Multiculturalism
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Culture and identity Multiculturalism’s politics of recognition is shaped by a larger body of thought which holds that culture is basic to political and social identity. Multiculturalism, in that sense, is an example of the politics of cultural self-assertion. In this view, a pride in one’s culture, and especially a public acknowledgement of one’s cultural identity, gives people a sense of social and historical rootedness. In contrast, a weak or fractured sense of cultural identity can leave people feeling isolated and confused. In its extreme form, this can result in what has been called ‘culturalism’ – as practised by thinkers such as the French political philosopher Montesquieu (1689–1775) and J. G. Herder (see p. 135) – which portrays human beings as culturally defined creatures. In its modern form, cultural politics has been shaped by two main forces: communitarianism and identity politics (see p. 232). Communitarianism advances a philosophical critique of liberal universalism – the idea that, as individuals, people in all societies and all cultures have essentially the same ‘inner’ identity. In contrast, communitarians champion a
Culture: Beliefs, values and practices that are passed on from one generation to the next through learning; culture is distinct from nature. Liberal multiculturalism: A form of multiculturalism that is committed to toleration and seeks to uphold freedom of choice in the moral sphere, especially in relation to culture or religion. Pluralist multiculturalism: A form of multiculturalism that is committed to ‘deep’ diversity, based on the alleged benefits of culture entrenchment and the need to resist cultural imperialism.
shift away from universalism to particularism, reflecting an emphasis less on what people share or have in common and more on what is distinctive about the groups to which they belong. Identity, in this sense, links the personal to the social, and sees the individual as ‘embedded’ in a particular cultural, social, institutional or ideological context. Only groups and communities can give people a genuine sense of identity and moral purpose. During the 1980s and 1990s, a major debate raged in philosophy between liberals and communitarians. However, one of the consequences of this debate was a growing willingness among many liberal thinkers to acknowledge the importance of culture. This, in turn, made liberalism more open to the attractions of multiculturalism, helping to give rise to the tradition of liberal multiculturalism .
KEY CONCEPT COMMUNITARIANISM
nevertheless has a variety of political forms. Left-wing communitarianism holds that community demands unrestrictedfreedomandsocial equality(forexample, anarchism). Centrist communitarianism holds that community is grounded in an acknowledgement of reciprocal rights and responsibilities (for example, social democracy/Tory paternalism). Right-wing communitarianism holds that community requires respect for authority and established values (for example, neoconservatism (see p. 67)).
Communitarianism is the belief that the self or person is constituted through the community, in the sense that individuals are shaped by the communities to which they belong and thus owe them a debt of respect and consideration – there are no ‘unencumbered selves’. Though clearly at odds with liberal individualism, communitarianism
Identity politics is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of political trends and ideological developments, ranging from ethnocultural nationalism and religious fundamentalism to second-wave feminism and pluralist multiculturalism . What all forms of identity politics nevertheless have in common is that they advance a political critique of liberal universalism. Liberal universalism is a source of oppression, even a form of cultural imperialism, in that it tends to marginalize and demoralize subordinate groups and peoples. It does this because, behind a façade of universalism, the culture of liberal societies is constructed in line with the values and interests of its dominant groups:
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