Workshop 04: Contextualizing Multiculturalism: Realities and Pitfalls
Abstract
Is multiculturalism in crisis or was it already stillborn? This workshop aims at a critical evaluation of multiculturalism through detailed empirical analysis paying attention to contextual specificities, focusing on institutional arrangements, ideologies, social movements, state policies, life stories associated with and/or falling under the umbrella term multiculturalism. The workshop proposes to gather a critical evaluation of multiculturalism via contextual analysis under 5 themes which emerge from the existing academic literature: The relation between multiculturalism, assimilation and racism; the relation between multiculturalism and capitalism; the relation between multiculturalism and gender; the location of multiculturalist politics vis-à-vis the European left and the European right; the location of multiculturalist politics vis-à-vis the state, supranational organizations and social movements.
Description
Globalization theorists of the 1990's were too quick in announcing the withering away of the nation-state. In many contexts the nation state has been able to graft itself upon processes of globalization and make some sort of come back in changing forms. At the top of the list of the challenges against and through which the nation-state is re-formed have been institutional arrangements, ideologies, social movements, state policies, life stories portrayed with the terms “diversity”, “difference”, “identity”, “religion”, “multi-culture”, “race”, “ethnicity”; all gathered de facto, and not necessarily for sound reasons under the umbrella term multiculturalism. It is not infrequent that the term “culture” has been used to talk about “religion” or “race” or mobilized in ways, which does not correspond to the lived experience of the persons in question. State violence and homogenization policies, border management, global capital, racism, the increasing mobility of people, forced migrations, economic crisis, poverty, the search of rising bourgeoisie for its hegemony, demobilization of left politics, state of wars have constituted some of the reasons offered in the sociology and anthropology literature for the rise of multiculturalism. Yet, recently in many countries state policy have turned away from multicultural society as a project. In the United Kingdom, the contrast between the reports of the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain (1997) and the Commission on Integration and Cohesion (2006) marks this shift from an emphasis on differences to commonalities quite well. Some scholars have declared the project of a multicultural society in crisis.
It is against this background of the persisting questions of diversity but the questioned status—as a solution--of a difference-oriented multicultural society project that we propose to revisit the debate on multiculturalism. Multiculturalism had gained a place in academic literature (Parekh 2000) and state policy in Europe; yet its future remains an object of critical analysis (Barry 1998, 2001a, 2001b, 2002, Gilroy 2005, Hobsbawm 1996, Kelly 2002, Joppke and Lukes 1999). Its first defenders, Will Kymlicka (1989, 1995, 1997, 2001a, 2001b, 2006, 2008) and Charles Taylor (1994), had articulated political philosophical arguments in its support inspired by the Canadian context, and presented multiculturalism as a progressive amendment of liberalism. For instance in Liberalism, Community and Culture (1989), Kymlicka’s question was how the claims of Canadian natives against the state could be formulated as claims from within liberalism, rather than in opposition to liberalism. Since 1980s, the theory and practice of multiculturalism has travelled outside its context of origin to many other parts of the world. Just the more recent publications of Will Kymlicka (Kymlicka and Opalski, 2001b; Kymlicka and He, 2006; Berman, Eyoh and Kymlicka 2002) cover issues in Asia, Europe, and Africa, not to mention those who work under his influence. In this workshop we make a methodological call for attention to ‘context’, and aim at a critical evaluation of multiculturalism through detailed empirical analyses paying attention to contextual specificities. The uses of the term ‘multiculturalism’ in Europe falls within a spectrum which runs from a descriptive category to talk about diversity in society to demanding (by groups) and granting (by states) of special rights to particular groups. Furthermore, the making of the European Union, a de facto multi-cultural political system adds a new layer to the already complicated debate over cultural diversity and national identity (Balibar 1991a, Balibar 2004, Hansen 2000). While national minorities are present across European countries, and are sometimes legally recognized with specific rights (for instance, regions in Spain or religion with the Muslim minority recognized by Lausanne Treaty in Greece), the umbrella term ‘multiculturalism’ emerges in close relation to the settlement of post-second world war labor migrations. As an umbrella term, it comes to embrace, sometimes a posteriori, different institutional arrangements and policies such as race relations, pillarization, management of cultural and religious difference, affirmative action, and covers a wide range of aims from specific cultural rights to providing for a solution to unequal distribution of public goods such as lack of equal opportunity in education, jobs and housing. And, the past 3 decades in Europe is rich both with examples of state policies towards multiculturalism (Commission 2000) and away from multiculturalism (Commission 2007, Vasta 2007).
Invited papers:
In this workshop we aim at a critical evaluation of multiculturalism through detailed empirical analysis paying attention to contextual specificities, focusing on institutional arrangements, ideologies, social movements, state policies. The workshop proposes to gather a critical evaluation of multiculturalism via contextual analysis under 5 themes which emerge from the existing academic literature: The relation between multiculturalism, assimilation and racism; the relation between multiculturalism and capitalism; the relation between multiculturalism and gender; the location of multiculturalist politics vis-à-vis the European left and the European right; the location of multiculturalist politics vis-à-vis the state, supranational organizations and social movements.
Multiculturalism, Racism and Assimilation:
Multiculturalist policies are often opposed to assimilationist policies (Joppke 1997; Brubaker 2001). Is this always the case? Are multiculturalist policies and assimilationist policies always mutually exclusive? For instance, Riva Kastoryano (2004) has argued that the establishment of the French Muslim Council is “institutional assimilation” while Murat Akan (2009) has argued that the Council is part of a general move towards segregation. And while multiculturalist policies are said to rest upon statistics broken down by ethnicity, religion or national origin at the level of the state in order to fight against racial and religious discriminations, Sandrine Bertaux (1997, 2011) has shown that the French demographic categories “French of French stock,” “immigrants” and “children of immigrants” emerged in the name of assimilation. How can we locate racism and segregation in relation to multiculturalism and assimilation? The post World War II Unesco consensus has been on “culture” as the alternative to “race” for talking about difference. Has this switch from “race” to “culture” in talking about difference been succesful in figthing racism in Europe? For instance, Étienne Balibar (1991) articulates a new possible synthesis between culturalism and racism; namely, cultural racism. Balibar (2004) points out how European “integration” is constituted by European apartheids. Paul Gilroy (2005) has underscored the revisiting of imperial and colonial history and racial politics as crucial for seeking ways of living with difference, and he suggests a focus on “conviviality” rather than identity. In France, the 2005 youth riots and the reclaim of the colonial term “native” has triggered a raging debate over the relation between the colonial past and current cultural diversity, identity politics, multiculturalism and racism, and eventually over the academic and political worth of postcolonial studies (Roitman 2011).
Multiculturalism and Capitalism:
How does multiculturalism relate to capitalism and equality is an important questions that have not yet received full attention. Some scholars argue that the rise of multiculturalism, religion and nationalism are responses to globalization (e.g. Barber 1996) or more specifically a response to the crisis of capitalism (Wallerstein 2005). Some scholars argue that the spreading discourse of diversity and cultural specificity is a screen for the “universal anonymity of Capital” (Žižek, 1997: 45, see also Jameson 1991). Others argue that capitalist interests have a formidable coalition with religious regimes (e.g. Mitchell 2002). And, yet others have portrayed through ethnographical research the microscopic dynamics between World Bank policies, decentralisation of the state, belonging and exclusion (Geschiere 2009). Preliminary scrutiny of the activities of some associations for the management of difference in Europe calls for a closer attention to the evaluation of these hypotheses. For instance, the “Islamic Trade and Finance” conference organized by the British Muslim Council in June 2006 bringing together entrepreneurs from Muslim countries and Europe is a case in point. But also, since multiculturalism and labor immigrations are intertwined, what are the relations between capitalism and the politics of mobility (Mezzadra 2011)? How does multiculturalism relate to the unfolding of a “deportation regime” (De Genova and Peutz 2010)?
Multiculturalism and Gender:
A distinction which was articulated but remained under-theorized in the work of Kymlicka was the distinction between external protections and internal restrictions. Kymlicka (Kymlicka 1995: 35; Kymlicka 1997: 29) maintained that legal recognition of cultural difference is for “external protection” of the culture in question against the larger society but not for encouraging “internal restrictions” by members of that culture on other members of the culture. The decoupling “external protections” and “internal restrictions” is crucial for a liberal theory of multiculturalism, and the problems emerging from the lack of this decoupling is most vivid in the question of gender inequality. Susan Okin (1997) in her article “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” has underlined how all cultures are patriarchal and a synthesis between multiculturalism and feminism is not possible. Joan W. Scott (2005), in her article “Symptomatic Politics: The Banning of Islamic Head Scarves in French Public Schools” has pointed out that the French feminist discourse of liberation on headscarved women in France in support for a ban on the headscarf in public education is uncritical of the French standards of women’s liberation. Moreover, in many European country, “tolerance” of non-heterosexual life ways have been put as the yardstick with which the integration of immigrants is measured.
Multiculturalism, the European Left and the European Right:
While most defenders of multiculturalism would like to situate it on the left of the political spectrum, Eric Hobsbawm (1997) in his article “Identity Politics and the Left” has argued that a synthesis between multiculturalism and left politics is not possible. Others have pointed out that the discourse of the radical right in Europe appropriates and transforms identity politics (Guibernau 2010). Contemporary developments in different European countries underscore the continuing relevance of this question. For instance, the anti-war movement in Britain calling for a withdrawal of Western troops from Iraq was forged together by two organizations, one socialists and the other muslim (Economist 2007), and this coalition has spurred discussion within the left on whether such a coalition can last on other political issues or not. Another example which marks the significance and need for further research in locating multiculturalism vis-à-vis the European left and the European right is the turn French politics has taken with the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. In his book published in 2004, La République, les religions l’espérance, Sarkozy has adopted the language of identity politics and even argued for the reform of the 1905 Law on the separation of churches and the state which serves as a basis to laïcité (French secularism) in order to provide state financial support for religion, highlighting Islam in particular. How does appropriation of multiculturalism by the European left and/or by the European right relate to the dismantling of the welfare state (Schierup, Hansen and Castles, 2006)? How do anti-racist movements relate to multiculturalism?
Multiculturalism, State, Supranational Organizations and Social Movements:
One important but insufficiently explored question in the academic literature on multiculturalism is whether the thrust for multiculturalism comes from social movements, from the state or from supranational bodies? For instance, Alana Lentin (2005) has argued that the post World War II Unesco consensus on “culture” as the alternative to “race” for talking about difference was an elite consensus not finding reverberations in the grassroots. What are the implications of the origins of multiculturalist demands for the future of democracy? While in examples such as Sikhs demanding an exception for the turban in riding motorcycles, or Muslims seeking recognition from the German State as a denomination, the thrust comes from below. Yet, in other instances, such as in a court case in Germany in March 2007, when the judge referred to the Koran in rejecting the request of a German-Muslim woman for divorce on grounds of domestic violence, pointing out that in her culture domestic violence was justified, or in France, when a foreign Muslim woman is refused to obtain French citizenship on the ground that she is subjugated to a male social surrounding, the thrust comes from the state. But other instances are more blurred: Is the demand for introduction of some elements of Islamic law voiced by the archbishop of Canterbury expressed a grassroots demand or an elite demand? Precise origins and articulations of multiculturalism is important to locate for each individual case for it helps gain ground in answering fundamental questions such: Is multiculturalism a new form of governance? Is it a way to bypass liberal rule (Barry 2002)? Or, is multiculturalism a bottom up reaction to state discrimination and racism?
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Rituals of Belonging in Africa and Europe
Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam
Since the 1990's multiculturalism seems to have found a counterweight in a celebration of belonging - often in a localist sense - in many parts of the world. We may think our world is globalizing. Yet, to quote Tania Murray Li (2002), it is equally marked by a 'deep conjuncture of belonging.' The word 'conjuncture' is very well chosen since it emphasizes how all sorts of apparently unrelated tendencies converge into an in creasing preoccupation with belonging. In my book Perils of Belonging - Autochthony, Citizenship and Exclusion in Africa and Europe (2009) I followed the recent re-emergence of notions of autochthony as powerful political slogans in highly different settings. One of the secrets of the great mobilizing power of such notions of belonging - like autochthony - is that despite strikingly different implications they are presented as self-evident, almost natural. Yet, is it important to emphasize that precisely because they are based on tenuous historical claims such identifications need to be constantly reproduced and re-affirmed. In this paper I want to focus on the 'rituals of belonging' that play a key-role in this respect. A comparison of West Africa and the Netherlands - two very different settings in which the notion of autochthony has been recently mobilized as an answer to popular dissatisfaction with what people see as 'multiculturalist' policies - can highlight the varying implications that such 'rituals of belonging' assume in struggles over exclusion.
Governing Cultural Difference or Culturally Differentiating Governance? From Legal to Deliberative Solutions
Murat Akan, Bogaziçi University
The terms "diversity", "difference", "religion", "culture", "ethnicity","civilizations" are creeping into all levels of political discussion –from international level to constitutional level to election speeches to daily conversation of people. These terms are often uttered by different actors in completely different contexts. The varieties of empirical cases concerning multiculturalism are begging a distinction between elite and non-elite forms of multiculturalism/identity politics. Lack of such a distinction combined with the insufficient empirical attention given to the precise diagnosis of what actually constitutes multicultural or identity politics has left its marks of confusion in the academic literature. In this paper, we draw on the caricature crisis in Denmark, the emergence of the Sharia Courts in England, the Burka ban in France, many other events in other European countries, and argue that the current literature on multiculturalism has not taken up one venue of research: the rise of culturalism is part of a state search for new techniques of governance and is linked with a shrinkage of the public space of deliberation and increasing legalization of public life.
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