Title: How does Interculturalism Contrast with Multiculturalism?
Abstract: Abstract This paper critically examines some of the ways in which conceptions of interculturalism are being positively contrasted with multiculturalism, especially as political ideas. It argues that while some advocates of a political interculturalism wish to emphasise its positive qualities in terms of encouraging communication, recognising dynamic identities, promoting unity and critiquing illiberal cultural practices, each of these qualities too are important (on occasion foundational) features of multiculturalism. The paper begins with a broad introduction before exploring the provenance of multiculturalism as an intellectual tradition, with a view to assessing the extent to which its origins continue to shape its contemporary public ‘identity’. We adopt this line of enquiry to identify the extent to which some of the criticism of multiculturalism is rooted in an objection to earlier formulations that displayed precisely those elements deemed unsatisfactory when compared with interculturalism. Following this discussion, the paper moves on to four specific areas of comparison between multiculturalism and interculturalism. It concludes that until interculturalism as a political discourse is able to offer a distinct perspective, one that can speak to a variety of concerns emanating from complex identities and matters of equality and diversity in a more persuasive manner than at present, interculturalism cannot, intellectually at least, eclipse multiculturalism, and so should be considered as complementary to multiculturalism. Keywords: CitizenshipCultural DiversityInterculturalismLiberalismMulticulturalism Acknowledgements We are most grateful to Geoff Levey, Varun Uberoi and two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments on earlier drafts. Notes 1. See, for example: http://www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu/406.0.html?&redirect_url=my-startpage-eyid.html 2. We are very grateful to Geoff Levey for alerting us to the nuances of the inception of Australian multiculturalism. 3. This inclusiveness was formalised in the first national multicultural policy, National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia, under the Hawke Labor government in 1989. It has been retained in every subsequent version. While Indigenous Australians are formally included, the policy also states that their situation is distinct and requires its own special treatment and set of measures – consequently many Indigenous leaders themselves reject multiculturalism as being relevant to them and indeed as undercutting their special status as First Peoples (see Levey Citation2008). 4. Thus making equal recognition an essential part of democratic culture, a point not lost on Habermas (Citation1994): 113) who argues that “a correctly understood theory of [citizenship] rights requires a politics of recognition that protects the individual and the life contexts in which his or her identity is formed”. 5. However, this concern relies perhaps on something from the cultural imaginary of the type of ‘modernist’ argument most associated with Anderson (Citation1983). Moreover, for a study of how this is happening in non-political urban contexts, see Kyriakides et al. (Citation2009). Additional informationNotes on contributorsNasar Meer Nasar Meer is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Northumbria University Tariq Modood Tariq Modood is Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. He is a co-founding editor of the international journal Ethnicities
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 392
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