CARTSS-Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiculturalism and Its Discontents

 

A Conference Sponsored by The Center to Advance Research & Teaching in the Social Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, April 23-24, 2007

 

Participants:

 

Sophie Body-Gendrot Sorbonne	William A.V. Clark University of California at Los Angeles
Susan E. Clarke University of Colorado at Boulder	Michael-Jones Correa Cornell University
Rachael Epstein University of Denver	Jennifer Fitzgerald University of Colorado at Boulder
Gary Freeman The University of Texas at Austin	Romain Garbaye Sorbonne
Terri Givens The University of Texas at Austin	James Hollifield Southern Methodist University
Valerie Hunt Southern Methodist University	Rudd Koopmans Vrije Universiteit
Gallya Lahav Stonybrook	Nonna Mayer Cevipof
Tariq Modood University of Bristol	Steven Pfaff University of Washington
Martin Rhodes University of Denver	Martin Schain New York University
John Solomos City University, London	Cara Wong University of Michigan

 

• ABSTRACT:

Multiculturalism and Its Discontents

Our conference addressing “Multiculturalism and Its Discontents” bridges the transatlantic divide through comparative analyses of our common experiences with immigration and multiculturalism in a post 9/11 and 7/7 policy context. Policy-makers in Europe and North America continue to struggle with the prospect and challenge of immigration, now heightened by a new and uncertain security framework. While sharing similar concerns, the governments of the transatlantic community have nonetheless chosen very different approaches toward democratic inclusion of immigrant and ethnic minority groups. Simply put, the United States follows a more laissez-faire assimilationist strategy providing little government support to minority groups but relatively few barriers to those accommodating to market incentives and electoral norms. In contrast, countries with explicit multicultural policies, such as Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and several other European countries, portray their national identity as “a community of communities” and target government support to groups on the basis of ethnic and cultural identities.

In the wake of recent protests and terrorism on both sides of the Atlantic, however, these approaches face serious challenges . There is considerable pressure in several countries to move away from their traditional strategies of multiculturalism toward policies of assimilation with less support for cultural enclaves. Indeed, many in Europe now look to the American model as a way for engendering deeper national identity among immigrant groups in hopes of avoiding ethnic segregation. Meanwhile, countries with assimilationist orientations, such as the United States and France, face competing demands to move toward stronger government and more explicit immigration strategies, on the one hand , with some immigrant groups themselves demanding policies which grant them distinctive status or rights, on the other. These crossing paths suggest that comparing experiences with immigration and multiculturalism would greatly aid in understanding how to better address the opportunities and challenges of immigration.

Susan Clarke, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) and Jennifer Fitzgerald, Assistant Professor of Political Science, along with Sven Steinmo (EUI) will bring together a network of international and interdisciplinary scholars to discuss these shared concerns, building on an emerging transatlantic partnership involving CU, the European University Institute, and University of Denver. The conference, “Multiculturalism and Its Discontents”, is planned for April 22-24, 2007 in Boulder. European and North American academics and policy-makers will explore the immigration and multiculturalism issues that face our countries during a 2.5 day workshop organized around 2 key themes: Rethinking Multiculturalism and Comparing Multiculturalisms. In the sessions on Rethinking Multiculturalism, papers will address the differing conceptions of multiculturalism and the challenges and opportunities presented by a post-9/11 and 7/7 context. These include empirical analyses of the extent to which there has been a lessening commitment to multiculturalism or policy shifts to more differentiated strategies as well as the implications for redefining citizenship. In the sessions on Comparing Multiculturalisms, we will compare European and North American strategies to link immigrants, civil society, and the state with particular attention to the context specific factors influencing these approaches and their apparent successes or failures.

We are inviting papers that explicitly compare the European and North American experiences with multiculturalism or bring out the transatlantic implications of country-specific analyses. Panel sessions will feature paired presentations of European and North American scholars to highlight the commonalities and differences in these experiences. Session papers will be evaluated for an edited volume to be prepared for early 2008 publication. Executive summaries of the findings will be posted on the CARTSS and the Tocqueville Initiative’s websites and disseminated to key members in the policy-making as well as academic communities.