Chapter 9: Multiculturalism - Discussion Questions §

Chapter 9: Multiculturalism

1. How and why is multiculturalism linked to the politics of recognition?
   • Multiculturalism is linked to a politics of recognition were laid by the postcolonial theories that developed out of the collapse of the European empires in the early post-World War II period.
   • Multiculturalism is linked to a politics of recognition because multiculturalists argue that minority cultural groups are disadvantaged in relation to majority groups and the remedying that involves significant changes in society’s rules and institutions. As such, multiculturalism in common with many other ideological traditions is associated with the advancement of marginalized, disadvantaged or oppressed groups.
2. Is multiculturalism a form of communitarianism?
   • Yes, in its modern form, cultural politics has been shaped by two main forces: communitarianism and identity politics. Communitarianism advances a philosophical critique of liberal universalism, which is the idea that; as individuals; people in all societies and cultures have essentially the same ‘inner identity’. While, identity links the personal to the social, and sees the individuals as ‘embedded’ in a particular culture, social, institutional or ideological context.
3. What is the justification of minority or multiculturalism rights?
   • Minority or multiculturalism rights have been justified in a variety of ways. First, minority rights have been viewed, particularly by liberal multiculturalist, as a guarantee of individual freedom and personal autonomy. In this view, culture is a vital tool that enables people to live autonomous lives. Second, in many cases minority rights are seen as a way of countering oppression. In this view, societies can harm their citizens by trivializing or ignoring their cultural identies – harm, in this case being viewed as a failure of recognition. Third, minority rights have been supported on the grounds that they redress social injustice. In this view, minority rights are a compensation for unfair disadvantages and for under-representation, usually addressed through a programme of positive discrimination.
4. Why do multiculturalism believe that diversity provides the basis for a politically stable society?
   • Multiculturalism believe that diversity provides the basis for a politically stable society because multiculturalism is characterized by a steadfast refusal to link diversity to conflict or instability. All forms of multiculturalism are based on the assumption that diversity and unity can and should be blended with one another.
5. How does pluralism go beyond liberalism?
   • Pluralism goes beyond liberalism by endorsing the idea f value pluralism. This hold in short that people are bound to disagree about the ultimate ends of life as it is not possible to demonstrate the superiority of one moral system over another.
6. To what extent is there tension between cultural rights and women’s rights?
   • Feminists have more raised concerns about multiculturalism. This happens when minority rights and the politics of recognition serve to preserve and legitimize patriarchal and traditionalist beliefs that disadvantage women, an arrangement that may equally be applied to gays and lesbians and is sometimes seen as the minorities within minorities problems. While cultural practices such as dress codes, family structures and access to elite positions have thus been seen to establish structural gender biases. Multiculturalism may therefore be little more than a concealed attempt to bolster male power, the politics of cultural recognition being used within minority communities to legitimize continued female subordination.
7. Can multiculturalism be reconciled with any form of nationalism?
   • Yes, multiculturalism can be reconciled with the form of nationalism, whose enduring potency derives from the recognition at some level and in some way, political unity always goes hand in hand with cultural cohesion. The strains generated by irreversible trends within globalization towards the constructions of multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural societies can therefore only contained by the establishment of a stronger and clearer sense of national identity.
8. What impact does multiculturalism have on the politics of redistribution?
   • The idea of the ‘politics of redistribution’ is rooted in a social reformist stance that embraces, among other traditions, modern liberalism and social democracy. It arose out of the belief that universal citizenship and formal equality are not sufficient to tackle the problems of subordination and marginalization.