Multiculturalism Identity And Difference

Multicultural societies are a phenomenon that can be increasingly observed worldwide. This book focuses on the question of how individuals living within a multicultural society experience the meeting of cultures. Murdock combines both a thorough review of the theoretical body of research concerning multiculturalism and related concepts such as globalization, acculturation and biculturalism with specific empirical research evidence, providing new insights into factors which shape our openness towards a plurally composed society. Multiculturalism, Identity and Difference contains original research conducted within the ‘natural laboratory’ that multilingual, multicultural Luxembourg provides. This is a country where the foreign population makes up nearly half of the total population. In the era of globalization, culture contact is a daily occurrence and this book makes a contribution to the questions of if and how culture contact can be experienced as an opportunity rather than a threat by individuals.

The idea of the nation is globally in crisis, but multiculturalism has often seemed to name a specifically national debate. Multicultural States challenges the national focus of these debates by investigating theories, policies and practices of cultural pluralism across eight countries with historical links in British colonialism: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Ireland and Britain. This important book combines discussions of the principles of multiculturalism with studies of specific local histories and political conflicts. The contributors discuss: * communalism and colonialism in India * Irish sectarianism and postmodern identity politics * ethnic nationalism in post-apartheid South Africa * British multiculturalism as part of the heritage industry * feminism and Australian republicanism. Contributors: Ien Ang, David Attwell, Homi K. Bhabha, Gargi Bhattacharyya, Abena P. A. Busia, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Terry Eagleton, John Frow, Henry A. Giroux, Ihab Hassan, Smaro Kamboureli, Maria Koundoura, Beryl Langer, Anne Maxwell, Meaghan Morris, Susan Mathieson and Jon Stratton

Theories of liberal multiculturalism have come to dominate debates about identity and difference politics in contemporary western political theory. Identity/Difference Politics offers a nuanced critique of these debates by switching the focus from culture to power. Issues of power are examined through accounts of meaning-making – those processes through which meanings of difference are produced, organized, and regulated. Other forms of identity/difference such as whiteness, ableism, gender, and heteronormativity establish the analytic and normative value of Dhamoon’s alternative theoretical framework, and reveal that an exclusive preoccupation with culture can dissolve into essentialism – which too often provides a rationale for state regulation of groups deemed to be too different.

"This volume stems from the four-day international conference organized by Inter-Disciplinary.Net at Mansfield College, Oxford University..."--p. [vii].

Multiculturalism has recently become a word without which hardly any discussion of identity, nationality or historical and ideological narratives seems possible. However, the popularity of this word and its current usefulness should not obscure the fact that the concept itself is not an easy and obvious one: many apparently firm assumptions have been disputed from a multicultural perspective, while there are still a great number of social, cultural and political spheres which need to be re-defined and re-articulated as some dominant notions and symbols have been subverted by recognition of the diversity of subjective positions and cultural identities. The concept of multiculturalism assumes that our identities - both individual and collective - are shaped by our relationships with others. This volume addresses issues of multiculturalism and identity in culture and reveals a wide spectrum of perspectives from which we look at the Other/the Unfamiliar/the Unknown. It is an attempt to reveal the patterns and practices our culture has used in order to envisage, negate or welcome the Other, and seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion about multiculturalism.

Mapping the contradictions and ambiguities in the cultural politics of Canadian identity, The House of Difference opens up new understandings of the operations of tolerance and Western liberalism in a supposedly post-colonial era. Combining an analysis of the construction of national identity in both past and present-day public culture, with interviews with white Canadians, The House of Difference explores how ideas of racial and cultural difference are articulated in colonial and national projects, and in the subjectivities of people who consider themselves mainstream, or simply Canadian-Canadians.

Identity and Cultural Diversity examines immigration and its effect on diversity from a social psychological perspective. Immigration increases cultural diversity and raises difficult questions of belonging, adaptation, and the unity of societies: questions of identity may be felt by people struggling with the basic problem of who they are and where they fit in, and although cultural diversity can enrich communities and societies it also sometimes leads to a new tribalism, which threatens democracy and social cohesion. The author Maykel Verkuyten considers how people give meaning to the fact that they belong to ethnic, racial, religious and national groups, and the implications this can have for social cohesion. The opening chapters consider the nature of social identity and group identification, and include discussions of identity development in adolescence, acculturation, and multiple and dual identities. Verkuyten then considers one of the most pernicious social problems: how conflict emerges from perceiving others as different. He examines when and why group distinctions grow into conflicts and considers the role of cultural diversity beliefs, such as multiculturalism and assimilation. The book concludes by exploring productive ways of managing cultural diversity. Written in an engaging style, Identity and Cultural Diversity will be essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of social and cultural psychology and other social sciences, and it also makes key themes in social psychology accessible to a wider audience outside academia.

This innovative volume brings a selection of leading political theorists to the wide-ranging debate on multiculturalism and political legitimacy. By focusing on the challenge to mainstream liberal theory posed by the surge of interest in the rights of minority groups and subcultures within states, the authors confront issues such as rights, liberalism, cultural pluralism and power relations.