The Multicultural Dilemma

As cross-cultural migration increases democratic states face a particular challenge: how to grant equal rights and dignity to individuals while recognizing cultural distinctiveness. In response to the greater number of ethnic and religious minority groups, state policies seem to focus on managing cultural differences through planned pluralism. This book explores the dilemmas, paradoxes, and conflicts that emerge when differences are managed within this conceptual framework. After a critical investigation of the perceived logic of identity, indicative of Western nation-states and at the root of their pluralistic intentions, the author takes issue with both universalist notions of equality and cultural relativist notions of distinctiveness. However, without identity is it possible to participate in dialogue and form communities? Is there a way out of this impasse? The book argues in favor of communities based on nonidentitarian difference, developed and maintained through open and critical dialogue. Randi Gressgård is Associate Professor at the Centre for Women's and Gender Research (SKOK), University of Bergen. She is also affiliated with the research unit IMER (International Migration and Ethnic Relations).

This book considers the contemporary challenge of government in multicultural societies.

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.

This book is a major contribution to the field of multicultural counseling, psychology, and education.

Focuses on seven contemporary Jewish American writers, relating to topics such as the Orthodox way of life, interest in pre-Holocaust Europe, Israel, Jewish feminism, and the Holocaust. Ch. 3 (pp. 40-57), "The (Mischievous) Theological Imagination of Melvin Jules Bukiet, " explores the viability of a meaningful Jewish identity in a post-Holocaust world in works set in pre-Holocaust Poland, in postwar Europe, and in the U.S. today. Bukiet's "After" (1996) is a controversial, ironic work that deals with anti-heroic Holocaust survivors and their impious attempts to engage the post-Holocaust theological crisis. Ch. 4 (pp. 58-81), "Thane Rosenbaum's 'Elijah Visible': Jewish American Fiction, the Holocaust, and the Double Bind of the Second-Generation Witness, " is another version of an essay that appeared in "The Americanization of the Holocaust" (1999). Rosenbaum presents American children of Holocaust survivors suffering from the ghosts of their parents' experiences in Europe.

This reader focuses on the extremely current, important topic of racial and ethnic experiences in the United States today. Most of the essays were commissioned especially for this reader and have been prepared by some of the brightest voices in this cutting edge field. Instructors in search of a current, comprehensive multicultural reader will find this a valuable student resource whether it is the sole focus of their course or to be integrated into another content area.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.