David Hayes (London, oD): How does the debate about Britain’s political and constitutional future relate to the way it manages its internal, communal and social “diversity”? As the dominant model of the past generation – multiculturalism – challenged by both main political parties (see Vron Ware's post below), does the concept itself need to be rethought?
This question lies behind a new debate on openDemocracy. It is led by one of Britain’s foremost theorists of multiculturalism, Tariq Modood. In his new book, Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea and openDemocracy article Multiculturalism, citizenship and national identity, Modood develops the understanding of multiculturalism to accommodate two concerns that have come to the forefront in recent years: its particular association with British Muslim experience, and its connection with national identity.
Modood’s careful, subtle argument for a “dynamic, internally differentiated multiculturalism within the context of democratic citizenship” has provoked a wide range of responses.
Nick Johnson of the Commission for Racial Equality is broadly in agreement with Tariq’s analysis; Sunny Hundal of PickledPolitics questions its reinforcement of the tendency to see communities as static entities; Nick Pearce of ippr and Paul Kelly of the LSE question its implications for liberalism; Nira Wickramasinghe, Abdul-Rehman Malik and Yahya Birt refreshingly extended the argument’s terms of reference to Sri Lanka, Canada and global cosmopolitanism respectively.
Sami Zubaida concludes the main set of responses by asking whether Tariq’s analysis remains rooted in an essentialist understanding of religion and social reality. The real object of his argument, says Sami, is less a “cultural complex” than “an imagined religious community”, and the doctrine he is developing “should more appropriately be labelled ‘communalism’ rather than ‘multiculturalism’.”
As politicians take up positions and soundbite the issue of 'Britishness', our openDemocracy debate provides a fresh map of the range and depth of what is involved.
