Multiculturalism and moderate secularism

What is sometimes talked about as the ‘post-secular’ or a ‘crisis of secularism’ is, in Western Europe, quite crucially to do with the reality of multiculturalism. By which I mean not just the fact of new ethno-religious diversity but the presence of a multiculturalist approach to this diversity, namely: the idea that equality must be extended from uniformity of treatment to include respect for difference; recognition of public/private interdependence rather than dichotomized as in classical liberalism; the public recognition and institutional accommodation of minorities; the reversal of marginalisation and a remaking of national citizenship so that all can have a sense of belonging to it. I think that equality requires that this ethno-cultural multiculturalism should be extended to include state-religion connexions in Western Europe, which I characterise as ‘moderate secularism’, based on the idea that political authority should not be subordinated to religious authority yet religion can be a public good which the state should assist in realising or utilising. I discuss here three multiculturalist approaches that contend this multiculturalising of moderate secularism is not the way forward. One excludes religious groups and secularism from the scope of multiculturalism (Kymlicka); another largely limits itself to opposing the ‘othering’ of groups such as Jews and Muslims (Jansen); and the third argues that moderate secularism is the problem not the solution (Bhargava)

Les représentations du multiculturalisme en France : Décalage singulier entre l’individuel et le collectif

International audienceStudies on the perception of multiculturalism, in France and elsewhere, usually look only at personal attitudes without asking what individuals perceive as the norm in their community. This article presents the findings of a survey based on a representative sample of the French population (N = 1001) which aims to fill this gap. In accordance with the concept of ‘pluralist ignorance’, the results reveal a significant difference between personal attitudes toward multiculturalism and assimilation (i.e. the French are personally in favor of multiculturalism) and the perceived social norm (they think that the majority of French people are opposed to multiculturalism). Furthermore, as expected, the perceptions of the norm are broadly shared, regardless of sex, age or political orientation, unlike personal attitudes. Thus, whereas both the far right and the far left agree on the perception of the norm, only sympathizers of the far right declare themselves personally in favor of assimilation. Finally, the results make an important contribution to understanding the influence of education (number of years of schooling), on individuals’ attitudes, showing that within the most educated categories there are significant differences according to field of study.Les enquêtes menées sur l’image du multiculturalisme, en France comme ailleurs, ne s’intéressent habituellement qu’aux attitudes personnelles des individus sans s’interroger sur ce qu’ils perçoivent comme étant la norme dans leur communauté. Dans cet article, nous présentons les résultats d’une enquête auprès d’un échantillon représentatif de la population française (N = 1001) qui vise à combler cette lacune. En accord avec le concept ‘d’ignorance pluraliste’, les résultats mettent au jour un décalage significatif entre les attitudes personnelles à l’égard du multiculturalisme et de l’assimilation (i.e. les Français sont personnellement favorables au le multiculturalisme) et la norme sociale perçue (ils pensent que les Français sont en majorité opposés au multiculturalisme). De plus, comme prévu, les perceptions de la norme sont très largement partagées, peu importe le sexe, l’âge ou l’orientation politique des individus, au contraire des attitudes personnelles. Ainsi, alors que l’extrême droite comme l’extrême gauche s’entendent sur la perception de la norme, seuls les sympathisants de l’extrême droite s’affichent comme personnellement favorables à l’assimilation. Enfin, les résultats offrent une contribution importante à la compréhension de l’influence de l’éducation (nombre d’années d’études) sur les attitudes des individus en montrant qu’il existe des écarts significatifs au sein des catégories les plus instruites en fonction de la filière d’études