Showing papers on "Multiculturalism published in 1998"

Defining "Science" in a Multicultural World: Implications for Science Education (SLCSP #148).

Abstract: In today's schools there are often competing accounts of natural phenomena, especially when schools are located in multicultural communities. There are also competing claims about what counts as science. This article examines the definition of science put forward from multicultural perspectives in contrast to a universalist perspective on science; that is, the Standard Account. The article argues that good science explanations will always be universal even if indigenous knowledge is incorporated as scientific knowledge. What works best is still of interest to most, and although one may hate to use the word hegemony, Western science would co-opt and dominate indigenous knowledge if it were incorporated as science. Therefore, indigenous knowledge is better off as a different kind of knowledge that can be valued for its own merits, play a vital role in science education, and maintain a position of independence from which it can critique the practices of science and the Standard Account. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed85:50–67, 2001.

Toward a "global-community psychology": Meeting the needs of a changing world.

Abstract: Changes in telecommunications, transportation, and economic ties are linking our welfare and well-being to events and forces in distant lands. Emerging social, culturaL political, and environmental problems around the globe are imposing intense and complex demands on individual and collective psyches, challenging our sense of identity, control, and well-being. The fabled global community is now upon us. Psychology can assist in addressing and resolving these problems, especially if it is willing to reconsider some of its fundamental premises, methods, and practices that are rooted within Western cultural traditions and to expand its appreciation and use of other psychologies. The present article advocates the development of a superordinate or meta-disciptine of psychology--global-community psychology--defined as a set of premises, methods, and practices for psychology based on multicultural, multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and multinational foundations that are global in interest, scope, relevance, and applicability. Characteristics of global-community psychology as a disciplinary specialty are discussed, as are various issues supporting its development and need.

Anti-Essentialism, Multiculturalism and the 'Recognition' of Religious Groups*

Abstract: It is only in the last few years that the discourse of multiculturalism has become respectable. Yet, initially seen as a progressive discourse, it is today already seen by many academic commentators as conservative, even reactionary. Arguments for political multiculturalism are directed against essentialist or monistic definitions of nationality, for example, definitions of Britishness which assume a cultural homogeneity, that there is a single way of being British. Multiculturalists have emphasised internal differentiation (relatively easy in the case of Britain which encompasses up to four national or semi-national components, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and fluidity, with definitions of national belonging being historical constructs and changing over time. In this way it has been possible to argue for the incorporation of immigrant groups into an ongoing Britishness and against those who prophesied ‘rivers of blood’ as the natives lashed out against the aliens perceived as threatening national integrity. In this political contest the ideas of essential unity, integrity, discreteness and fixity have been seen as reactionary, and internal differentiation, interaction and fluidity as progressive. Yet in the recent years that multiculturalism has come to be respectable, at least in terms of discourse, academic critics have attacked multiculturalism in very similar terms to how multiculturalism attacked nationalism or monoculturalism. The positing of minority or immigrant cultures, which need to be respected, defended, publicly supported and so on, is said to appeal to the view that cultures are discrete, frozen in time, impervious to external influences, homogeneous and without internal dissent; that people of certain family, ethnic or geographical origins are always to be defined by them

Bridging Liberalism and Multiculturalism in American Education

Abstract: What should the civic purposes of education be in a liberal and diverse society? Is there a tension between cultivating citizenship and respecting social diversity? What are the boundaries of parental and state authority over education? Linking political theory with educational history and policy, Rob Reich offers provocative new answers to these questions. He develops a liberal theory of multicultural education in which the leading goal is the cultivation of individual autonomy in children. Reich draws out the policy implications of his theory through one of the first sustained considerations of homeschooling in American education. He also evaluates three of the most prominent trends in contemporary school reform - vouchers, charter schools, and the small school movement - and provides pedagogical recommendations that sharply challenge the reigning wisdom of many multicultural educators. Written in clear and accessible language, this book will be of interest to political theorists, philosophers, educators, educational policymakers, and teachers.

Race and the culture of anthropology

Abstract: The number of panels on “multiculturalism” and “cultural studies” at the AAA's annual meetings has increased significantly. Many anthropologists believe that the discipline has been in the vanguard of debates on racism and multiculturalism, that it stands for precisely those issues raised in the “culture wars”: the equal valuation of all cultures. Yet this is not the case. Multiculturalism and cultural studies have emerged as counterdisciplinary formations which radically foreground race and racial identity precisely because anthropology cannot do so.

Multicultural states : rethinking difference and identity

Abstract: The idea of the nation is globally in crisis, but multiculturalism has often seemed to name a specifically national debate. Multicultural States challenges the national focus of these debates by investigating theories, policies and practices of cultural pluralism across eight countries with historical links in British colonialism: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Ireland and Britain. This important book combines discussions of the principles of multiculturalism with studies of specific local histories and political conflicts. The contributors discuss: * communalism and colonialism in India * Irish sectarianism and postmodern identity politics * ethnic nationalism in post-apartheid South Africa * British multiculturalism as part of the heritage industry * feminism and Australian republicanism. Contributors: Ien Ang, David Attwell, Homi K. Bhabha, Gargi Bhattacharyya, Abena P. A. Busia, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Terry Eagleton, John Frow, Henry A. Giroux, Ihab Hassan, Smaro Kamboureli, Maria Koundoura, Beryl Langer, Anne Maxwell, Meaghan Morris, Susan Mathieson and Jon Stratton

Freedom's Web: Student Activism in an Age of Cultural Diversity

Abstract: From the Mills College strike of 1990 to the Chicano Studies movement at UCLA, from African-American student unrest at Rutgers University in 1995 to student protest in California against the passage of propositions 187 and 209, issues of cultural diversity have rocked college campuses for much of this decade. The author of this study locates the key to understanding renewed student activism in the 1990s within the struggle over multiculturalism. He focuses on how students have utilized what many scholars describe, both affectionately and pejoratively, as "identity politics" to advance various concerns tied to diversity issues. While the 1970s and much of the 1980s were relatively quiet decades in comparison to the 1960s, the divestment movement of the mid-1980s served as a catalyst for multicultural reform of the American campus. Thus, in the 1990s, students once again began to turn to campus demonstration as a means to advance social change. Through illustrative case studies, Rhoads reveals the connections between contemporary student activism and the campus unrest of the 1960s and the effors of a previous generation of student activists to advance participatory democracy and civil rights.

Is multiculturalism the solution

Abstract: As far as multiculturalism is at stake, three kinds of question arise at the more or less confusing meeting point of sociology, political science and political philosophy: What are the sources and meanings of cultural difference in our societies? In what way do institutions and policy-makers in some countries deal with multiculturalism? Why should we favour or not favour multiculturalism? This article tackles these questions in turn and seeks to answer them. Cultural differences are not only reproduced, they are in the constant process of being produced which means that fragmentation and recomposition are a permanent probability. In such a situation, the problem is how to broaden democracy in order to avoid at one and the same time the tyranny of the majority and the tyranny of the minorities.

“Homogeneity” and Constitutional Democracy: Coping with Identity Conflicts through Group Rights

Abstract: In this article I explore some ancient issues of political theory in the light of some contemporary social and cultural issues. After developing a check list of the virtues and vulnerabilities of constitutional democracy (Section I), I go on to discuss some types and symptoms of difference, conflict, fragmentation and heterogeneity (Section II). I then proceed to a critical review of a particular set of strategies and institutional solutions—political group rights—that are often thought promising devices for strengthening the virtues and overcoming the vulnerabilities of the constitutional democratic form of regime (Section III). Much of the contemporary philosophical and political discussion of these issues is enchanted by the post-modern spirit of “multiculturalism,”“diversity” and “identity.” It tends to neglect issues of citizenship and social justice. It also tends to fixate on North American examples, neglecting some of the less benign West European and, in particular, Central East European varieties of identity politics. The discussion here, while mostly raising questions rather than claiming to provide definitive answers, nevertheless tries to overcome some of these biases.

Pluralism and the politics of difference: State, Culture, and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective

Abstract: 1. Plural Societies 2. Pluralism and the Patrimonial State: Pre-Colonial Africa 3. Pragmatism against Morality: Ethnicity in the Aztec Empire 4. Pluralism in a Patrimonial Bureaucracy: The Ottoman Empire 5. Ethnic and Cultural Pluralism in the Colonial Social Order 6. The Jacobin Project: The Nation-State and the Enemy Within 7. 'Nation of many nations?' The United States and Immigration, 1880-1930 8. A 'magpie society'? From 'Assimilation' to 'Integration' in Britain and France 9. Multiculturalism and Beyond 10. Pluralism and the Postmodern Condition

Common Denominators: Ethnicity, Nation-Building and Compromise in Mauritius

Abstract: This book seeks to enhance comparative understandings of ethnicity, to refine theories of nationalism, and to contribute to ongoing debates on multiculturalism, identity politics and creolization. Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island-state with a population of about one million, provides a fascinating focus for this comprehensive study of social identity and political culture. Fifteen languages are officially spoken on the island, and four world religions are represented, as well as a high number of ethnic groups. The author argues that the social importance of ethnicity depends not only on political and economic circumstances, but also on kinship organization, and shows how ethnicity is expressed through the idioms of language and religion. However, it is also shown how ethnic identity may be superseded by other forms of belongingness and politics in the contemporary age. Nationhood, gender, class and individualism are all examined for the role they play in social organization and the formation of collective identity. Multiethnic and peaceful, the pace of social change in Mauritius has been rapid throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The ways in which Mauritians negotiate the relationship between ethnic, national and other identities in forging a surprisingly stable and democratic society, and the peculiar tensions which arise in the interface between the ethnic and the non-ethnic, ought to be familiar to anyone concerned with the future of multiethnic societies.

Indigenous People in a Multicultural Society: Unique Issues for Human Services

Abstract: Indigenous peoples have a unique place within a multicultural society. The history of indigenous people in the United States differs from those who came here as immigrants. For many Native Americans a primary goal has been self-preservation through separation and isolation rather than seeking a place within a multicultural society. Many people are not aware that the federal government and some state governments have specific moral and legal rights and responsibilities toward Native Americans, unlike other groups in the United States. Human services providers who work with Native Americans must understand the issues specific to indigenous people in a multicultural society. This article examines the unique status of Native Americans in the United States and explores the practice implications of that status. The article begins with an overview of the components of culturally competent social work with Native Americans, then examines specific issues such as historical trauma and sovereignty with which social workers and other human services workers should be familiar to serve Native American clients effectively.

Insider/outsider : American Jews and multiculturalism

Abstract: Twelve distinguished historians, political theorists, and literary critics present new perspectives on multiculturalism in this important collection. Central to the essays (all but one is appearing in print for the first time) is the question of how the Jewish experience can challenge the conventional polar opposition between a majority 'white monoculture' and a marginalized 'minorities of color multiculture.' This book takes issue with such a dichotomy by showing how experiences of American Jews can undo conventional categories. Neither a complaint against multiculturalism by Jews who feel excluded from it, nor a celebration of multiculturalism as the solution to contemporary Jewish problems, "Insider/Outsider" explores how the Jews' anomalous status opens up multicultural history in different and interesting directions. The goal of the editors has been to transcend the notion of 'comparative victimology' and to show the value of a narrative that does not rely on competing histories of persecution. Readers can discover in these essays arguments that will broaden their understanding of Jewish identity and multicultural theory and will enliven the contemporary debate about American culture generally.

The protection of cultural, linguistic and religious right s: the framework provided by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996*

Abstract: *This is an extended version of a paper delivered on 9 May 1998 at a conference on The constitutional protection of multiculturalism jointly organised by the National Human Rights Trust and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Pretoria.

Democracy, Multiculturalism, and the Community College: A Critical Perspective

Abstract: Democracy, Multiculturalism, and the Community College: A Critical Perspective. Robert A. Rhoads and James R. Valadez. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996. 231 pp.

Spaces of Culture: City, Nation, World

Abstract: In Spaces of Culture an international group of scholars examines the implications of questions such as: What is culture? What is the relationship between social structure and culture in a globalized and networked world? Do critical perspectives still apply, or does the speed and complexity of cultural production demand new forms of analysis? They explore the key themes in social theory: the nation state; the city; modernity and reflexivity; post-Fordism and the spatial logic of the informational city. The contributors go on to analyze the public sphere, questioning the reductive representation of technology as a form of instrumentality, and demonstrating how new technologies can offer new spaces of culture. This analysis of public space is essential to an understanding of issues like global citizenship and multicultural human rights.

Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook

Abstract: Focusing on the ethnic composition of each nation of the world and organized by country, this book lists the population, location and origins of each ethnic group, as well as its relations with other ethnic groups within that nation. It also covers major subgroups within each ethnic group, including their characteristics, occupation, social status, religions, and languages. Information relevant to courses on world history, geography, multicultural awareness, anthropology and ethnic relations is reported.

Theorizing multiculturalism : a guide to the current debate

Abstract: List of Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction I Post-Hegelian Dialectics of Recognition and Communication From Redistribution to Recogntion? Dilemmas of Justice in a "Post-Socialist" Age (Nancy Fraser) Unruly Categories: A Critique of Nancy Fraser's Dual Systems Theory (Iris Marion Young) A Rejoinder to Iris Young (Nancy Fraser) Recognition, Value, and Equality: A Critique of Charles Taylor's and Nancy Fraser's Accounts of Multiculturalism (Lawrence Blum) Ludic, Corporate, and Imperial Multiculturalism of the New World Order (Martin J. Beck Matustik) II Post-Marxism and Issues of Class Multiculturalism: Consumerist or Transformational? (Bill Martin) Post-Marxist Political Economy and the Culture of the Left (Donald C. Hodges) III Continental and Analytical Feminism Identity, Difference, and Abjection (Kelly Oliver) Psychological Explanations of Oppression (Ann E. Cudd) IV Corporeal Logic and Sexuate Being Toward the Domain of Freedom: Interview with Drucilla Cornell by Penny Florence (Drucilla Cornell) Morphing the Body: Irigaray and Butler on Sexual Difference (Tamsin Lorraine) V Critical Race Theory Alienation and the African-American Experience (Howard McGary) "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again": Interculturalism and Conversation of Races (Robert Bernasconi) VI Postcolonialism and Ethnicity Fanon and the Subject of Experience (Ronald A. T. Judy) White Studies: The Intellectual Imperialism of US Higher Education (Ward Churchill) VII Liberalism Moral Deference (Laurence M. Thomas) "Multiculturalism," Citizenship, Education, and American Liberal Democracy (Lucius Outlaw, Jr.) VIII Pragmatism Ceremony and Rationality in the Haudenosaunee Tradition (Scott L. Pratt) Educational Multiculturalism, Critical Pluralism, and Deep Democracy (Judith M. Green) Universal Human Liberation: Community and Multiculturalism (Leonard Harris) Index

From International Ideas to Domestic Policies: Educational Multiculturalism in England and France

Abstract: Political scientists are increasingly interested in the interaction between ideas and policies. Some research has used ideas as independent variables to demonstrate how a change in ideas has determined a policy outcome.1 Other studies have looked at how different national institutions funnel, shape, and adopt similar international ideas.2 This study follows in the second tradition by focusing on the application of the idea of multiculturalism to education policy in England and France. Multiculturalism first appeared on the education policy agenda in the 1960s, and it remains a hotly debated and much discussed topic today.3 Whereas multiculturalism blossomed in the ethnically diverse United States, it was often contested and fell on sometimes fertile, sometimes rocky soil in the more historically homogeneous western European nations. England and France reacted to multiculturalism in particularly different manners. English education policy took on board many of the common changes advocated by supporters of multiculturalism, and multiculturalism is now generally accepted in many English educational institutions. In contrast, France has only grudgingly accepted very small pieces of the multicultural agenda, preferring to maintain education as a sphere for assimilating immigrants. This divergence is curious given the similarities of the two countries. Each experienced relatively large-scale ethnic minority immigration in the decades following World War II, and policymakers in each country were exposed to educational multiculturalism through participation in international educational networks. Why have England and France responded so differently to the idea of multicultural education? The key to this puzzle lies in the interaction between two variables: the different structure of gatekeepers controlling the access of ideas into the policy process and the different priors of gatekeepers in each country. Institutionally, England has a much more decentralized educational system than does France. Decentralization increases the number of decision-making gatekeepers who control the access of new ideas into the policy system. Counterintuitively, a greater number of gatekeepers may lead to an increased likelihood of policy change. Yet the number of gatekeepers alone does not explain the divergence between England and France. Policy gatekeepers must also have the inclination to adopt new ideas. Policymakers are not blank slates on which actors try to write new ideas into

Dreams in the Shadows: Vietnamese-Australian Lives in Transition

Abstract: Explores the experiences of Vietnamese immigrants in Australia. Description What is it like to be a refugee in a country that has a completely different culture from your own, where you feel very different from those around you? With a fine eye for detail and keen empathy for her interviewees, Mandy Thomas explores the experiences of Vietnamese living in Australia. She examines displacement and loss, the ongoing effects of war trauma, and international and community politics. While reflecting on many of the contemporary debates on identity and communality, she explores the concrete realities of Vietnamese lives through their daily experiences. She discusses how Vietnamese families have adapted Western domestic architecture to create a more comfortable home environment, how traditional festivals now serve new purposes, and the changing nature of status and gender relations. She describes the reception of the Vietnamese by the wider Australian society and in the media, and she explores the ongoing ties that overseas Vietnamese have with their homeland. Dreams in the Shadows is a valuable resource for anyone working with immigrant communities, for readers interested in Vietnamese immigration to Western countries, and for researchers of migration and multiculturalism. 'Dreams in the Shadows is a wonderfully sensitive account of Vietnamese in Australia that provides insight into the worlds of Vietnamese immigrants and the often marginalizing orders of the host society.' Bruce Kapferer, Professor of Anthropology, James Cook University and University College London 'A perceptive, sensitive and culturally nuanced account of one of the most recently formed diasporas - that of Vietnamese in Sydney. Deserves to be widely read.' Pnina Werbner, Reader in Social Anthropology, Keele University

Multilingual America : transnationalism, ethnicity, and the languages of American literature

Abstract: Aside from the occasional controversy over "Official English" campaigns, language remains the blind spot in the debate over multiculturalism. Considering its status as a nation of non-English speaking aborigines and of immigrants with many languages, America exhibits a curious tunnel vision about cultural and literary forms that are not in English. How then have non-English speaking Americans written about their experiences in this country? And what can we learn-about America, immigration and ethnicity-from them? Arguing that multilingualism is perhaps the most important form of diversity, Multilingual America calls attention to-and seeks to correct-the linguistic parochialism that has defined American literary study. By bringing together essays on important works by, among others, Yiddish, Chinese American, German American, Italian American, Norwegian American, and Spanish American writers, Werner Sollors here presents a fuller view of multilingualism as a historical phenomenon and as an ongoing way of life. At a time when we are just beginning to understand the profound effects of language acquisition on the development of the brain, Multilingual America forces us to broaden what in fact constitutes American literature.

Whence They Came: Deportation from Canada 1900 - 1935

Abstract: Earlier parts of my research on deportation were aided by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Secretary of State Multiculturalism Programme, and the University of Winnipeg.

THE COLOR-BLIND SUBJECT OF MYTH; Or, Where To Find Africa in the Nation

Abstract: ▪ Abstract African influence in a nation must be examined within the framework of the nation's formation of diversity, ethno-racial paradigm, and particular history. Based on the paradigmatic cases of Brazil and the United States, I contend here that racial attitudes and the position and role of African traditions in a nation are interrelated. Discerning racial conceptions, perceptions, and patterns of discrimination in a nation provides us with strong clues about the place and role assigned to the African presence in that context. Racisms may not differ much in intensity, but they do in the cognitive operations they imply, because they are grounded in encoded ethnic knowledge accumulated through specific historical experiences.

Introduction: Re-thinking Ethnic and Racial Studies

Abstract: The changing boundaries of the study of ethnicity and race have been the subject of much debate in recent years. New theoretical debates have come to the fore and empirical research has broached new questions. Taking its cue from the wide range of themes covered in this special issue, this article seeks to map out some of the key areas in which this transformation has become apparent and to highlight the implications for ethnic and race relations as a field of study. In doing so it engages with some of the key questions that run through the whole of this special issue, including the relationship between race, power and politics, identity and difference and the politics of multiculturalism. It concludes by touching on some issues that need further research and analysis.

Making ethnic minority programmes inside the BBC: professional pragmatics and cultural containment

Abstract: The BBC has publicly committed itself to enhancing the representation of Britain's ethnic minorities. This article examines the production context and professional aims informing the production of ethnic minority programmes by ethnic minority producers inside the corporation. With the help of producer testimonies it offers critical insights into the relatively closed world of the BBC, its corporate ethos and programme making environment and examines the professional pragmatics of producers who steer a course through a complex of institutional and cultural constraints. The concept of professional pragmatics is developed throughout the article and refers to the ways in which producers practically manage and professionally rationalize their programme making activities as well as the mantle of `professionalism' adopted by producers in their dealings with colleagues and community contacts. The examination of professional pragmatics helps reveal exactly how it is that corporate commitment to multicultural progr...

National identity: A comparison of Sweden, Germany and Australia

Abstract: This article compares three countries with different policy regimes in the area of citizenship and immigration, namely Australia, Germany and Sweden. Australia is here defined as multicultural, Germany as ‘ethnic’ and Sweden as semi‐multicultural. The aim is to see, first, if differences in policy regimes are reflected in the attitudes of national identity amongst the citizens, and second, to assess the effects different forms of national identity have on xenophobia. The conclusions are, first, that in spite of different policy regimes, national identity is constituted in similar ways in the three countries and, second, that the common subdivision of national identity into an ‘ethnic’ and a civic part may warrant reconsideration. Third, different types of national identity appear to affect xenophobia similarly in all the three countries under examination, namely in a way which supports the common assumption that civic identities are preferable to ethnic ones.

Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism.

Abstract: Introduction Haleys Choice and the Ethno-racial Pentagon From Species to Ethnos Pluralism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Diversification of Diversity Toward a Postethnic Perspective The Ethnos, the Nation, the World Epilogue.

"Race," Rights and the Law in the Supreme Court of Canada : Historical Case Studies

Abstract: Four cases in which the legal issue was "race" -- that of a Chinese restaurant owner who was fined for employing a white woman; a black man who was refused service in a bar; a Jew who wanted to buy a cottage but was prevented by the property owners' association; and a Trinidadian of East Indian descent who was acceptable to the Canadian army but was rejected for immigration on grounds of "race" -- drawn from the period between 1914 and 1955, are intimately examined to explore the role of the Supreme Court of Canada and the law in the racialization of Canadian society. With painstaking research into contemporary attitudes and practices, Walker demonstrates that Supreme Court Justices were expressing the prevailing "common sense" about "race" in their legal decisions. He shows that injustice on the grounds of "race" has been chronic in Canadian history, and that the law itself was once instrumental in creating these circumstances. The book concludes with a controversial discussion of current directions in Canadian law and their potential impact on Canada's future as a multicultural society.