Negotiating Boundaries In Multicultural Societies

Practical case studies based on integration, identity and citizenship: Boundaries are constantly negotiated in multicultural societies, drawing people in or excluding them, permanently changing the line of demarcation between ourselves and others.

Using in-depth life-story interviews and oral history archives, this book explores the impact of South Asian migration from the 1950s onwards on both the local white, British-born population and the migrants themselves. Taking Leicester as a main case study - identified as a European model of multicultural success - Negotiating Boundaries in the City offers a historically grounded analysis of the human experiences of migration. Joanna Herbert shows how migration created challenges for both existing residents and newcomers - for both male and female migrants - and explores how they perceived and negotiated boundaries within the local contexts of their everyday lives. She explores the personal and collective narratives of individuals who might not otherwise appear in the historical records, highlighting the importance of subjective, everyday experiences. The stories provide valuable insights into the nature of white ethnicity, inter-ethnic relations and the gendered nature of experiences, and offer rich data lacking in existing theoretical accounts. This book provides a radically different story about multicultural Britain and reveals the nuances of modern urban experiences which are lost in prevailing discourses of multiculturalism.

The book discusses citizenship in the contemporary world; as a concept, as an ideal, as a policy and as a goal to be achieved from the perspective of different academic disciplines.

Using in-depth life-story interviews and oral history archives, this book explores the impact of South Asian migration from the 1950s onwards on both the local white, British-born population and the migrants themselves. Taking Leicester as a main case study - identified as a European model of multicultural success - Negotiating Boundaries in the City offers a historically grounded analysis of the human experiences of migration. Joanna Herbert shows how migration created challenges for both existing residents and newcomers - for both male and female migrants - and explores how they perceived and negotiated boundaries within the local contexts of their everyday lives. She explores the personal and collective narratives of individuals who might not otherwise appear in the historical records, highlighting the importance of subjective, everyday experiences. The stories provide valuable insights into the nature of white ethnicity, inter-ethnic relations and the gendered nature of experiences, and offer rich data lacking in existing theoretical accounts. This book provides a radically different story about multicultural Britain and reveals the nuances of modern urban experiences which are lost in prevailing discourses of multiculturalism.

Focuses on transition talk and boundary crossing discourse in the modern workplace Moving between linguistic, professional and national boundaries is part of the daily reality of modern workplaces, where the concept of a 'job for life' is now outdated. Employees move between jobs, countries and even professions during their working lives, but the multilayered process of redefining personal, social and professional identities is not reflected in current workplace research. This volume brings together a range of scholars from different disciplinary areas in the field, examining the challenges of transition into a (new) workplace, team or community, as well as transitions within different professional communities. By analyzing the strategies individuals adopt to navigate the boundaries they face (in languages, workplaces or countries), this book demonstrates that transitions are not linear but are negotiated and constructed in the situated ahere and now of workplace interaction, at the same time as they are positioned in the wider socioeconomic order.Key FeaturesFocuses on the urban workplace environment and workforce mobility Contributors approach transitions from a number of perspectives representing the range of work currently being undertaken in the areaA range of cases are discussed in each chapter

Debates about cultural diversity have become an important, controversial and inescapable features of the politics of modern democracies. Negotiating Diversity offers a lucid and accessible analysis of the political theory of multiculturalism. It is an ideal text for students looking for an overview of the state of play in this area. The book explores the ways the concept of culture has been used in political theory, and critically evaluates contemporary liberal responses to multiculturalism, including the work of key political philosophers such as Will Kymlicka, Brian Barry and Chandran Kukathas, drawing on a range of real-world examples to illustrate its arguments. It provides critique of the tendency to reify cultural identity in political thinking, particularly through an examination of contemporary liberalism. In its place, the author develops a deliberative alternative, which views the politics of cultural diversity as a fallible process of negotiation, argument and compromise. He confronts objections that this alternative itself offers an unrealistic or oppressive vision of politics, and explores the fragility of trust in the politics of multicultural societies.

Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity: Solidarities and Social Function explores solidarity as a social function bringing to the fore the critical value of the concept of solidarity in understanding contemporary societies. The first part of the book (Solidarities) provides different theoretical approaches to the conception and exploration of solidarity that depart from the traditional and dominant perspectives within which debates about solidarity take place. This part includes chapters on the origins of the concept of solidarity in French social thought in the nineteenth century; a critical discussion of the later Foucault’s augmentation of his concerns with a critical politics of difference with a politics of parrhesia; Theodor Adorno and the identitarian logic that underpins reconciliation between difference and solidarity in initiatives such as multiculturalism; Alisdair MacIntyre and his rearticulation of Aristotelian virtue ethics to explore the value of solidarity ingrained in the practice of politics as a means of developing solidarity; and a transitional chapter that explores the social function of postcolonial theory. The second part of the book (Social Function) seeks to explore particular cases in which solidarity is constituted. The cases are diverse in global location, level of association, focus on cultural, political and policy contexts, and different approaches to analysis. As such, they provide a set of cases from which different aspects of the problems of making and remaking solidarity can be explored. These chapters include a case study in Israel exploring solidarity and social cohesion through migration, globalisation, and modernising processes; a case study of the African Village Market in Sydney, Australia; an example of the complexities of solidarity and identity in the Slovene context; and an exploration of how state action in Turkey dissolves solidarity in a community through urban housing policies.