

Debates about multiculturalism, minority rights, and identity dominated Anglo‐American political theory during the majority of the 1990s, and continue to raise important questions concerning the nature of citizenship, community, and the responsibilities of liberal states. They were popular, too, among policy makers, politicians, and journalists: many academics and practitioners were, for a time, united in their support for multiculturalism. Just as the philosophical literature at that time became more ‘multiculturalist’, so many European states increasingly adopted multiculturalist policies as a way of including historically marginalised groups into mainstream liberal culture or, in some cases, as a way of protecting minority groups from unfair pressures from the majority culture. However, as time has gone on, the multiculturalist turn in liberal political theory, and among many European governments, has waned. In the wake of terrorist atrocities around the world, growing concerns about the erosion of civic and national identity, and fears that cultural recognition can permit illiberal practices, many academics and practitioners have sought to distance themselves from the idea that it is a role of the state to afford special treatment to cultural minorities, and have sought once again to emphasise those common bonds which unite citizens of liberal democratic states, rather than those cultural identities which may serve to divide them. This article evaluates some of the recent philosophical literature on multiculturalism against the changing political landscape in Britain and Europe and suggests that the multiculturalist position remains weakened by a number of crucial ambiguities.

Governance and Indigenous Peoples: New Challenges to their Conceptualization and Implementation

“…In that sense, the definition and implementation of governance are complex due to the nature of its aims and the actors involved, both in its execution and those who are recipients of it. In general terms, aspects such as the lack of institutional adaptation; the scarce integration of cultural, value, historical, and social elements in the programs and projects; the ignorance on the part of political or bureaucratic actors; as well as the diversity of visions of these peoples have been indicated as factors that influence their results (Parvin 2009).…”

Komplementäre Perspektiven? Was politische Kulturforschung und transkulturelle Politische Theorie voneinander lernen können

“…Die zunehmende Bedeutung multikulturalistischer Fragestellungen im Zuge des ‚(multi-)cultural turn ' (vgl. Schwelling 2001;Parvin 2009) in den Sozialwissenschaften gab schließlich den Impuls für die Entstehung eines dritten thematischen Forschungsstrangs in der quantitativen politischen Kulturforschung, der auf die Relevanz basaler politisch-kultureller (Un-)Ähnlichkeiten für die Bedeutung und legitime Geltung von Politik fokussiert (vgl. vor allem Inglehart/Baker 2000;Fuchs/Klingemann 2002;Inglehart/Welzel 2005;Lane/Ersson 2005;Berg-Schlosser 2010).…”

Diversity in an Anti-immigration Era: Theories, controversies, principles

“…Multiculturalist theory didn't advocate the politicisation of religious identities in ways which ground or justify terrorism. Nevertheless, in reality, acts of violence around the world served to discredit multiculturalism as a political project in the eyes of many, making the philosophical case for multiculturalism harder to make (Blair, 2006;Cameron, 2011;Parvin, 2009;Phillips, 2004). Kymlicka himself wrote in 2007 that the bloom had 'fallen off the rose of Western liberal multiculturalism' (Kymlicka, 2007: 52) in many liberal democratic states by that point, a claim also made by Anne Phillips among others (Phillips, 2009).…”