Assessing Multiculturalism in Global Comparative Perspective: A New Politics of Diversity for the 21st Century?

In Assessing Multiculturalism in Global Comparative Perspective, a group of leading scholars come together in a multidisciplinary collection to assess multiculturalism through an international comparative perspective. Multiculturalism today faces challenges like never before, through the concurrent rise of populism and white supremacist groups, and contemporary social movements mobilizing around alternative ideas of decolonization, anti-racism and national self-determination Taking these challenges head on, and with the backdrop that the term multiculturalism originated in Canada before going global, this collection of chapters presents a global comparative view of multiculturalism, through both empirical and normative perspectives, with the overarching aim of comprehending multiculturalism’s promise, limitations, contemporary challenges, trajectory and possible futures. Collectively, the chapters provide the basis for a critical assessment of multiculturalism’s first 50 years, as well as vital insight into whether multiculturalism is best equipped to meet the distinct challenges characterizing this juncture of the 21st century. With coverage including the Americas, Europe, Oceania, Africa and Asia, and thematic coverage of citizenship, religion, security, gender, Black Lives Matter and the post-pandemic order, Assessing Multiculturalism in Global Comparative Perspective presents a comprehensively global collection that is indispensable reading for scholars and students of diversity in the 21st century.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Reflecting on Multiculturalism at its Semicentennial: Over the Hill or Just Getting Started? Part 1: Multiculturalism and Citizenship 1. Multiculturalism and Citizenization: Past and Future 2. Multiculturalism and Inclusive Democracy: Canadian Multiculturalism and Immigrant Citizenship 3. Multicultural Citizenship in Singapore Part 2: Multiculturalism, History and Intersectionality 4. Multiculturalism and Decolonization 5. Multiculturalism in the Post-Colony: Shadows of Agamben in South Africa 6. Language and Multiculturalism in the United States 7. Framing Diversities: European approaches to Minorities-within Minorities Part 3: Multiculturalism, Religion and Secularism 8. Interculturalism and the Fair Management of Diversity in Multinational Democracies: The Contribution of Quebec-Canada Dynamics 9. Multiculturalism: The Place of Religion and State-Religion Connections 10. Hinduizing Nation: Shifting Grounds of Secularism, Diversity and Citizenship Part 4: Multiculturalism’s Meaning and Value 11. Oh Canada, Your Home’s on Native Land: Narratives of the Missing in a Multicultural Home 12. Black Lives Matter, Social Justice, and the Limits of Multiculturalism 13. Hungary and the Paradoxes of Illiberal Anti-Multiculturalism Part 5: Multiculturalism, Pandemic. Populism and the Political Right 14. Rethinking Multiculturalism under a Pandemic Crisis 15. Imperiled Multiculturalism? COVID-19, Racism and Nation-Building in Australia 16. Immigration, Multiculturalism and Tolerance: Canada’s Two Images Conclusion: Towards a New Diversity Politics for the 21st Century? Building on Multiculturalism through Solidarity

About the Author :
Yasmeen Abu-Laban is Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Citizenship and Human Rights at the University of Alberta. She is also a Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Her published research addresses themes relating to ethnic and gender politics; nationalism, globalization and processes of racialization; immigration policies and politics; surveillance and border control; and multiculturalism and anti-racism. Her most recent book, with Ethel Tungohan and Christina Gabriel is Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century (2023). She has served as President of the Canadian Political Science Association, and as Vice-President of the International Political Science Association. Alain-G Gagnon is the Founding Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Diversity and Democracy (CRIDAQ), and Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Quebec and Canadian Studies. He is the author of The Legitimacy Clash: Challenges to Democracy in Multinational States (2023). He is president of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2020, he received the Mildred A Schwartz Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association. Arjun Tremblay is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan. He specializes in the field of comparative politics. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto, Ontario, in 2017 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow (2017–2018) at the Canada Research Chair in Québec and Canadian Studies (CREQC) at the Université du Québec à Montréal. His publications include Diversity in Decline? The Rise of the Political Right and the Fate of Multiculturalism (2019) and as co-editor, Federalism and National Diversity in the 21st Century (2020).

Review :
"What is multiculturalism? How is it different from ideologies and movements that resemble it but are nevertheless quite different? What are its origins and patterns of development in different countries? Why has it provoked hostility in some societies and been received with great relief in others? Has it exhausted its constructive potential and become irrelevant, or does it have a future, and of what kind? While much has been written on multiculturalism, some of the questions listed above and others associated with them have received relatively little attention. This well-constructed and skilfully edited collection of fine essays, each probing a particular aspect of multiculturalism, fills the gap and deserves a warm welcome." Bhikhu Parekh, House of Lords"Assessing Multiculturalism in Global Comparative Perspective grounds multiculturalism in history and theory, while exploring its contemporary relevance in light of challenges from the ethnonationalist right and its strained relationship with progressive emancipatory movements. The book’s outstanding contributors offer a uniquely global perspective on some of the most pressing problems confronting diverse polities the world over. Highly recommended for all students of contemporary membership politics." Triadafilos Triadafilopoulos, Associate Professor, University of Toronto"This visionary collection provides a timely global comparative diagnostic on multiculturalism’s challenges and possible futures in the post-pandemic era. The diverse set of co-editors proposes a useful framework of analysis in their introduction, highlighting the origins, expansion and critiques of multiculturalism. They brought together a particularly talented group of experts whose analyses will inform both scholars and the general public interested in the future of recognition and diversity in a range of societies. Together, they deploy enlightening perspectives that illuminate our worlds as they evolve. What a feat!!!" Michèle Lamont, Harvard University, author of Who Matters: How to Define Worth in our Divided World