HMSA10055U Multiculturalism and the Predicament of Cultural Rights

Multiculturalism can be conceptualized both macro-theoretically and from an institutional perspective as management and accommodation of ethnic difference and multicultural citizenship, philosophically as recognition and dignity, or as lived and practical coexistence in everyday life. In this course, we trace the emergence, historical development and travel of the concept. We will discover that multiculturalism means completely different things in different contexts. We will understand the complexity of diversity and the tensions that emerge from the exclusion, humiliation and discrimination of disadvantaged, vulnerable groups. We argue that in looking at multiculturalism and multicultural policies, we have to understand the power differentials and negotiations between dominant and subaltern groups. Multiculturalism is not just about benevolence, but also about keeping the privileges of one group in relationship to others. Daniel Goh argues in his insightful work on Malaysia and Singapore that multiculturalism was only belatedly introduced in the West and that Malaysians and Singaporeans have to grapple with the consequences of colonialism and its construction of racial identities until today. But the management of multiculturalism as a racial system may also bee considered as a technology of rule and power. In this course, we will study everyday encounters and interaction in public spaces and how the common good is contested in the interaction between groups. Different disadvantaged and marginalized groups in society mobilize for their cultural rights. The course looks at the fate of groups such as invisible migrants in Europe or indigenous people in Southeast Asia. Questions asked are: Is multiculturalism and civil rights a universal value? How can disadvantaged groups and minorities be protected and how can they participate in the common good? How is everyday racism perpetuated and how can it be overcome?