Debating difference and diversity: combining multiculturalist and interculturalist approaches to integration

Based on an analysis of documents produced by civil society organisations, supplemented by interviews, Thomas Sealy explains how multiculturalism and interculturalism, usually seen as antagonistic approaches, are actually often combined on the ground

Freedom of Religion and the Accommodation of Religious Diversity:Multiculturalising Secularism

The classical liberal concern for freedom of religion today intersects with concerns of equality and respect for minorities, of what might be loosely termed ‘multiculturalism’. When these minorities were primarily understood in terms of ethno-racial identities, multiculturalism and freedom of religion were seen at that time as quite separate policy and legal fields. As ethno-religious identities have become central to multiculturalism (and to rejections of multiculturalism), specifically in Western Europe in relation to its growing Muslim settlements, not only have the two fields intersected, new approaches to religion and equality have emerged. We consider the relationship between freedom of religion and ethno-religious equality, or alternatively, religion as faith or conscience and religion as group identity. We argue that the normative challenges raised by multicultural equality and integration cannot be met by individualist understandings of religion and freedom, by the idea of state neutrality, nor by laicist understandings of citizenship and equality. Hence, a re-thinking of the place of religion in public life and of religion as a public good and a re-configuring of political secularism in the context of religious diversity is necessary. We explore a number of pro-diversity approaches that suggest what a respectful and inclusive egalitarian governance of religious diversity might look like, and consider what might be usefully learnt from other countries, as Europe struggles with a deeper diversity than it has known for a long time. The moderate secularism that has historically evolved in Western Europe is potentially accommodative of religious diversity, just as it came to be of Christian churches, but it has to be ‘multiculturalised’

Multiculturalism, interculturalism, 'multiculture' and super-diversity:Of zombies, shadows and other ways of being

Multiculturalism has increasingly become challenged and outcast, whether directly or summarily, as theoretically useful or empirically valid. This has come prominently from three corners: interculturalism, ‘everyday’ multiculturalism or ‘multiculture’ and super-diversity, in all of which the zombieness of multiculturalism is seen to be mutually reassured. Nevertheless, there are significant short comings that have not been thoroughly addressed and considered. In this article, I offer a thoroughgoing engagement with and critique of these bodies of work, identifying their points of convergence and divergence, the underlying principles in their relation to multiculturalism and suggesting how they fall short, often of their own goals, in multiple and significant ways. I argue that the cosmopolitan individualism they wish to celebrate ignores the fact of power relations, inequality, conflict and the necessity of politics. The micro-level ‘solutions’ offered, I suggest, do not provide a substitute for a macro-level multiculturalism. Moreover, the conceptualisations of identity also do not stand up to scrutiny. This, I interrogate with a particular reference to religious identity to indicate the shortcomings in these literatures. I propose instead that not only is multiculturalism not the zombie it is claimed but also that it continues to offer better critical resources than its challengers.</jats:p