The Bristol school of multiculturalism

Abstract

Tariq Modood, Bhikhu Parekh, Nasar Meer and Varun Uberoi are well known for their defence of multiculturalism in Britain and beyond. The article contends that the collective oeuvre of these and other scholars associated with the University of Bristol's Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship represents a distinctive and important school of multicultural political thought, a 'Bristol school of multiculturalism'. The school challenges the liberal biases of much of the corpus of multicultural political thinking and the nostrums of British and other western democracies regarding the status of the majority culture as well as of cultural minorities. It is an identarian and assertive multiculturalism that, above all, seeks inclusion and a sense of belonging in the national community. The article situates the Bristol school in the British context in which it arose, outlines its distinctive approach and principles and critically assesses its positions on liberalism and national identity. It also raises the question of the political acceptability of the Bristol school's 'muscular multiculturalism'.

Public Attitudes Towards Multiculturalism and Interculturalism in Australia

“…With its emphasis on shared values, national citizenship and the rule of law, Australian multiculturalism is still regarded as an economically and socially vital policy strengthening the national interest (Levey 2012). This is in contrast to how multiculturalism has been portrayed in Europe and North America in recent years (Levey 2012(Levey , 2018a, with public proclamations of the "failure of multiculturalism" and the "backlash against multiculturalism" continuing to shape public debates.…”

“…Australia is often invoked as a successful multicultural country with a long history of welcoming and settling migrants from all corners of the world (Ang and Stratton 1998;Colic-Peisker 2011;Mansouri 2015). Whereas Europe and North America are witnessing growing contestation regarding the efficacy of political multiculturalism, with critics proposing interculturalism as an alternative diversity governance approach, such a polarising and impassioned debate is not widely prevalent in Australia (Levey 2018a). Rather, multiculturalism has enjoyed and continues to enjoy support in public discourse, with intercultural initiatives being understood and accepted within the broader context of a multicultural framework (Koleth 2010;Liddicoat 2009).…”

“…Owing to its unique immigration history, the evolution of official multiculturalism in Australia is, indeed, quite different from the British integrationist version, and the Canadian and New Zealand versions that are based on national minority cultural preservation (Levey 2012(Levey , 2018aMeer and Modood 2012;Modood 2011). Thus, many of the criticisms levelled against multiculturalism globally are perhaps less relevant to the Australian ethno-cultural context where there has been neither a fierce backlash against it nor a strong gravitation towards an alternative paradigm.…”

Multiculturalism as a New Form of Nationalism?

“…He adds, "the concept of nationhood spawns more research in Britain than elsewhere" (Taras, 2018: 102). 6 The wider multiculturalist position this belongs to is captured in Levey, 2019; though for differences between myself and Bhikhu Parekh, see the interesting take by Uberoi 2015 and 2018. 7 I leave aside the complication that sometimes competing national identities are involved.…”

Islamophobia and normative sociology

“…The wider multiculturalist position this belongs to is captured in Geoffrey BrahmLevey (2019) and the symposium that follows in the December, 2019 issue of Ethnicities.…”