Research cluster B6: Linguistic, cultural and religious diversity and related policies
This cluster entails a comparative assessment of policy development surrounding cultural, religious and linguistic diversity. Importantly, a comprehensive view on the topic cannot be attempted without a concurrent examination of public attitudes, debates and representations that inform or impact upon policymakers' decisions. In most European nation-states at present, there is a revitalized deliberation on the relationship between national identity and collective values, challenges of cultural difference, and the purported 'failure of integration' among migrants. This climate of attitude and discourse must be examined in order to make sense of the policy issues faced by politicians, civil servants, NGOs and community groups today.
Cluster B6 attempted in its first work package (I) to highlight some of the key issues surrounding ‘Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Diversity’ as they have emerged and engaged public debate and policy development in various national and local contexts, and (II) to give an overview of some of the academic literature concerning these key issues, and (III) to provide a compendium of expertise and interests concerning the theme as represented by IMISCOE cluster members .
In the second work package the cluster identified a set of thematic streams reflecting both the expertise of members and areas of developing concern and interests:
1. Cities of diversity: the spatial nexus
The objective was to examine the interrelationship of manifestations of religious and cultural diversity in and of urban public spaces on the one hand and the production and reproduction of social, political and economic relations on the other.
2.Public religion and secular democracy
The stream involves comparative research on institutionalized regimes of governance of religious diversity in Europe, their impact on organization and mobilization of immigrant minorities (and vice versa), and on their societal and political incorporation in general, on different varieties of a ‘reformist’ Islam in European countries in particular.
3.Language policy and practices
In immigration contexts, language policies and practices are situated around two axes: the access to the language of the host country, as a prerequisite of participation in that society, and the use of other languages, spoken in the country of origin, and constituting an integral part of social and cultural practices in the migrants’ community. In the framework of cluster B6, questions of Language Policy and Practices will be thematized as problems of literacy acquisition on the one hand, and of managing diverse language situations in immigration contexts on the other.
4.Ethnic minority and immigrants cultural productions as forms of political expression
This stream examines the extent to which immigrant and ethnic popular cultural productions (music, literature,etc.) can be analysed in terms of political expression and participation, especially at the city level.
5.Debating cultural difference
Debates about cultural difference and the rights and wrongs of different ways of living sometimes thought to be incompatible, are occurring throughout Europe and include diverse voices among both majority and minority ethnic populations. These debates take place at many levels (locally, nationally, transnationally), and may be observed in public policy statements, the speeches of politicians and religious leaders, the media and everyday conversations. Focusing on specific issues and situations (e.g. the family), we will ask how the idea of cultural difference is deployed; what variations occur between countries and over time; and how such debates are conducted, and perhaps resolved.
In the third work package the cluster conducted a number of activities directly developing streams 2, 4 and 5, while work around streams 1 and 3 continues and will become prominent in the next work package:
2.Public religion and secular democracy:
As a follow up to the workshop in Amsterdam May 27 and 28, some of the papers were published in a special issue of JEMS ‘Government of Islam in Europe’, edited by Veit Bader. In Osnabrück, it was decided to prepare a framework research programme on ‘Governance of Islam in Europe’ containing different research projects like (i) Governance of religious diversity and path-dependency: making theories and methods fit for comparative studies; (ii) Organizing and representing Islam in Europe; (iii) New religious minorities a ‘public religions’ in Europe; (iv) Governance of Islam in Europe: from colonialism to post-colonialism.
4. Ethnic minority and immigrants cultural productions as forms of political expression.
As a follow up of the workshop held in May 2005, where various papers discussed the extent to which immigrant and ethnic popular cultural productions (music, literature, etc.) can be analyzed in terms of political expression and participation, a workshop was held at the University of Oxford in June with the aim to put together a publication (either as an edited collection in an IMISCOE series or as the special issue of a journal) by grouping last year’s papers revised and updated and this year’s papers.
5.Debating cultural differences
The IMISCOE Cluster B6 Fifth Stream pursued the overall theme of investigating debates about cultural diversity and difference in Europe. The proposed focus was on debates about and within immigrant/minority ethnic families.
Legal practice and cultural diversity
The Cluster B6 ‘Fifth Stream’ also pursued the overall theme of investigating debates about cultural diversity and difference in Europe, by preparing a detailed proposal for a conference on ‘Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity’.
In the third workpackage, a team from the IMISCOE Cluster B6 Fifth Stream developed a proposal for a conference around the over-arching theme of legal aspects of the practice of ethnic/cultural/religious pluralism and its governance.
Reassessing multiculturalism
A final set of activities linking the different streams of the cluster surrounds an International Workshop at the University of Oxford entitled ‘Reassessing multiculturalism in Europe: critical debates and constructive practices’.
Observers have witnessed how, in a relatively short time, many governments have been purposefully dropping ‘multicultural’ from their policy vocabularies. Is there indeed a common ‘skeptical turn’ against cultural diversity (Vertovec & Wessendorf) or ‘backlash against difference’ (Grillo)? If so, what has brought about such seeming parallel thinking in different societies and political contexts? And has this discourse had much real impact upon local policies and everyday practices in culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse settings?
