Navigating Multiculturalism

This provocative volume explores multiculturalism from different disciplinary perspectives as well as examining the associated issues from the perspectives of various countries. It considers how multiculturalism has been defined and the various meanings that the term holds while also focusing on the realities faced in different societal contexts. The authors address difficult and at times divisive questions about race, ethnicity, and identity. This collection challenges readers to examine their own perceptions of multiculturalism and to consider how the perspectives in this volume can inform their thinking. By examining the issues from different perspectives, the authors have encouraged individuals to consider how to navigate multiculturalism and negotiate change.

Navigating Multiculturalism is part of a legacy statement to express personal concern and offer a plan for constructive social change. Constructive social change does not come easily. Cultures, traditions, ethnic groups, business organizations, government personnel, religious institutions, social clubs, medical facilities, and institutions of learning all function in response to current behavior and intellectual reasoning. Many forget they live in a complex environment with different cultural groups and ancestral heritages. They cluster with their own kind with a mindset of us and them. No one can deny the variations of culture, language and tradition which exists in diverse groups, yet clouded vision limits others seeing common ground among multicultural groups. This book is about finding that common ground and accepting minor differences as the peculiarities of culture and tradition. Constructive social change in the community begins with an individual, moves to the family, then to groups, then to the community and hopefully to a civil society. It may not come in time for this author to personally witness the hopeful change. It may be delayed indefinitely if good people do nothing. The outcome may depend on you! Will you accept the challenge? All communities in a multicultural society are a mixing bowl of various cultures and traditions. It is particularly incumbent on community leadership to see that the mixing bowl does not become a simmering stew pot of festering frustration. Since feelings can be deceptive, the affective domain must be balanced with the processes governing thought and conduct including aesthetics, ethics, logic, meta-physics, morals, faith, character and behavior. One must be aware that all aspects of sociological integration and personal change are emotional and may be disturbing and at times troubling. However, the need for social progress and moral development demands that efforts be made to advance community constructive social change. The goals of this work are: 1) Establish a rationale for sociological contextualization. 2) Value the various spheres of human life and culture. 3) View faith-based operations in cultural clothes 4) Distinguish between theology and ideology 5) Develop a needs fulfillment in group interaction. 6) See how human needs (psychological, moral, social, and intellectual) are fulfilled by social connectedness. 7) Discover how moral nurturing can narrow contact with noncompliant elements of a community and hinder personal development and sociological integration of human effort to formulate and enlarge a faith-based lifestyle.

"This book is a mix of policy, legal history, professionalism, and lawyering skills. It asks readers to explore multiculturalism through several different lenses. First, readers explore the reasons behind calls for diversity in the legal profession, examining how ordinary people view the culture of the law. Next, readers explore their own cultural backgrounds, consider implicit bias, and examine how to best navigate their own cultures as they interact with legal systems. Then, readers examine how to best represent clients with a particular focus on understanding client goals and helping translate client values and culture into legal system values and culture, while always cognizant of their own values and cultures. Finally, readers explore case studies where failure to appreciate culture has had critical consequences. The book provides perspective through essays about multicultural values in legal systems in other countries. It can be used as a textbook in a multicultural lawyering course or seminar, in a professional identity and culture course, or as a supplement to a clinic, skills, or doctrinal course. Lawyers and other legal professionals can use this book to explore multiculturalism and its effects in the legal system"--

We are currently witnessing the global diffusion of multiculturalism, both as a political discourse and as a set of international legal norms. States today are under increasing international scrutiny regarding their treatment of ethnocultural groups, and are expected to meet evolving international standards regarding the rights of indigenous peoples, national minorities, and immigrants. This phenomenon represents a veritable revolution in international relations, yet has received little public or scholarly attention. In this book, Kymlicka examines the factors underlying this change, and the challenges it raises. Against those critics who argue that multiculturalism is a threat to universal human rights, Kymlicka shows that the sort of multiculturalism that is being globalized is inspired and constrained by the human rights revolution, and embedded in a framework of liberal-democratic values. However, the formulation and implementation of these international norms has generated a number of dilemmas. The policies adopted by international organizations to deal with ethnic diversity are driven by conflicting impulses. Pessimism about the destabilizing consequences of ethnic politics alternates with optimism about the prospects for a peaceful and democratic form of multicultural politics. The result is often an unstable mix of paralyzing fear and naïve hope, rooted in conflicting imperatives of security and justice. Moreover, given the enormous differences in the characteristics of minorities (eg., their size, territorial concentration, cultural markers, historic relationship to the state), it is difficult to formulate standards that apply to all groups. Yet attempts to formulate more targeted norms that apply only to specific categories of minorities (eg., "indigenous peoples" or "national minorities") have proven controversial and unstable. Kymlicka examines these dilemmas as they have played out in both the theory and practice of international minority rights protection, including recent developments regarding the rights of national minorities in Europe, the rights of indigenous peoples in the Americas, as well as emerging debates on multiculturalism in Asia and Africa.

What is multiculturalism and what are the different theories used to justify it? Are multicultural policies a threat to liberty and equality? Can liberal democracies accommodate minority groups without sacrificing peace and stability? In this clear introduction to the subject, Michael Murphy explores these questions and critically assesses multiculturalism from the standpoint of political philosophy and political practice. The book explores the origins and contemporary usage of the concept of multiculturalism in the context of debates about citizenship, egalitarian justice and conflicts between individual and collective rights. The ideas of some of the most influential champions and critics of multiculturalism, including Will Kymlicka, Chandran Kukathas, Susan Okin and Brian Barry, are also clearly explained and evaluated. Key themes include the tension between multiculturalism and gender equality, cultural relativism and the limits of liberal toleration, and the impact of multicultural policies on social cohesion ethnic conflict. Murphy also surveys the legal practices and policies enacted to accommodate multiculturalism, drawing on examples from the Americas, Australasia, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Multiculturalism: A Critical Introduction is an ideal starting point for anyone coming to the topic for the first time as well as those already familiar with some of the key issues.

This book describes the linkage between the worlds of culture and inclusion based on the concept of intercultural proficiency (IP). It explains the building blocks of intercultural proficiency by providing a conceptual framework that combines and structures the existing knowledge base and extends it by incorporating the author’s own empirical research work. The framework presents not only a comprehensive and universal model based on existing concepts but also implications for learning and teaching strategies. This book and the IP concept provide guidance for students, early working professionals as well as seasoned working professionals on how to thrive and succeed when interacting with different cultures. It allows us to think outside our narrow cultural boundaries and decode complex cross-cultural interactions. Thus, the IP approach can be applied in academic and corporate settings, as it facilitates potential for solution of the issues associated with multicultural workforces and global operations of organizations.

In an era of globalization characterized by widespread migration and cultural contacts, psychologists, counselors, and other mental health professionals face a unique challenge: how does one practice successfully when working with clients from so many different backgrounds? Gielen, Draguns, and Fish argue that an understanding of the general principles of multicultural counseling is of great importance to all practitioners. The lack of this knowledge can have several negative consequences during therapy, including differences in expectations between counselor and client, misdiagnosis of the client’s concerns, missed non-verbal cues, and the client feeling that she has been misunderstood. This volume focuses on the general nature of cultural influences in counseling rather than on counseling specific ethnic groups. Counseling practices from all over the world, not just those of Western society, are explored. Bringing together the work of a diverse group of international experts, the editors have compiled a volume that is not only concise and teachable, but also an essential guidebook for all mental-health professionals.

Multiculturalism is often thought to be defined by its commitment to diversity, inclusivity, sensitivity, and tolerance, but these established values sometimes require contrary practices of homogenization, exclusion, insensitivity, and intolerance. Multiculturalism in Canada clarifies what multiculturalism is by relating it to more basic principles of equality, freedom, recognition, authenticity, and openness. Forbes places both official Canadian multiculturalism and Quebec's semi-official interculturalism in their historical and constitutional setting, examines their relations to liberal democratic core values, and outlines a variety of practical measures that would make Canada a more open country and a better illustration of what a commitment to egalitarian cultural pluralism now means. Consisting of a series of connected essays-including careful considerations of the works of Will Kymlicka and Charles Taylor-this book provides the first comprehensive account of multiculturalism in Canada.